2017-2018 Stanford University

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I was hoping I wouldn't wake up to a sad Saturday email, but the odds weren't in my favour. WL yesterday.

Trying not to feel utterly crushed as I got into a decent program elsewhere, but I'll need some time to get over the loss of what could have been.

Good luck to everyone still in the running!


dont let it ruin your weekend! If you dont mind me asking, when did you interview?

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For those who have been waitlisted, does it reflect in your portal?
 
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Interviewed early October and still complete silence-- anyone else in the same boat? Does Stanford ever reject post-interview or do they just waitlist?
 
Interviewed early October and still complete silence-- anyone else in the same boat? Does Stanford ever reject post-interview or do they just waitlist?

Yup there are a few of us. My guess is that we are either silently rejected post-interview or silently deferred.
 
Yup there are a few of us. My guess is that we are either silently rejected post-interview or silently deferred.

:( that's what I was afraid of, sigh. Any ideas on if/when we'll hear back either way?
 
Yup there are a few of us. My guess is that we are either silently rejected post-interview or silently deferred.
I wouldn't assume that just yet. One of my friends who interviewed in October was accepted last week, and they were told that the program is running behind this year. I don't think there's much to be inferred at this point, considering they have been waitlisting/rejecting people as well.
 
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I wouldn't assume that just yet. One of my friends who interviewed in October was accepted last week, and they were told that the program is running behind this year. I don't think there's much to be inferred at this point, considering they have been waitlisting/rejecting people as well.

Thanks for the information although I am still doing my utmost to avoid getting my hopes up :p.

I sure hope you are right though!
 
Congrats!! Did you receive a call and if so from who? Also, did your portal change?
I did. I'm not sure who called me I was too excited. My portal hasn't changed
 
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Hello! Are there any current Stanford students who have any insight into where most of the class lives/have any advice on where to live?!
 
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If money is no object, rent an Oak Creek apartment, or a house in Menlo Park. As a first year student, you're guaranteed on campus apartment, at less than half the price of the surrounding community. The R&DE lottery includes highly-subsidized off campus apartments, including Oak Creek, which is probably the closest complex to the med school.
 
Around Admit Weekend, we'll publish an AMA/FAQ sheet on the admitted facebook page. It's 50+ pages long and has compiled questions and answers from many many years. The sheet is updated each year to make sure that the answers are still relevant. Topics include housing, curriculum, mentorship, research, MSTP internal transfer, MD/MBA, and financial aid/money. I found it to be quite helpful that students were willing to give the lowdown on everything.

Housing (by R&DE) is guaranteed for all years and is Stanford subsidized whether you live on campus or off campus. As @TRT7 mentioned, the housing prices end up being significantly cheaper than market value. It makes things a lot easier too because you don't have to scramble for an apartment/housing. Incoming students get priority in the lottery and tend to get their top choices. Stanford housing is also hella nice and comes fully furnished. Certain options even have jacuzzies and pools. On-campus laundry is of course FREE.
 
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Hello! Are there any current Stanford students who have any insight into where most of the class lives/have any advice on where to live?!

On-campus for at least the first year, then personally I'd look for the cheapest housing in non-sketchy areas. During my second year, the commute from a place like San Mateo was still perfectly reasonable.
 
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Does Stanford have waitlist movement?
 
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just got told I'm a "first alternate for admission", does anyone know what that means/how the waitlist works/are there tiers or something?
 
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just got told I'm a "first alternate for admission", does anyone know what that means/how the waitlist works/are there tiers or something?
Were you already waitlisted? Or did you just find out?
 
During my interview day they told us that we would hear back by the 3rd week of March, when do you guys think would be appropriate to check in with them?
 
So I'm in an interesting conundrum here. I was waitlisted at Stanford, my top choice, a couple weeks ago. I was planning an writing a letter of intent in hopes of getting off the waitlist. Yesterday, I received the exciting news that I've been selected for a Fulbright, which I feel would be a strong update to include in the letter. However, Fulbright would require me to defer acceptance to med school for a year and start in 2019. So my letter would essentially be saying "please take me off the waitlist, but I don't actually want to start next year". Would this be a weird letter to send? What do you guys think?
 
So I'm in an interesting conundrum here. I was waitlisted at Stanford, my top choice, a couple weeks ago. I was planning an writing a letter of intent in hopes of getting off the waitlist. Yesterday, I received the exciting news that I've been selected for a Fulbright, which I feel would be a strong update to include in the letter. However, Fulbright would require me to defer acceptance to med school for a year and start in 2019. So my letter would essentially be saying "please take me off the waitlist, but I don't actually want to start next year". Would this be a weird letter to send? What do you guys think?

I'm under the impression that waitlisted candidates cannot defer. This may differ by school and I'm unfamiliar with Stanford's policy, but I can't see why they would take try to fill their class with someone who they'll need to replace with someone else from the waitlist.
 
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I'm under the impression that waitlisted candidates cannot defer. This may differ by school and I'm unfamiliar with Stanford's policy, but I can't see why they would take try to fill their class with someone who they'll need to replace with someone else from the waitlist.

Ah ok, thanks! That's what I thought!
 
can anyone in the fb group tell us how many people are currently in it?
 
118, I think about 10-15 are current students
that seems very low doesn't it? last year people said there was like ~200 in the group? Have they still not sent out all acceptance pre-waitlist?
 
that seems very low doesn't it? last year people said there was like ~200 in the group? Have they still not sent out all acceptance pre-waitlist?
They did over-enroll last year by about 10 students so they’re probably being cautious. Also I’m sure there are also a few admitted students who are either not in the group or don’t have FB
 
They did over-enroll last year by about 10 students so they’re probably being cautious. Also I’m sure there are also a few admitted students who are either not in the group or don’t have FB
Yeah I guess that would make sense (and I hope so from a waitlist perspective!) but that just seems like such a large decrease from previous years -- larger than I would think even if they did over enroll. But like you said they may just be overly cautious this year. Thanks
 
that seems very low doesn't it? last year people said there was like ~200 in the group? Have they still not sent out all acceptance pre-waitlist?
There is also a good number of deferred students from last year....
 
I'm not sure if this helps, but I talked to a current Stanford medical student who told me they anticipate giving out less acceptances this year because of the over enrollment issue and deferred students from last year.
 
Why were there so many deferred students last year? Also when you say giving out less acceptances do you mean initially and they will more likely than not utilize the waitlist to fill in the gap just to overly cautious? or do we think think there will be no waitlist movement like last year?
 
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Why were there so many deferred students last year? Also when you say giving out less acceptances do you mean initially and they will more likely than not utilize the waitlist to fill in the gap just to overly cautious? or do we think think there will be no waitlist movement like last year?
Stanford was literally calling accepted students last year to check if they want to defer, because they overenrolled. I am afraid there will be no waitlist movement this year too. That is said, you never know.
 
Why were there so many deferred students last year? Also when you say giving out less acceptances do you mean initially and they will more likely than not utilize the waitlist to fill in the gap just to overly cautious? or do we think think there will be no waitlist movement like last year?

Stanford overenrolled last year so they had several deferments. I would anticipate that they would be slightly more conservative in giving out acceptances this year. I would expect minimal waitlist movement as well, unfortunately.
 
Was told by someone involved with admissions that Stanford only accepted ~135 students this year. If they maintain their average matriculation of 50%, they would need another 20 students from last year's cycle to hit their class size of 90. That seems like a LOT?? Also, from second look it seemed like a lot of newly admitted students are deferring this year too.
I doubt that their yield as any where near 50%. Where did you get this number from? Most students I met at 2nd Look have already committed to Stanford.
 
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I doubt that their yield as any where near 50%. Where did you get this number from? Most students I met at 2nd Look have already committed to Stanford.

From USNews (data from 2016-2017 application cycle, and matches the applied/matriculated counts on MSAR):

Applied: 7258
Interviewed: 510
Accepted: 167
Deferred: 8
Matriculated: 100

This actually seems to give a yield of 64.67% if you include deferrals (59.88% if you include just people who matriculated and didn't defer).


Was told by someone involved with admissions that Stanford only accepted ~135 students this year. If they maintain their average matriculation of 50%, they would need another 20 students from last year's cycle to hit their class size of 90. That seems like a LOT?? Also, from second look it seemed like a lot of newly admitted students are deferring this year too.

Its interesting to see how much second look experiences vary based on who you end up spending the most time with! I actually didn't meet anyone at second look who was deferring, although I did meet 1-2 who had already decided they were going elsewhere, and a lot of people who had already committed and seemed very keen to start this year. I did end up meeting one person who had deferred last year though, and was there again for his "second" second look lol. I ended up getting completely sold on the school from second look too, and will probably be formally committing early next week too.
 
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Anyone have an estimate on the number of people that went to second look?
 
I doubt that their yield as any where near 50%. Where did you get this number from? Most students I met at 2nd Look have already committed to Stanford.
Also I believe they were referring to 2016 where they accepted 185 and 90 matriculated per USNews
 
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From USNews (data from 2016-2017 application cycle, and matches the applied/matriculated counts on MSAR):

Applied: 7258
Interviewed: 510
Accepted: 167
Deferred: 8
Matriculated: 100

This actually seems to give a yield of 64.67% if you include deferrals (59.88% if you include just people who matriculated and didn't defer).




Its interesting to see how much second look experiences vary based on who you end up spending the most time with! I actually didn't meet anyone at second look who was deferring, although I did meet 1-2 who had already decided they were going elsewhere, and a lot of people who had already committed and seemed very keen to start this year. I did end up meeting one person who had deferred last year though, and was there again for his "second" second look lol. I ended up getting completely sold on the school from second look too, and will probably be formally committing early next week too.

Lol no totally... I am trying not to ask people whom I have met at stanford whether they have committed or not.. because I liked the people so much that I do not want that to unconsciously bias my decision hahaha
 
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#committedcrew. Didn't speak to any kids who were deferring, mainly people who were trying to make that East Coast / West Coast decision (no-brainer here). Spoke to enough of them that I started to have hope for some WL movement for everyone (especially two peeps I met on my interview day and still love... @choclatjalapeno!) :xf:
 
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