<p>How would you describe Stanford and the students who go there?</p>
<p>amazing...</p>
<p>come on, you can do better than just one word.</p>
<p>laid back...
with my mind on my money and my money on my mind</p>
<p>I'm a Stanford Law student, not an undergrad, so I have a somewhat different impression of the place than the undergrads to, but here are my thoughts:</p>
<p>1) I get the sense that Stanford is somewhat more conservative than its counterparts on the East Coast (and much more conservative than archrival Cal), though not as conservative as Chicago. It's still liberal on balance, but not nearly as liberal as it could be.</p>
<p>2) The campus is enormous. The distance from the undergraduate dorms or the academic buildings to any location off campus is too far to be easily walkable, and the effect of this is that campus life very self-contained. It doesn't help (if your goal is to get off campus a lot) that Palo Alto is a very wealthy area and there aren't many restaurants or bars that cater to college or graduate students.</p>
<p>3) Stanford's emphasis on athletics is much, much greater than at its competitors in the Ivy League, MIT/Caltech, and the small liberal arts colleges. As far as I know, Duke and Williams are the only top private colleges or universities that emphasize athletics nearly as much.</p>
<p>Yeah, it's a one-mile walk or bike ride from the top of the oval to the El Camino Real and University Avenue, but the free Marguerite Shuttle is so handy. Stanford is a spotless, beautiful and extremely quiet campus, unlike the chaos that is Cal Berkeley, which I personally prefer. </p>
<p>I don't know why anyone thinks that Stanford is in any way liberal. The Hoover Institute on campus is one of the most conservative think tanks in the country and Condi Rice used to be the Provost at Stanford.</p>
<p>The Hoover Institution is one of the things that makes Stanford as conservative as it is. The reason I describe it as 'liberal' is that there aren't often students advocating for conservative causes in White Plaza or the student newspaper, while students do advocate for liberal points of view there. The difference between Stanford and other schools, student-bodywise, is that the liberal students aren't advocating for the far left, but for the moderate left.</p>
<p>When we visited it, I found Stanford very beautiful & sprawling. The guide told us there are more bikes than kids on campus, and I can believe it. My brother attended Stanford about 25-30 years ago & really enjoyed his time there. A friend whose daughter recently completed her undergrad years there said everyone there is passionate about something, including a grafetti artist she met there. She found the people there much more intense than those she met at UCLA law school (where she went after getting her bachelor's). She found her fellow law students smart but not as interesting or passionate about a particular subject or thing.</p>