<p>I would imagine that Stanford would do that because the applicant failed to show the spark of intellectual vitality that is necessary. Or maybe he didn’t follow the advice from Stanford’s own website:</p>
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<a href="http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/applying/index.html%5DMany">http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/applying/index.html:
Many</a> applicants worry so much about whether or not they will get into Stanford that they neglect to think first about who they are, what they value, and what they want to achieve from their college experience. If you take time to reflect on what matters to you and why, you will have prepared to develop a strong application.
…
We advise all prospective applicants, in fact, to resist the urge to “package” themselves in order to come across in a way they think Stanford wants. Such attempts simply blur the picture of who the student actually “is” – what he values, what motivates her, what may in fact be distinctive. The strongest applications we see each year are those where the student’s genuine voice stands out.
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