Our experience was a little different than @Brooklynrye’s.
Stanford doesn’t seem to actively recruit top HS fencers, however, many of the top HS fencers want to go there, the coach often has an embarrassment of riches to choose from. Anecdotally, it seems that many of the Cardinal Fencing Club (located at the Stanford facility) produces all the recruits Stanford could need anyway.
While difficult to get a hold of, and sometimes disorganized, Coach Lisa is very nice and refreshingly open and honest with her needs and what her program is and isn’t. In most cases, she encourages the fencers whom she has developed an interest to apply Early (Nov1 with her support), and the earliest these fencers can hear is December 15th.
This is problematic for those fencers who have LL offers as the Ivy coaches want to know in August-October. In our recruiting year, some Ivy recruiting spots were not filled until Stanford’s Early Action results were announced. That being said, for the highly-recruited fencer who wants to go to Stanford, Coach Lisa admits that turning down a LL and waiting for Stanford can be a bit of a roll of the dice.
On the very rare occasion, there is a fencer Stanford feels they must have, someone who is wanted by everyone and has several LL offers. In these cases, Stanford will issue what is known as a “pink letter” which is equivalent to an Ivy LL to take this fencer “off the market” in the early fall. Pink letters are very rare in fencing (anecdotally, I have only heard of one per year), but commonplace in Stanford’s revenue sports.
Stanford has a terrific fencing program and keeps a relatively large roster. I think they do this because Stanford has such a breadth of opportunities for their students, they do not expect their fencers to be focused on fencing to the exclusion of other college experiences. This is a wonderfully healthy attitude and approach.