[fullmetal]

I do think it's true that you could fill two incoming Stanford classes with highly-qualified students.  That doesn't mean that Student #2n will have as shiny of a resume as Student #1 (assuming you could actually quantify ranks), but #2n's resume would be show more than enough qualification to handle a Stanford academic workload and also show promise of high achievement.  I've seen some extremely qualified high school applicants (via alumni interview process) get rejected, and I've been crushed that such high achievers were denied admission.

You cannot randomize the final pool and tell incoming kids that they were the product of random selection.  Terrible idea.  It means a lot to all of us alumni to think or know that we were selected by admissions to attend on the basis of our qualifications. 

I hope the Stanford sailing team continues its successful ways -- losing a head coach means losing administrative knowledge, connections within the sailing world, and a whole host of institutional responsibilities that now need to be distributed among the assistant coaches.  The program must be resilient.

Admissions probably relies on athletics coaches to vet each recruit's athletic bonafides.  To remove that trust is to put a larger burden on the admissions office...which might be necessary now.

[fullmetal]

I do think it's true that you could fill two incoming Stanford classes with highly-qualified students.  That doesn't mean that Student #2n will have as shiny of a resume as Student #1 (assuming you could actually quantify ranks), but #2n's resume would be show more than enough qualification to handle a Stanford academic workload and also show promise of high achievement.  I've seen some extremely qualified high school applicants (via alumni interview process) get rejected, and I've been crushed that such high achievers were denied admission.

You cannot randomize the final pool and tell incoming kids that they were the product of random selection.  Terrible idea.  It means a lot to all of us alumni to think or know that we were selected by admissions to attend on the basis of our qualifications. 

I hope the Stanford sailing team continues its successful ways -- losing a head coach means losing administrative knowledge, connections within the sailing world, and a whole host of institutional responsibilities that now need to be distributed among the assistant coaches.  The program must be resilient.

Admissions probably relies on athletics coaches to vet each recruit's athletic bonafides.  To remove that trust is to put a larger burden on the admissions office...which might be necessary now.