On Dec. 13, 2024, at exactly 4 p.m. PST, Stanford sent an early Christmas present to its newest crop of baby trees. When prospective frosh (ProFro) Aurora Yazzie opened her Stanford Restrictive Early Action acceptance, she and her friends ended up “shaking the car” with their screaming, Yazzie said. 

She’d finished a run shortly before, but after receiving the life-changing news, Yazzie returned to the track for an exhilarated victory lap.

With Regular Decision results still pending, it’ll be months before the Class of 2029 officially convenes at Admit Weekend. But already, Yazzie’s classmates know her as a prospective political science major, outdoors enthusiast and reggaeton/rap/hip-hop fan. 

How? They’ve seen her on the @stanford2029__ Instagram. 

Here’s how it works: students submit personal photos, a short biography and their Instagram handle to @stanford2029__ (a non-University affiliated account). ProFros are also encouraged to download IGOTIN, a social networking app for college students. 

“Your next friend is just a chat away,” the app promises. 

Once materials are submitted, the page’s moderators — an anonymous group of Stanford students — post them for 2,600-some followers to see. Through these bite-sized posts, ProFros learn about one another’s cultures, hobbies and academic pursuits. 

Someone’s post pique your interest? Feel free to message them directly. Thanks to social media’s global nature, students are meeting without even, well… meeting. 

First impressions matter. What kind do Stanford students want to make?

Reaching out for connection

“I’m so excited to be at Stanford this fall and to make new friends and memories,” Yazzie’s post reads. “Please feel free to reach out :)”.

Stanford’s incoming class comes from every walk of life — hailing from Shanghai to California. But across the board, their introductions share one characteristic: boundless warmth and positivity. 

After her Stanford acceptance, Yazzie immediately searched for her class page, hoping to “get a feel” for the class of ’29. 

“I saw a bunch of people posting, and they seemed really cool,” she said. Yazzie’s own post includes a photo with her track team and a goofy selfie with her friend. The thought process behind her introduction was simple: “I wanted to represent myself, my identity [and] the things that are most important to me.”

Currently, the Stanford ’29 Instagram group chat is “going off 24/7. I’m always getting notifications,” Yazzie said. Their most recent topic of discussion? The notes sent to admitted students by their regional admissions officer — a personalized touch all the ProFros found “cool,” according to Yazzie.

But the connection Yazzie found ran deeper.

Living in the Bay Area, “Most of my life, I’ve been the only Native American or person who identified that way,” said Yazzie. One reason Stanford appealed to her was its “vibrant” Native community. Her introduction references her Latino and Navajo heritage. Already, she’s befriended ProFros from similar ethnic backgrounds and students who share her interests in hiking and climate advocacy. 

Discovering these commonalities bring Yazzie joy. She considers her future Stanford classmates to be “down-to-earth” and “welcoming” people. 

“Everyone seems to want to make friends,” she said. 

Moving out, coming home

According to her @stanford2029__ post, ProFro Anna Frost has “been a Stanford fan for as long as [she] can remember.” Currently, Frost resides in Dallas, Texas, but she grew up in San Diego before moving at 11. 

“As I got older, I realized, ‘Wow, I really love it [in California]. I want to go home,’” Frost said. A prospective psychology major whose post conveys her liking for photojournalism, churchgoing and adventure, Frost was impressed by her future peers. 

Informal as the @stanford2029__ account is, you can still glean why these students beat Stanford’s low acceptance rate. The page features philosophy enthusiasts, jazz lovers, future engineers and more. 

“Everyone’s going to put their best out there, naturally,” Frost said. “[My classmates are] all very well put together and smart and well-traveled.” 

A page like @stanford2029__ could engender self-comparison. But for Frost, “It’s more admiration than it is bad comparison.” When she looks at her classmates, “I’m like, ‘Wow, I could have a class with you and hear your experiences and opinions,’” she said. 

So far, Frost isn’t in any large group chats, nor has she connected with many others online. 

“But it’s okay,” she said. While facts shared on social media can build the “basic foundations of relationships,” Frost believes offline interaction will best foster genuine connection. 

“I overthink [on social media],” she said. “I get nervous reaching out first to people.”

And the people are what she’s most excited for at Stanford. While visiting campus last year, Frost noticed that “even if [people] didn’t know me, they waved at me. They smiled at me.” 

“I’m excited to go somewhere that’s so intellectually amazing, but also so welcoming,” Frost said. 

Not so Nerdy Nation

Weston Smith is a ProFro from Southwest Virginia, His hometown is tiny, he told The Daily, with under a thousand residents and “zero stop lights.” Smith was attracted by Stanford’s diverse environment and its “push for students to think outside the box,” he said.

Coming from a traditional, close-knit community, Smith knew he had to throw himself into the Stanford community, “instead of just creeping into it,” he said. 

For Smith, posting on @stanford2029__ served a dual purpose. It was a way to make friends and “come across as a normal human being,” and a way for him to prove himself to his future classmates, too.

“I [posted] for myself to validate ‘Yeah, you are good enough,” Smith said. “‘Maybe [if] other people think you’re good enough, you’ll believe it more.’” His post mentions his friends and the biogeophysics research he conducted in Alaska; that he loves running and is a certified emergency medical technician. 

Smith has also found his way into direct messages and group chats. Initially, he was expecting a “snobbish nerd vibe where I’d be like, ‘Everybody’s like crazy intelligent, but [has] zero social skills because when you think of top schools, that’s what the media likes to project,” he said. But so far, he’s met “a lot of normal people” who “can talk about advanced things, but also throw in a ‘bro’, ‘sick’ or ‘low-key’.”

He finds it refreshing. Intellectually impressive as his classmates are, they “also are just people at the end of the day.”

When Smith arrives at Stanford, it’ll be his first time in California. He’s excited to see how Stanford “not only changes me as a student, but as a person too, and just helps me come into my own,” Smith said.

A prospective human biology major, he’s interested in Stanford’s research scene.

Illustrating his own point about Stanford students’ affinity for slang: “I fein for some good research,” Smith said.

The limits of what’s possible

Submitting to the Stanford class page is fun and games… or is it? How do you introduce yourself to the strangers you’ll spend four years with? How do you paint a vibrant portrait of your personhood with nothing but five photos and few sentences? 

Once, Smith felt pressured to “put on [a] facade” for fellow students. But since fellow ProFros have reached out to him, he’s realized “I don’t have to present myself in this raised-up kind of way for people to think that I’m good enough,” he said.

“We’re all posting our highlights,” Frost said regarding @stanford_2029. 

But it’s only natural that ProFros want to make positive first impressions. After decision day, Frost wore a Stanford sweater three days in a row. Smith — who always “kept [Stanford] as a dream” — said his acceptance “[pushed] those limits of what I thought was possible for my life.” 

“All throughout high school, I was like, ‘Oh, [Stanford] will never take me,’” Yazzie said.

But Stanford did. For many ProFros, coming to the Farm will be a dream come true.

And until students in the Class of ’29 eat their first plate of steak at Arrillaga Dining, pull an all-nighter at Lathrop Library or step foot on Meyer Green — until then, social media is how they’ll navigate their new reality together.