<p>I really like Stanford as a school, but the more I think about why I do, the more I realize that a lot of it has to do with its campus. Stanford has a gorgeous campus that words can't describe, plus it being in California is very nice. </p>
<p>My top two contenders for top school choice thus far are Brown and Stanford. I adore Brown's open curriculum, very liberal student body, urban location, etc which seem like much more meaningful reasons to apply there. </p>
<p>Don't get me wrong, I love other aspects about Stanford, its "bubble" community, laid back atmosphere, etc. But I'm not sure if the academics of Stanford are right for me 100%. Is it true that if you're humanities centered that Stanford might not be as good of a choice? Is it really a lot harder to double major there than it is at Brown? </p>
<p>So to sum it up: I like what Brown has to offer curriculum wise a bit more (I have to read up more on Stanford), but for some reason there is this pull towards Stanford that I'm not sure I'd still have if the campus/bubble feel wasn't there. Is that superficial? Is a strong attraction to a campus a good reason to seriously consider it? Even if another school with a "lesser" campus has a better surrounding town (providence trumps palo alto) and a slightly better fitting curriculum (based on research thus far)?</p>
<p>Of course I'll apply to both and see how it plays out, but in the very rare chance that I get into both, I want to make sure I pick a school for the right reasons. The two are so very different.</p>
<p>I believe campus setting can be a very important factor in the decision making process. The question you seem to be asking is if it should be higher on the list of priorities, or a make-or-break type factor. Depends on what you decide. If you want it to be a higher priority, go for it. I know I place campus setting at a very high value, but I know others where it barely registers in their decision making process. </p>
<p>I love the ivy covered buildings and the "campus on the hill" type setting of colleges like St. Olaf and the one across town from it, Carleton. Stanford, even with its palm trees (cracks me up!) has a lot of that old-ivy-covered building feeling that I associate with higher learning. </p>
<p>Lifestyle issues (weather, town/city location, night life, campus beauty, etc) are just more important for some students than others. All other things reasonably equal, this might just be a more important factor for you. Or not. I know it is for me, and I don't consider myself shallow or educationally misguided! I'm gearing up for transfer next year, and when I look at the colleges that have accepted me, campus setting will be second only to general academic rigour (and only by a smidge).</p>
<p>My final decision came down to Stanford and Brown and this is what I learned about the Stanford Core Curriculum compared to Brown's:</p>
<p>Yes. Brown has an open curriculum which makes it very easy to double major and basically study whatever suits your fancy with no worry about fulfilling specific requirements.
However, upon closer look at Stanford's General Education Requirements, it is clear that Stanford has one of the most open forms of curriculum possible while still having some guidelines. All that Stanford requires is that you choose SOME COURSE, ANY course in the various subjects (Sciences, Language, Humanities, etc). You are still allowed to choose for yourself from the ENORMOUS list of classes available which courses you would like to take just as long as you take ONE course in each area. </p>
<p>I am also a humanities-driven student yet I chose to attend Stanford because of the Cali location, excellent financial aid (every other school's financial aid paled in comparison), the "feel" of the campus (and believe me, I was very focused on how a campus felt as well.)</p>
<p>Ultimately, college is not only an institution where you will be learning in classrooms but it is also an entirely new lifestyle and environment...maybe even a whole new way of life. A lot of times, people don't contiously notice their surroundings on an everyday basis but it actually has an enormous effect on peoples' state of mind and wellbeing. Therefore, it is completely legitimate to base much of your decision on the feel of the campus. Just make sure that's not the ONLY thing you're judging it by.
I recommend that you apply to both since both take practically a miracle to get into anyways.
Good luck with everything!</p>
<p>Chances are the colleges will decide for you anyways. But, I do know that double majoring is discouraged at Stanford (Stanford Daily Article discussed this), I don't know how it is at Brown though. However, this is negated by the fact that many students declare minors AND Stanford is basically tops in all academic disciplines, even though Brown is strong in its own right. I'd say that campus beauty/weather are important criteria especially when you're dealing with crappy weather in Rhode Island versus idyllic weather in California. Anyway, chances are you won't get to be making this decision, but Good Luck regardless of what happens.</p>
<p>Double majoring is discouraged at Stanford? News to me. Granted, I'm an ex-double-major myself, but before I dropped one, I got all the support I could have asked for from both departments and all my advisors.</p>
<p>I'm talking about this article. I defer to you however, because you've actually studied at Stanford and certainly know more about double-majoring than I do and the article was written about 6 years ago.</p>
<p>You'll be living on campus for 4 years. Chose one that makes you happy. It is not superficial, especially when everything else is comparable (I'd probably think differently if you were trying to choose between Braun and Arizona State U)</p>
<p>Cervantes: The things they say in the article are all true. But they won't discourage you from pursuing a double major if you want to--they just don't want you to feel like you have to. In my case, I started as a double-major because there were two fields (math and physics) that interested me enough to spend four years studying them, and possible more than that in grad school. Midway through sophomore year, I realized I wasn't enjoying physics as much as I used to, I wanted more time to explore other areas, and that I was certainly going to grad school in math, not physics. Hence I'm now a math major/physics minor.</p>
<p>By the way, read Dean Julie's comment in that article. It's really good advice.</p>
<p>Not to put too fine a point on it, but Stanford is probably both a more distinguished university and undergraduate school (plus great weather, etc.). I would consider its university competition to be primarily HYP in the northeast.</p>