The First Stanford Graduate Fellows --
An Exceptional Group
First, let me provide you with the quantitative data. The nominees were evaluated on their grade-point averages, their Graduate Record Examination scores, and a summary of the three recommendations submitted with each nomination. In order to come up with a numerical ranking for each nominee from 1-10, the GRE scores were expressed as a percentile of all students taking these tests nationwide. Likewise, the recommendations were quantified according to whether the nominee was "strongly recommended" or "recommended." Nearly all of the awards were made to students ranking above 90 percent of a perfect score in our quantitative ranking.
All of the incoming Stanford Graduate Fellows are impressive students. The great majority of the awards were made to students who attended undergraduate programs at top-ranked schools including Harvard, Princeton, M.I.T., Cal Tech, UC Berkeley, and Cornell, not to mention Stanford.
Finally, the first Stanford Graduate Fellows are not merely impressive students and researchers. They also are notable for their involvement in college athletics, their leadership in student organizations, their serious extracurricular activities, and their service to students. 
s I look over the group of students who comprise the first Stanford Graduate Fellows, I am struck by how truly remarkable they are.
Perhaps most extraordinary about the review process was the number of recommendation letters that contained remarks such as, "This is the best student I have taught in fifteen years," or "Of all the students that I have recommended in my 25-year career for major national fellowships, she is one of the very best." One nominee was described as the best undergraduate the referee had ever had in his laboratory. Another referee related the story of a nominee who had taken all of the courses in her major at her university and had completed summer internships at two other universities. Not satisfied with this, she arranged to spend the second semester of her senior year at yet another university to explore teaching in her field there.
