<p>What are your favorite/least favorite parts of Stanford?</p>
<p>Pros: Near San Francisco. Amazing programs all around. LGBT friendly. Great Financial Aid. Great classes. </p>
<p>Cons:NONE</p>
<p>^In actuality there are many, many cons. However, many of them do not matter to the majority of Stanford students. Which makes sense.</p>
<p>Well then what are they?</p>
<p>Pros: It’s ****ing Stanford.</p>
<p>Cons: It’s not as cool as Middlebury.</p>
<p>^ the Middlebury comparison is certainly true in the most literal sense.</p>
<p>^That’s exactly what I was going for</p>
<p>Pros: Academic excellence, better weather than its peers, its students are normal and happy.
Cons: Not need-blind for international applicants, isolation, perhaps a little less “prestige” than Harvard and Yale (not saying it’s not as good a school).</p>
<p>I agree that a big pro is that the students are balanced and happy, and there don’t seem to be as many uptight, stressed, hyper-achievers as at peer schools. While I think it does have a bit less prestige than Harvard or Yale in general, that’s not true for techie subjects. Also, people don’t respond to hearing you attend Stanford with that same visceral hatred/disdain that they do when people say they attend Harvard.</p>
<p>And, to reiterate (and not saying this for my ego), it’s a great school all-around. You will get as good an education in philosophy at Stanford as you could get at Harvard and, obviously, you will get as good an education in engineering at Stanford as you would get at MIT. Stanford also has a applied sciences/engineering General Education Requirement, which is really cool to someone like me who would never take a computer science class otherwise.
Students at Stanford are generally happy. That point can’t be said enough. And, to anyone that matters, a Stanford education means as much as an Ivy education. I would think it may even mean more on the west coast.</p>
<p>I live on the east coast and let it be known that I’m not saying that Stanford is better than Harvard but here in NY people are extremely impressed with Stanford. I think because its so far away there’s almost a certain level of mystery that the Ivies don’t have ( only because they are all right here). Everyone I’vve met is just excited to say that they now know someone going to Stanford. That can’t be said for Harvard for the simple reason that we have a lot more kids from the tri state area who do attend. Our High School always sends 2 to 3 kids to each of the Ivies but we rarely get kids into Stanford. At the most, we are lucky if we get one per year. Although this year we actually have 2.</p>
<p>Again, don’t get upset I’m not saying one school is better than the other. I’m sure in California Stanford is more common than Harvard. Its just a matter of location. But regardless of where you’re from both schools are highly regarded.</p>
<p>
Too many to recall and list in one sitting. I could start with…
-generally apathetic student body
-often a blind acceptance of liberal ideology combined with a harsh criticism of those who dissent from the liberal majority in terms of social issues (I’m saying this as a left-leaning moderate who is pro-life and pro-guns)
-campus leaders who are non-intellectual combined with students who practice anti-intellectualism
-students and faculty who perpetuate stereotypes of certain fields through their words/actions (“Don’t blame me for writing poorly; I’m in EE”)
-A required class series (IHUM) that works against its own (noble) goals in many ways.
-Student body who will answer “no” before “yes”
-Adherence to calendars and schedules to define every day life. I’ve asked good friends of mine if I could do lunch a certain day of the week, and their first instinct is to check their calendars and, if there’s time, put my name in. I’m not scheduling a meeting. It’s lunch.
-Student body that views certain majors as superior to others, sometimes resorting to outright mockery of certain peoples’ fields of study.<br>
-Admission to many of the best academic opportunities Stanford has to offer (introsems, sophomore college, arts intensive) is determined only by a 250 word personal statement. If you can’t write those well, you’re out of luck. </p>
<p>Shall I continue?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t hasten to discount the political beliefs of what sounds like a majority of Stanford students because they disagree with you.</p>
<p>I have completed one year at Stanford and I have a very different perspective than Senior0991’s, since I have apparently had a very different set of experiences. I’ve found plenty of opportunity for open-minded intellectual discussion on a plethora of topics; I’ve had no difficulty gaining access to IntroSems or Sophomore College; and I’ve met many, many students who are the antithesis of apathetic. As to harsh rejection of non-liberal views, I have found Stanford’s student body to be less reflexively/automatically liberal than that of other peer schools where I’ve spent time, though it is still generally liberal. I do think that we all tend to be kind of overscheduled, like students at every highly-selective college. Have a great summer, everyone.</p>
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<p>Far from it. Never did I imply the majority of students had this blind acceptance. If you look at the words, I said “often.” Often means it happens, and in the context it happens too much for my liking, but in no way did I state that the majority of students or liberals were like that. I spent a lot of time choosing my words there. I’d hope you’d respect that and maybe spend time paying attention to what I actually wrote.</p>
<p>My only complaint would be what Senior mentioned above about intellectualism on campus. At times people are consciously anti-intellectual. I’m all for blowing off steam and stuff, but at times it would be nice if other people were a little more intellectual.</p>
<p>(This is not to say people aren’t smart. they are, most smarter than me.)</p>
<p>Dungareedoll: We’re in the NE and I wouldn’t say we’ve had the same experience as far as people being very impressed. In fact, quite a few people thought it was shocking for our D to turn down Harvard for Stanford. Also, many people don’t seem to know where Stanford is, don’t know it’s a top school, and/ or think it’s in Stamford CT.</p>
<p>People who graduate from stanford tend to have this air of “cockyness” about them. Classes are mostly taught by professors who care more about their research than their students.</p>
<p>TheGFG: I’m shocked!. I live on Long Island and I have had people (Neighbors, acquaintances, friends) pull me to the side to say how excited they were to know someone who was attending Stanford. When my S got his acceptance all the girls in school came and kissed him, so they could now say that they have kissed a guy who goes to Stanford. Like I mentioned its more of a novelty here then Harvard. Again, I’m not saying one is better than the other, just that we have more kids who get into Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell and Columbia then Stanford. Stanford is always the toughest school to get into for us. My neighbor told me that when he found out that our S was going to Stanford, he went to work the next day and bragged to everyone, who would listen and told them all, that his neighbor’s S was going to Stanford. For us, you are priveldged to just know someone who’s gonna be a TREE!</p>
<p>curryrocks, thats not the impression I got at all. The students were all down to earth, laid back and relaxed. The teachers were all very attentive to the students. Again we never got the impression that research trumped everything. Quite the contrary, as a matter of fact.</p>