Christmas came early for 738 high school seniors who became the earliest members of the Class of 2012 when they were admitted on Dec. 14 to Stanford through the University’s early action admission program.

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Alexander Naruhiko Chee

738 high school seniors were offered early admission to Stanford's Class of 2012 on Dec. 14. More than 4,500 students applied through the University's early action program, and above are some of the statistics that define those that were accepted under the program.

While the number of early admits (738) represents a slight decrease from last year (750) and the overall number of early applications this year (4,551) is also lower than last year’s total (4,644), 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 seem surprising, however, that more high school seniors didn’t make Stanford their first choice. This was the first year that Harvard and Princeton did not offer an early decision option, and peer institutions that retained their early action programs may have expected to attract increased numbers of applicants as a result.

In fact, Yale and the University of Chicago each experienced 30 percent increases in early applications, while Stanford saw a slight decrease.

According to Director of Admission Shawn Abbott, however, 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, one to two percent difference of 84 applicants” between this and last year and that admission to Stanford remains highly competitive. This year’s early acceptance rate was 16.2 percent — a near replica of last year’s mark.

“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 1,670.”

Nadia Arid of Presentation High School in San Jose plans on being among those 1,670 students in the Class of 2012. 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.”

John Lindsay of Menomonie High School in Menomonie, Wis. 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.

Of those 4,551 early applicants who did not receive admission to the University, 982 were deferred to regular decision and will learn their fate in early April.

Abbott explained that Stanford tends to reject a relatively high percentage of its early applicants and that deferrals to regular decision are reserved for highly qualified candidates.

“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 three months, simply to let them down easy,” he said. “Those candidates who were deferred are viable contenders for admission.”