<p>^^here is the evidence where everyone is quoting the 15% acceptance rate for deferred students taken from Official Stanford SCEA 2017 Deferred Applicants (College Confidential)…</p>
<p>…if you read closely the following is noted in the letter…</p>
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<p>…in reference to the 4 countries that I mentioned…it was made in the context of having had close friends and colleagues from those countries in medicine and technology fields who have grown up and studied at those schools and attended those institutions before coming to America…</p>
<p>…you are correct…there are many universities in those countries…and that admissions to those fine institutions are based on a major examination score one achieves at the end of their secondary education that determines the fate of so many…but…if you ask many in the know from those countries…they will tell you that most power in politics, law, medicine, business, etc…stem from those particular institutions more than any other…with the exception of maybe IIT/Delhi University holding similar sway today…</p>
<p>…now…most of my friends and colleagues are in their 50s…so things may have changed in those countries in recent years in terms of the power/prestige factors related to those institutions…</p>
<p>…I will allow someone else who is more knowledgeable to explain the nuances of admission to those institutions…</p>
<p>you don’t need to explain the nuances. Saying someone from Kyoto would rather attend Todai rather than Kyodai (that’s Tokyo University vs Kyoto University, to you) is like saying someone from California would rather attend Harvard University than Stanford. There may be some who fit into that category, but we all know it is not across the board true.</p>
<p>and yet 15% is still only 15%. It’s nothing to hold your breath over. There are plenty of high achieving students who were deferred from the likes of MIT, Yale, UChicago, Harvard, etc who are also sending in apps to Stanford. It is going to be competitive to capture the other spots.</p>
15% is several times higher than the overall RD admit rate, which was around 4.5% last year and is on pace to be closer to 4% this year. It’s also higher than the admit rate for applicants within any of the stat ranges Stanford lists on the admissions profile page of their website. Acceptance is obviously far from certain, but getting deferred also shouldn’t be dismissed as a polite rejection with “less than 1% chance of an admittance”.</p>
<p>None of the colleges you listed have a binding early decision, so students who were admitted to any of those colleges in the early round may apply, as well as those who were rejected and deferred.</p>
It’s standard convention to express in terms of acceptance rate, not rejection rate. You’ll see this convention used on this forum, Stanford’s website, USNWR, Google summaries, research publications, news articles, etc.</p>
<p>Oh, so here’s the rest of the story…he was deferred and ended up <em>not</em> getting in…though my understanding is that deferred candidates at Stanford often do get in. But it’s all good…among other schools, he was accepted to both Dartmouth and Brown…he did a weekend at both…went out with the hiking club at Dartmouth and committed there the next day…they grabbed a superstar in this kid…and he’s happy too. </p>
<p>Sorry your friend’s child did not get accepted. Deferred candisates do not OFTEN get in, just have a better chance than others in the RD pool. Though Lagunai was off with his 1% figure, 15% acceptance is still a tough go. Especially, given the calibre of those in that pool. </p>
<p>He sounds like a fantastic candidate. Unfortunately there are just too many fantastic candidates at Stanford. My personal belief is that they go for people who are not well-rounded like the guy you mentioned but very good in some particular aspect. Also they emphasize diversity a lot as do most top tier schools. Don’t know what race he is but sounds like that wasn’t in his favor. In any case I’m sure he’ll be happy at Dartmouth. They have their own ski resort!!</p>