[BostonCard]

Actually if one graduates In March they need to prepare for the next year before today.  Just a thought

That's neither here nor there.  If they want to stay a fifth year, then they don't file their paperwork to graduate winter quarter (for which the deadline is tomorrow).  And you don't need to graduate in the winter to apply for grad school.  In fact, since at Stanford there needs to be an overlap of at least one quarter between the undergraduate and graduate school.  So, if they don't get into graduate school, they simply don't file the paperwork to graduate, even if they have met criteria to do so.

This has been the standard for a long time.  I would venture that historically only a small minority of players who stayed for fifth years at Stanford (especially football players) applied to grad school.  Most filed to graduate after fall quarter of their fifth year.  The only reason that graduate school became salient is that in order to grad transfer and not have to wait a year, players had to apply to grad school in the school they were transferring to.  In addition, it meant that players contemplating a fifth year were weighing playing their fifth year elsewhere and getting a Masters degree versus staying at Stanford and not getting a graduate degree (unless they could clear the rigorous grad school admissions).  For some people, whose future might not be in football, a Stanford bachelor's degree combined with a master's degree from somewhere else is a powerful combination.

BC

[BostonCard]

Actually if one graduates In March they need to prepare for the next year before today.  Just a thought

That's neither here nor there.  If they want to stay a fifth year, then they don't file their paperwork to graduate winter quarter (for which the deadline is tomorrow).  And you don't need to graduate in the winter to apply for grad school.  In fact, since at Stanford there needs to be an overlap of at least one quarter between the undergraduate and graduate school.  So, if they don't get into graduate school, they simply don't file the paperwork to graduate, even if they have met criteria to do so.

This has been the standard for a long time.  I would venture that historically only a small minority of players who stayed for fifth years at Stanford (especially football players) applied to grad school.  Most filed to graduate after fall quarter of their fifth year.  The only reason that graduate school became salient is that in order to grad transfer and not have to wait a year, players had to apply to grad school in the school they were transferring to.  In addition, it meant that players contemplating a fifth year were weighing playing their fifth year elsewhere and getting a Masters degree versus staying at Stanford and not getting a graduate degree (unless they could clear the rigorous grad school admissions).  For some people, whose future might not be in football, a Stanford bachelor's degree combined with a master's degree from somewhere else is a powerful combination.

BC