<p>Hey: stupid question, but i guess that's what internet avatars are here for....</p>
<p>Can anyone attest to the intellectual vitality at Stanford, relative to other universities (UChicago, Yale, Penn, etc)? I'm a little worried Stanford might be too preprofessional and too premed for me. I'm worried such students--as opposed to students whose primary passion lie in the humanities--are less passionate about academia.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>bump 10 chars</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>i’m wondering to what extent this is true, (I found this on an old cc forum):
“A word of warning - Stanford seems to miss one thing: a culture of rampant and ever-present intellectual discussion. People don’t want their dinner table conversations to be dominated by bull sessions on the future of the EU, the meaning of beauty or statistical methods. Not to say that the discussions don’t occur, but you have to seek them out.”</p>
<p>We think like pink noise while the reality is more like brown noise. Put them together we produce white noise – which is this thread.</p>
<p>Years ago, there was no question that the general culture at places like Yale and Chicago was much more intellectual than at Stanford. At Yale, everyone, including the football team, talked about their classes, their senior essays. At Stanford, talking publically about your school work was a social faux pas. There were plenty of intellectual students there, but they formed a kind of subculture, and had to find each other and hide from the light a little. That was a long time ago; I think things have changed a lot as Stanford has gotten more and more selective with its students, and attracted more of the students who used to go to HYP. But I suspect it’s still less ostentatiously intellectual than HYP or Chicago.</p>
<p>Part of that is California culture, too: cool rather than hot, people being more pleasant and less contentious, emotions not running so high. A lot of the spirit at HYP (or at least HY) and Chicago is people just bursting with ideas that they need to get out, and that they need to test against other people’s reactions, and correct the other people when they are wrong, etc. California style is more “chill” than that, but then it takes longer for people to engage with each other.</p>
<p>From what I hear, Penn is probably more like Stanford in this respect, minus the California aspect. Plenty of intellectual kids there, but they have to find one another.</p>
<p>thanks! 10chars</p>
<p>One of the primary things Stanford looks for in an application is intellectual vitality (it even has its own essay). I would say the majority of Stanford students have a high degree of intellectual vitality, on par with Yale, U Chigago etc, the difference being they just don’t show it as much. It’s there, just under the surface a little.</p>
<p>^ I agree. The essays I had to do for Stanford drew more intellectual energy and dedication from me than the ones I did for Yale or other peer schools. Also, although I didn’t apply to U Chicago, I did scan the essay topics and theirs were the only ones that came close to Stanford’s.</p>
<p>^Yeah, I definitely agree…Stanford’s app was boss and really made me think! What questions did UChicago ask?</p>
<p>Inellectual, yes. Pretentious, no. Those who are self-consciously intellectual would not find Stanford to be a conducive atmosphere for pontificating about navel contemplation.</p>