In its third year, the non-binding Single Choice Early Action (SCEA) program offered admission to 853 students for the Class of 2010. With an applicant pool of 4,503, the admission committee saw an increase in applications of about 4 percent from last year.

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Nina Gonzaludo

Students visit the new office of Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid, located on Galvez Street.

Richard Shaw, the newly appointed dean of admission and financial aid, said he was pleased with the strength of the applicant pool.

“We saw a wonderful group of applicants this year,” he said. “Students that apply early are generally very enthusiastic about Stanford, and this is evident in their applications.”

Despite the 4 percent rise seen in the early applicant pool, Shaw said that the number of applications received early has stabilized over the past few years.

“When SCEA was first implemented three years ago, the number of applicants who applied increased considerably, almost doubling,” Shaw said in an interview with The Daily. “This increase was similar at Yale when the SCEA program was first implemented there. Since then, the early applicant pools have stabilized. Should this trend continue, there is no foreseeable reason to change either the process or the criteria the Admission Committee uses to sort applications.”

According to Shaw, the criteria the admission committee looks for in a successful SCEA candidate does not differ from that of a regular candidate.

“In both applicant pools, the same information is used,” he said. “The most important thing is the academic record — the rigor of courses, the number of courses and what courses were available to that student. In addition, we look at test scores. The opportunity to go well beyond the statistics and essays are also factors. We look at what a student has done outside the classroom. Finally, we look at recommendations. This is the same process we use for the regular applicant pool.”

This year, the pool of 4,503 was very diverse. The regular applicant pool, which is usually around 20,000, however, tends to be even more diverse. A number of factors contribute to this, including those students who choose to apply during the regular cycle because of financial aid.

“Between the early and the regular cycles, we are confident that the Class of 2010 will be a wonderfully diverse and strong class,” Shaw said.

The SCEA system is also popular among schools like Harvard and Yale. The 4,503 students who chose to send early applications to Stanford could only apply early to Stanford. However, this is nonbinding in that the student may apply during the regular application cycle to other schools, and still has until May 1 to make a final decision.

“I am very much a believer in the system,” Shaw said. “The former institution I served, Yale, is also undergoing the same considerations for the SCEA program. Both schools have been pleased. It encourages students to apply but doesn’t lock them in. It also helps students who want to take financial aid into account in making their final decisions. It gives students more time to make an important choice. It has worked very well over the past few years and it is now an officially recognized program.”

Stanford has already benefitted from Shaw’s recent arrival on campus. In this first cycle of applications, a new evaluation system was implemented. All processes are now Web-based and all applications are read on-line. It is the first year a paperless application process has been in place.

“A lot of things are happening this year,” Shaw said. “A new committee evaluation system was implemented, which notifies students via the worldwide Web. About 90 percent of the application pool received a decision within 24-48 hours of submitting their application online. This was followed up with an important notification with a hard copy. This system is much better because it’s so much more accessible.”

Shaw said he also seeks to achieve long-term goals. In the next few years, he plans to make a major commitment to national outreach.

“We are competing effectively for the brightest students nationally and world wide,” he said. “We need to reach out to these students.”

Sophomore Anne Barry, among the first to be admitted under the relatively new SCEA program, said she was enthusiastic about the system.

“This system provides an opportunity for Stanford to reach out to many different students, including those who are taking financial aid into consideration, and those who are not sure by Nov. 1 where they want to go to school,” Barry said. “It gives them a chance to apply to top schools and explore other options. The only thing I didn’t like was the ‘Single Choice’ aspect. Allowing students to apply to other schools early would eliminate a lot of stress that students face in this process”