<p>A person I know just received his acceptance under REA from Stanford yesterday. What does it mean? The site says notification by Dec 15 or if deferred by April 1. He’s a full paying foreign student. Do they have different admissions plans? What gives? Could it be he was first deferred Dec 15 under REA, then someone who was accepted under REA dropped out (crazy fool), and this person was the next best qualified, so they accepted and notified him earlier than April 1, i.e. yesterday Feb 18, 2011?</p>