It wasn’t 12, but 11 days before Christmas, 738 students received their first gift: an early admission to Stanford. Letters from undergraduate admissions arrived in mailboxes nationwide on Dec. 14, welcoming the first members of the Class of 2012.

While 738 represents a slight decrease for Stanford’s early action program - 750 were accepted out of last year’s pool of 4,644, compared to 4,551 this year - Dean of Admission Richard Shaw noted that the University continues to attract a large and competitive early action pool.

“The candidates admitted in this first round have distinguished themselves in an international arena,” Shaw said in a press release. “We are positively thrilled that these students have designated Stanford as their first choice at this time."

It may be a surprise, however, that more didn’t make Stanford their first choice. In the first year without schools like Harvard and Princeton offering early decision, increases were expected for similar schools that retained their early action programs.

Yale and the University of Chicago, for example, had over 30 percent increases in early applicants, but Stanford instead decreased slightly. However, according to Director of Admission Shawn Abbott, the Yale statistic has a caveat.

“While yes, Yale did experience a significant increase in early action numbers this year, it’s important to note that they experienced a significant drop in applications last year - 500 to 1,000 - and are now only rebounding to where they were before,” Abbott said.

He added that it is a “marginal at best, 1 to 2 percent difference of 84 applicants” between this and last year and that Stanford admission remains highly competitive. This year’s early acceptance rate was 16 percent - in line with that of last year - while early and regular decision last year combined for a lowest-yet 10 percent acceptance.

“I have to emphasize that our goal in the admission office is not to increase the size of our current applicant pool,” Abbott said. “So while it may be interesting to some to evaluate whether we’re up or down by a few hundred applications each year, the nearly 24,000 applications we have received in recent years are more than enough to secure a class of 1670.”

Nadia Arid of Presentation High School in San Jose plans on being among those 1670 for the Class of 2012. In line with the expectation set up by the Office of Admission’s “restrictive” early action program, Stanford had long been Arid’s first choice.

“I knew for a long time that Stanford was my first choice,” she said. “I thought my grades and SAT score were fine; it was just about putting in the effort to go for early action.”

Arid also applied to other schools including Harvard, but said that the lack of an early decision option did not push her to set her eyes on The Farm. John Lindsay of Menomonie High School in Menomonie, Wisconsin also had Stanford as his first pick.

“I definitely like not being forced to enroll at Stanford like an ‘early decision’ program [which Harvard had previously] would do,” Lindsay said.

Despite the loss of other early programs, the option remains a viable one for Stanford applicants who would otherwise be among the much larger regular decision pool. According to Abbott, 982 early applicants were deferred to regular decision, the results of which will be released in April.

“Our philosophy is often challenged, but we feel that it is in the best interest of our early action candidates to provide them with a final decision if at all possible, and not string them along for another 3 months, simply to let them down easy,” he said. “Those candidates who were deferred are viable contenders for admission.”

Those 982 contenders were set aside from a highly accomplished early admit class. While expectations haven’t changed for admission over the years, Abbot noted that “the competition is fierce” and the quality of the applicants admitted attests to that.