<p>How come some students end up being in the waitlist?
does it have anything to do with the date, the applications were turned in?
or is it because the waitlisted students had a weaker case than the accepted applicants (and a stronger one that the rejected applicants)?</p>
<p>With Stanford, there are so many well-qualified applicants that they could fill at least three freshman classes with them. If a student is waitlisted, it’s because they kind of want to take them, but they don’t have room at the moment. It has nothing to do with date, and with the sheer number of applications Stanford gets, the waitlisted applicants will often have similar, if not identical, stats/ECs/etc. as the people who get in and a part of those who are rejected.</p>
<p>Do they have any criterion for waitlisting that 2/3 of the “well-qualified applicants” ? or do they just do it randomly?</p>
<p>They also don’t waitlist the entire 2/3. Only about 1000 applicants were offered a place last year. So far as I know, the waitlisted students are the ones who they would really, really love to have, but who were barely bumped out by somebody else who was a little better than them at… whatever they were good at. They’re Stanford’s backup plan: if they don’t get as many people enrolling as they thought they would, then they take some off the waitlist to cover the gap. It’s not a random process.</p>
<p>thanks. that clarifies it.</p>