Best and worst things about Stanford community

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>This is a bit of an odd-duck post. I'm considering Stanford for grad school (GSB PhD program), but I thought anyone with some knowledge of the campus and surrounding community might be able to provide some insight.</p>

<p>What are the things you like best and worst about living at Stanford and the culture there? This is open-ended. Any thoughts whatsoever are appreciated.</p>

<p>Is it a pretty open place where people in different fields and at different levels in their education talk to each other? Or do people specialize and stick to their own crowd in their own departments?</p>

<p>How separate is the business school from the community at large? Would the average undergrad ever talk to, say, an MBA student at lunch?</p>

<p>One of the things that I find most attractive about Stanford is the diversity and vibrancy of the community, but I wonder how much that actually impacts you in daily life. </p>

<p>Finally: how much of a role does the surrounding area (Palo Alto and beyond) play in your life? Do people pretty much stick to campus or is there life outside too?</p>

<p>Thanks for any help.</p>

2

<p>I can only speak second-hand, because I have no personal connections to Stanford. My brother, however, is a PhD student at Stanford who was a former Caltech undergrad. </p>

<p>But anyway, here's what I would say</p>

<ul>
<li>The Stanford lifestyle is a bubble. The campus is very clean and has a lot of things to do. But, frankly, the town of Palo Alto is rather boring, and in fact, most of Silicon Valley is pretty boring, and it's inconvenient to get to places that are interesting, i.e. San Francisco, especially if you don't have a car. Hence, whether you will enjoy the lifestyle depends primarily on whether you enjoy living in a bubble. Some people love it, but others despise it.<br></li>
</ul>

<p>But on the other hand, frankly, Caltech is a bubble also. So if you enjoyed Caltech, and it seems like you did, then it's not going to be a big change. </p>

<ul>
<li>Social separation does exist, but it's certainly not because of geography, as the business school is right in the middle of campus, and graduate students often times all live together in the same housing complex. Rather, it's more of a social separation - that different students in different program sometimes just don't want to socialize with each other. But you don't have to play that game if you don't want to.<br></li>
</ul>

<p>Note, this is quite different from, say, Harvard Business School which is off in its own separate world, both geographically and in terms of housing. HBS has its own dorms, its own gym, its own library, its own restaurant system, basically its own little world unto itself. Even the MIT Sloan School is rather cut off because it's shunted off to the way East side of MIT, far away from the MIT main campus. So if anything, I would argue that Stanford GSB is more integrated with the rest of Stanford than is HBS to the rest of Harvard and MIT Sloan to the rest of MIT.</p>

3

<p>sakky! Thank you. That was very helpful.</p>

<p>I wouldn't agree that Caltech is a bubble, though. It's a very easy walk to the biggest walking city in the LA area -- Old Pasadena. Walk for twenty minutes, you're in the middle of literally dozens of good restaurants and nightlife. (What's true is most of the time you're busy enough that even the 20 minute walk seems like too much.) It seems like Palo Alto is more subdued. On the other hand, I think I'll probably spring for a car in grad school, so that should be a little less of an issue.</p>

<p>I guess one sense that I got (from secondhand comments about Stanford) is that the atmosphere is not particularly intellectual overall. I guess I was wondering to what extent people at Stanford feel like they're in an intellectually stimulating environment. </p>

<p>I realize in grad school, that's probably mostly determined by the specific department, but having some idea of the culture of the place as a whole would be nice.</p>

4

<p>
[quote]
I wouldn't agree that Caltech is a bubble, though. It's a very easy walk to the biggest walking city in the LA area -- Old Pasadena. Walk for twenty minutes, you're in the middle of literally dozens of good restaurants and nightlife.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I suppose I would have to try it out personally (i.e. compare Old Pasadena vs. Palo Alto) before I could say what's more 'bubblish'. </p>

<p>But note, I didn't say that being in a bubble was necessarily a bad thing. Some people do better work by being put in a bubble where the distractions are few. </p>

<p>
[quote]
I guess one sense that I got (from secondhand comments about Stanford) is that the atmosphere is not particularly intellectual overall. I guess I was wondering to what extent people at Stanford feel like they're in an intellectually stimulating environment.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I'm not sure that I would characterize the atmosphere as being not particularly intellectual. I think a more accurate way to describe it is 'more commercial'. At Stanford, you're constantly being inundated with stories of so-and-so who started a company based on their research and made it big. Or that such-and-such person is thinking of dropping out to take a nice offer from some company. Or that such-and-such professor is barely even teaching or researching anymore, as he is spending all of his time on private consulting. Or that one's research is being influenced by its marketability, as there are lots of companies who are willing to provide research funding and resources if you do something that is of interest to them, etc. So in that sense, Stanford is less of a pure Ivory Tower than comparable schools simply because, while the research is obviously still top-notch, the waft of money and careerism always abounds. I suppose one could view that as 'less intellectual', but I think it's more accurate to simply call that 'more commercial'. </p>

<p>However, it's difficult to make absolute judgments like this. Comparative analyses are far easier to do. So what would be helpful is if you would provide a list of places you are considering, and then we could hash out a compare-and-contrast.</p>

5

<p>This is just my experience from having dinner's at Stanford and chilling with friends there...but this is more undergrad than anything else. I'm not sure if it's different from grad..</p>

<p>People here like to have a lot of fun, they definitely don't talk about classes all day or perhaps have less "intellectual" conversations. In this point Caltech is very different from Stanford. At least for undergrad, there's a pressure to look like you don't study. My supervisor at Stanford (who also attended Stanford undergrad) said that people would hide in the closest to study and sometimes the biggest partyers still got the best grades from studying in hiding. It's a weird concept...</p>

<p>It's a really fun place filled with a lot of activities and I know a lot of my friends are trying out new things. There's also this street nearby that has a lot of restaurants and shops as well as the Stanford Shopping mall but it's all rather pricey. So I guess Palo Alto is somewhat comparable to Pasadena.</p>

<p>Each of the undergrad dorms have a cafeteria and usually grad students don't stumble in those areas. (According to my mom who did her M.S. there) But if you were to stumble in with a friend, you'd be welcomed with open arms. Stanford kids tend to be very friendly and outgoing in general.</p>

6

<p>"people would hide in the closest to study and sometimes the biggest partyers still got the best grades from studying in hiding."</p>

<p>Where and when exactly would they hide? What would happen to those who study in the open?</p>

7

<p>"At least for undergrad, there's a pressure to look like you don't study."</p>

<p>A former Stanford undergrad who is now a sucessful academic told my son and me the same thing. The Stanford guy liked this aspect of the campus culture; he seemed pretty surprised that my son didn't.</p>

8

<p>Hmm... a prof at another good place told me that Stanford seems to be a very person-dependent thing. Some people come there and love the atmosphere, and others don't. Which would be in the same spirit as the post above.</p>

<p>The entrepreneurial culture is actually pretty attractive. Having spent four years at the very Ivory Tower Caltech, it would be fun to be in a place where application of knowledge (for money) is a big priority. The comments about the "look chill" atmosphere are actually very helpful. I realize that this is a mostly undergraduate thing, but it does give a more coherent view of the place as a whole.</p>

<p>(By the way, I haven't completely made up my mind, but this atmosphere doesn't seem to be wholly a bad thing, as one will probably agree if one visits a place where it's important for everybody to look very busy all the time.)</p>

9

<p>"...this atmosphere doesn't seem to be wholly a bad thing, as one will probably agree if one visits a place where it's important for everybody to look very busy all the time."</p>

<p>Heh! agreed on that.</p>

10

<p>Ben, if you want to fight boredom just cross university avenue that separates west palo alto(where stanford is) and east palo alto. It's a whole different world!</p>