This past weekend, many of the 92.8 percent of Stanford applicants who did not receive admission to the University were given a unique opportunity to get to know the campus that they will not be attending for the next four years. The ‘No-Fros’ partook in a wide range of activities, such as meeting professors who will never teach them anything and enjoying classic Stanford traditions such as fountain hopping that they might later think about wistfully.
School administrators hail Reject Weekend as a resounding success. Dean of Admission Richard Shaw says that the event works wonders for Stanford’s yield. “100 percent of Reject Weekend attendees do not end up coming to Stanford, a percentage that is tied for highest in the nation with prestigious institutions such as Harvard and Yale,” he noted. “Those aren’t the type of numbers you can ignore.”
Continuing the trend of recent years, planners created a slogan printed on a banner to greet the rejects as they enter the University and repeated often throughout the weekend. The Reject Class of 2014 is hailed with You might try and get in for grad school, but we probably won’t take you then either, continuing the theme of 2013’s Zebras don’t change their stripes and 2012’s You will never be good enough.
Stanford rejects take the exact same campus tour as their accepted counterparts, a point that guides often like to bring up. “And just think,” said Miranda Lambert ’11, leading a pack of them to Green Library, “exactly a week ago, the smart kids who will actually be coming here next year put their godly little feet on this same patch of library floor that you’re walking on right now. Makes you wish you worked harder doesn’t it?” One of the rejects raised his hand. “Doesn’t that seem a little mean-spirited?” he asked. “Absolutely not,” Lambert replied, thinking quickly on her feet as only Stanford students can do. “That’s the type of negative mentality that probably got you rejected in the first place.”
