I’m a native East Coaster (Bostonian) used to frigid weathers and thick layers. I’m wondering how different Stanford is from its East Coast counterparts (MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton) and if I will have a difficult time fitting in here. Also, what if we aren’t into the whole Silicon Valley tech scene (I find some parts of it to be kinda BS)?
thanks!
These are the thoughts I got from a family member who attended Princeton for undergraduate and Stanford for her master’s program. Keep this distinction in mind as the age difference, however slight, might have impacted this.
She disliked a lot of people at Princeton. She claimed they were all very elitist and full of themselves. She noted it wasn’t a result of their affluence, but rather because they attended Princeton. They clung to it and held it there. At Stanford however she noted that the people were much more laid back and humble. I think the differences are attributable to the paradigms in the East and West coasts. In the West Coast, California specifically, people take a much more relaxed approached to doing things. I’m sure you’ll fit in though because people in Californian are pretty laid back and will accept all kinds of people. Note these are just my thoughts from my family and my own experience, though.
Stanford is a casual, non elitist , yet high energy college where the kids are smart, but dont show it off, outdoorsy and physically active [ you have to have a bike to get to classes as the campus is so spread out] and generally laid back in demeanor compared to most top colleges on the east coast. What you will notice immediately is students dont care about what your family does or who they are . Self centered prigs will find it hard to impress students out here.
The weather is pleasant all year round which makes it generally a very nice place to live, which is one of the reason kids are happy here.
Students work just as hard as those on the east coast- they just dont show it.
@GrapePocky I think the biggest difference between Stanford and HYP is that the Stanford vibe is very fresh and dynamic. People are obviously super smart but not so stuck up. Also they want to innovate and create things, there is a very prominent entrepreneurial culture. In HYP you often find the stereotypical stuck up, east cost prep-school types who want to do finace/consulting (of course not all of them are like that) and the whole vibe is more that of ancient privilege than of a dynamic modern institution. That said, the entrepreneurial culture at Harvard is very prominent too but i feel the atmosphere is more pretentious than Stanford. I think MIT is more like Stanford than HYP. The kids are insanely smart, but surprisingly humble, and are all about learning, collaborating and innovating. I like to think Stanford as a combination of Harvard and MIT at a better location. Stanford is obviously super strong for STEM and an ideal option for people interested in tech and Silicon valley but it is just as strong in social sciences, humanities. So there is something for everyone there.
In general I feel Harvard, Stanford, MIT have the most impressive students of out the HYPSM schools (although the difference is super small relative to Yale, Princeton). Also Harvard, Stanford, MIT are the schools that are the most promiment and considered the best outside the US. Yale, Princeton come very closely behind in terms of global prominence.
“Harvard, Stanford, MIT are the schools that are the most promiment and considered the best outside the US.”
not quite-
Caltech is also considered to be one of the top U’s in the world and was rated # 1 a few years in a row, ahead of H,S, and MIT .
Back to our regularly scheduled broadcast…
@GrapePocky You might want to read this very interesting comparison of Harvard and Stanford from the October 2014 Harvard Crimson:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/10/30/stanford-vs-harvard/
Plenty of Stanford students aren’t into the Silicon Valley tech scene—students’ interests there are incredibly diverse. You will only find fitting into Stanford difficult if you’re very strongly rooted in “East Coast” tradition (and weather)—it’s a very open, forward-thinking, nonhierarchical environment, full of exciting people pursuing whatever happens to interest them. No one “judges” you the way they might be prone to in the East, and doing something like announcing you got a 2400 on your SAT or went to Andover won’t be viewed the same way as it might at a top Ivy—no one will care.
My kid got into Harvard and Stanford and chose Harvard. We live in California so that may have played into part of the decision. To say that the Stanford vibe is fresh and dynamic and imply that the other schools are uptight is not an accurate portrayal of the two schools. Frankly the kids at both schools are probably about the same. I have met a lot of jerks in California and SV and I have met a lot of nice humble people in Boston. It is a all about fit. My kid wanted a change. Two kids from our HS got into Stanford. Neither one chose Stanford.
If you live in Boston Palo Alto might be a nice change for you so you can get a better perspective of the world.
I’d agree with others that you’ll probably fit in just fine here. It’s a good experience to go out-of-state (or coast) for college to get a different perspective and see if you prefer other areas of the country.
Personally, I share the sentiments about Princeton (and some other similar schools). Stanford’s not nearly as elitist as some of its counterparts. It’s nice to be in an environment where students don’t brag about their SAT score or what their parents do or how much money they have. It’s also an environment where students collaborate and help one another instead of trying to show up one another.
People at Stanford are usually pretty laid back/open and there are many students not into the whole tech scene. The majority of students here are not CS majors so I wouldn’t worry about not being into tech.
If you love cold weather then there’s not a whole lot of that here. It does rain in the winters and dorms often drive a few hours off campus for snow trips during winter quarter as well. Overall it’s usually sunny or sometimes overcast. I haven’t minded the change in weather because I go home during winter break and summer so I get plenty of cold weather during winter. You’d be surprised at how quick you adapt to the weather.
The campus feels really, really chill. Like the vibe is just so relaxed. Everytime I go there, i feel like napping on the grass or sth. Very different from boston. Campus life @ stanford is so much of a bubble it actually isn’t so much focused on the tech boom or silicon valley. I actually felt MIT students were more in line with the whole tech mentality than the average stanford student.
@tellmecombo “the campus feels really really chill” LOL Some of the feeder high schools close by have high suicide rates. That is sad not chill.
You should read. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/12/the-silicon-valley-suicides/413140/
@proudparent26 The high schools nearby are definitely not “really chill” and their suicide rates are alarming (and likely driven by academic pressure to get into top schools) BUT Stanford itself is quite chill and usually rated as less stressful and lower in suicide rates than many of it’s “top tier” counterparts.
@proudparent26 Ok, but what’s your point about Stanford? Almost everyone at Stanford did not come from the local schools. The atmosphere on Stanford’s campus is laid back.
@menloparkmom As a person who has lived most of his life outside the US in various places allow me to know what the global perception is about the US universities. Caltech is obviously top at STEM but it lacks breadth which costs it in terms of overall global prominence and is often overshadowed by MIT. ( we are not talking about quality here just global perception). The point is the US schools that are most prominent and have the biggest wow factor internationally are Harvard, MIT and Stanford.
@merovingian the atmosphere at Stanford is no more laid back than most other places. I live in the area. Also about 40 per cent of Stanford students come from California so you may want to check your facts. Interestingly only 6.5 per cent of Stanford is Chicano/Mexican even though 40 per cent of the state of California is Chicano/Mexican. They seem to be proportionately under represented.
The ratings I was referring to were done by surveying members of the academic world , not by asking the lay public for their opinion.
“allow me to know what the global perception is about the US universities”
The # ranking is by an International publication , btw.
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/caltech-worlds-top-university/2015/10/01/id/694263/
So yes, I will reiterate that among those who really DO know the top Universities in the world, Caltech was and still is rated # 1.
5 years in a row.
nuff said…
As someone who:
Did my undergrad in TX (close to home), my 1st and 2nd masters in Philly, my 3rd masters in Boston and my PhD in England …I HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND you experience college FAR AWAY from your comfortable surroundings! In your case its Cali. Only then will you TRULY explore and understand the meaning of college which…bottom line…is all about self discovery!! Cant really do that at home efficiently, my friend.
So my answer (in your case)…GO EAST!
The world is a big place…EXPLORE it and CONTRIBUTE to it 
and slow your role @menloparkmom. Thats only one of MANY world rankings who (surprise surprise) do not place Caltech at the top of their rankings! Here are the top three (most respected) global rankings:
http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2015.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QS_World_University_Rankings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Higher_Education_World_University_Rankings
PS - my guess is you are using the THE Rankings. However…I also recommend you take a look at the THE Reputation Rankings. Its by the same publisher who’s rankings are based on college reputations ALONE Caltech is 10th there. Which still isn’t bad…but I’m just saying 
Hi proudparent,
What does the % of chicano/mexicans have anything to do with the campus vibe? I fail to see the connection.
The second thing is I was not trying judge the atmosphere of local high schools (which I’m pretty sure are quite intense), but that of Stanford itself. I was trying to compare it to the atmosphere at other top schools (OP mentions MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton). I found it convenient to compare it to MIT, both because I went there, and because I believe it is the one most similar to Stanford among the schools mentioned.
There’s a good reason why Stanford stands out so starkly from its surrounding. Palo alto is not a college town, and so students do not often hangout in Palo Alto or the Silicon Valley. The Stanford campus is so huge you can easily feel it’s its own city/ecosystem, so that it is completely different from the atmosphere @ Palo Alto or suburban mountainview/Santa Clara. Stanford is surrounded by forest & vast lands, it feels you are essentially part of a huge ranch, and it sits at the edge between urban areas & rural areas (Arastradero etc… is within biking distance). These are all distinguishing point from MIT or Harvard, where you are essentially in the middle of a bustling urban area, and 2 t stops from Boston. All these factors + nice weather I think contribute to the “chill” vibe at Stanford.
One thing I’d be curious is to compare the % of Stanford vs. MIT grads who endup in tech/startups. My bet is that MIT has more.
@tellmecombo MIT does, but the paradigm is changing. that and SV can literally be its own self-sustaining country
Well, I’m a current Stanford student, so it’s strange that we seem to be talking about completely different places. I’m well aware that ~40% of students here are from California, but I’m not seeing what that has to do with your argument. Your definition of local seems to have quickly ballooned from “feeder high schools close by” to a state twice the size of New England! Stanford’s atmosphere can be many things, I’ll admit, but not depressing or suicidal. Sure, Gunn and Menlo might send more than a dozen students per year, but each class is ~1700. Are you really suggesting that a few local high school students create the atmosphere at Stanford?
As to your last point on race, I’m not sure how it’s relevant to our discussion, or what you want me to do about it. Unfortunately I’m an out of state minority so I suppose I’m part of the problem! 
I’ll just say that I find Stanford a wonderfully diverse school.
Anyways, I’ll leave some rankings of the “happiest colleges” for anyone interested:
http://www.collegechoice.net/rankings/colleges-with-happiest-freshman/ (Stanford #6)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2014/11/06/25-happiest-colleges-photos.html#f867c572-655a-4579-9b4c-e5db5d300a9b (Stanford #1)
http://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2014/08/12/universities-with-the-happiest-students/ (Stanford #4, 3, 4, 11, NR, NR)