<p>phantasmajoric (or whatever your name is)… I am not a “sour grape.” Sure, like I said in my post, I was bitter about being rejected from Stanford in December, but now, I have gotten equal, if not better, offers from 10 other excellent colleges. Some do not have the same “brand name” as Stanford does, but I am willing to consider them and so excited to have gotten in to them. I’m glad I got rejected from Stanford because then I would have to be deciding between 11 colleges.</p>
<p>Sure, you know more about Stanford than I do since you visited, but the point of my entire post is that people on this website need to stop obsessing over HYPS, like I used to, because they will get a great education whereever they go.</p>
<p>You may think otherwise, but that’s what I think…</p>
<p>A small point re one of Hippo724’s small points: At the undergraduate level, Stanford is pretty much exactly the same size as Harvard, and larger than Columbia. As a university, it’s a little smaller than Harvard, but mainly because Harvard’s law and business schools are enormous and Stanford’s quite small. In total students, it’s not that much smaller than Penn or Cornell, neither of whose graduate programs are as large as Stanford’s.</p>
<p>guys
if there was a LOT of negative press out there, don’t you think more current “word” could be found?
a grain of salt is needed here.
a school is what you make it - but this should serve as a warning to not let expectations rule you. You need to make it what it needs to be for you, and if it can’t be what you need, to move on. No school can be all things to all people</p>
<p>“people on this website need to stop obsessing over HYPS, like I used to, because they will get a great education whereever they go.”</p>
<p>I was never saying anything to the contrary. I wholeheartedly agree. But I think it’s a bit far to say that HYPS are “inferior” to those other schools. The others are very possibly equal; but better? No.</p>
<p>First, I think his opinion is a little outdated (the 80s, right?).
Second, he really didn’t seem to want to make anything out of his experience.
Third, everyone’s opinions differ. It’s what you make of your experience.</p>
<p>If some of you are concerned by reading this thread, try speaking to as many Stanford students, alumni and parents as possible. (This forum is just the beginning.) Get as many POVs as you can. Then you have more data points to work with than just that one. Trust me, by doing so, your concerns will be alleviated. Stanford is not perfect, but pretty close!</p>
<p>I’m a current Stanford student, and before I chose Stanford over HYPM, I talked to students at each school. I heard positives and negatives about each school, and I always knew that no school was perfect. I also wondered if the free ride at the local state school would be more “worth it.” </p>
<p>My experience here has been great. I know my profs and they know me. Most of my classes have been small. My friends are great. My dorm is great.</p>
<p>Would I be happy elsewhere? Yes, because your experience is what you make of it.</p>
<p>The OP’s claims are mostly anecdotal and not concrete (like numerical data, etc). As a result, I haven’t found anything in the repliers’ threads that contradict with the OP’s claims, nor do I think it’s possible.</p>
<p>One thing I believe what Stanford is trying to do is to make students happy for the next four years. Stanford never claimed they are one of the HYPS, it is the public perception. If you think that Stanford is not a place for you, find the one that best suits you. There are 28000 people try to get in. You will make them very happy. If you want to know the quality of the students, look at the just released Putnam contest results, see how many Stanford students are on the winner’s list. If you get in, you should feel very fortunate, and I am very sorry for those who don’t have a chance.</p>
<p>I stopped reading after he brought up the engineering competition results. Nobody should base assumptions on science or math competitions. Schools just invest their efforts into different competitions and UCB may just be more interested / have more teams than Stanford does.</p>
<p>Amen to CrystalProphecy there. Science and math competitions’ successes depend basically entirely on the extent of student interest in them + resources to be well instructed. I think for instance, MIT is a school where many students are heavily into the Putnam competition. Although! There is a Stanford prof who, I believe, won that competition all four years of his undergrad and is a star. :)</p>