Calvin Miaw is the sort of kid any university admission dean would want. Physics books, poetry anthologies and papers from math contests cover the floor in his suburban Albany, N.Y., bedroom. His calendar is even more cluttered: Wednesday's the senior class banquet, Thursday he's playing the violin with his all-state orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Next weekend is the Science Olympiad in Syracuse. Throw in nearly perfect grades, a 1,590 sat score and a passion for doing independent research, and you have a student who can name his college.
For Stanford, luring the Calvins of the world away from schools like Harvard, Yale and Princeton is a challenge. The University's yield -- the percentage of accepted applicants who enroll -- typically hovers around 65 percent. But for the top 10 percent or so of accepted students, those whose intellectual drive stands out even in the most impressive applicant pool, the yield is lower. In 1998, it was just 36 percent.
One tool the University is using to attract them is the President's Scholars Program, launched in 1995. The centerpiece is an intellectual exploration grant -- doubled this year from $1,500 to $3,000 -- which encourages about 100 gifted students from each class to do research projects. Students also receive special advising, have regular luncheon seminars with faculty members and are assigned mentors to help them complete grant proposals.
Selena Kyle, now a senior, used her grant to do a case study of a nonprofit organization that gives small-business loans to women entrepreneurs in Tunisia. Kyle plans to continue her research with an honors thesis on affordable housing in the Bay Area. Similar grants are available to all Stanford students through the undergraduate research office, but, Kyle says, "the institutional support [offered by the President's Scholars Program] really helped."
For high school seniors with tons of options, the President's Scholars Program can help them "feel special," says Ryan Tacorda, assistant director of undergraduate admission. "They might consider Stanford more than they would have otherwise."
The numbers suggest that is exactly what's happening. This year the yield of top students is up to 47 percent. One of those who will head west is Miaw, who also has thick envelopes in hand from Harvard and Princeton: "When I heard I was named a President's Scholar at Stanford, that basically locked it for me."
