Stanford Truncation Phenomenon - Building on John's PDF newspaper post, I feel compelled to comment that it's a very different experience to read the paper version of the Washington Post than to scan the online version.

For example, reading the Web version of the Post I likely never would have seen an article in the Sunday Outlook section about one high school senior's experience at Stanford's prospective freshmen weekend, entitled This Pro-Fro's A No-Go. Her tone was especially intriguing to me because, on the one hand, I share her distaste for the Stepford student hard sell of a campus. But on the other hand, that wasn't my experience as a pro-fro or a Pro-Fro-Ho (now Ro-Ho?) at Stanford at all. Granted, it's been 10 years since I was a prospective freshman, but I don't imagine things have changed that drastically. Much like the author, I wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to stay on the floor of a dorm and I was leery of the group bonding activities before I had committed to attending a school. But I also understood that prospectives weekend was a brief opportunity to get a glimpse into a few of the things any campus had to offer. She already seemed to have soured just because Stanford didn't offer interviews (and do alumni interviews really count for anything at most colleges?)

Ultimately, the decision to attend a school is made based on a variety of factors, including the fit of the academic program, distance from home and potential return on investment. But the touchy-feely sense you get from a campus is clearly one of those factors. So I'm glad she found Duke more to her liking, but her judgments about Stanford seem artificially arbitrary.