Stanford Students

Carol Watson’s otherwise excellent story (Part I, Sept. 27) on Stanford freshman Lupe Vasquez, who came from an Oxnard shelter for the homeless, gives life to the fading myth that California private education is primarily for the wealthy and privileged.

By treating Vasquez as an exception to Stanford’s “country-club image,” and claiming that “freshmen are as likely to have $2,000 computers as they are to have notebooks,” Watson overlooks a reality of education in California, and at Stanford in particular: that the best and the brightest of our college students come from increasingly diverse backgrounds.

More than half of Stanford’s entering freshmen need and receive financial aid, and approximately 100 have parents who are unable to make any contribution toward the cost of their education. Stanford remains committed to a “needs blind” admission policy and guarantees that the demonstrated financial need of all accepted applicants will be met.

MARY BARTLETT

Assistant Director of University

Relations, Stanford University

Southern California Office