Even though I love almost everything about Stanford (quarter system, diverse student body, Hum Bio program) and cannot wait to visit in the fall, I have heard that Stanford is very removed. I come from a city and would like to, if at all possible, stay in or be near a city for college. Even though Stanford isn’t necessarily near a city, are students able to go off-campus? And if so, are there things to do?
Stanford is an easy train ride away from the beautiful city of San Francisco.
‘Easy’ is an understatement, I would say. Lack of cars for freshman made me, IMO, feel pretty suffocated by the bubble. It takes time to bike to the station from your dorm, and then about another hour to 1.5 hour to take the Caltrain up to SF (or, I guess, maybe 10-20 minutes to get to Millbrae, and then BART up to SF).
Marguerite takes forever to get anywhere.
Most things to do off campus (within biking distance, anyway) are located around University Avenue. Marguerite brings you a little bit out from Stanford, but overall, to get anywhere fun, you’ll probably need a car.
If you make going up to the city via Caltrain (about 45 minutes to an hour) a priority and really actively get out there and explore, you certainly can get into the city as much as you want. Having a car after freshman year makes that a lot easier as well. Stanford students really vary as to how much they take advantage of SF - some are up there doing things every weekend, others maybe only go once or twice in their whole 4 years.
That said, I think there’s too much harsh criticism around the “bubble.” Yes, Stanford is huge (with it’s own zipcode!), but it’s not “isolated” as you say - rather, it’s a hub of people from all over with all different experiences who make it so alive and fresh, not stagnant and removed. Additionally, having that “campus” feeling instead of being randomly scattered around a city makes you feel so much more at home. For me, it’s the perfect balance of feeling united and close to the students around me, while still having the option to go into the bigger city if I want to.
That said, don’t worry too much about it until you actually get in!
I’d definitely say that Stanford students tend to be extremely lazy when it comes to commute times. We’ve got everything on our campus, so even a 15 minute bike ride to Oak Creek becomes prohibitive since we’re used to everything being so close. Caltrain takes about an hour to SF and it takes 45 mins to drive (w/o traffic) so either way it’s something you have to plan, but it’s typically worth it. The “isolation” that the above posters talk about is self-imposed imo. Granted, we’re not like other schools with a college town conveniently off campus, but that’s because our campus is our college town to some extent.
You can get around to most places you need to without a car, yes it could take up to/over an hour depending on wher you’re going, but we’re not isolated by any means.
You are basically trapped on campus - but a glorious campus it is !