Richard Shaw sees nothing to brag about in Stanford University’s microscopic admission rate. Dean of admission and financial aid at Stanford since September 2005, Shaw said he understands the public fascination with a measure of selectivity that now stands at 4.7 percent, lowest in the nation among prominent colleges and universities. That means the private university in Northern California turns down slightly more than 19 out of every 20 applicants. But Shaw didn’t advertise that fact on March 25 when he announced the entering fall class. “When I did a press release, I didn’t release the percentage,” Shaw said in a telephone interview late last week. “But everybody gets out their calculators.”

April 5, 2016 ・ From The Washington Post