<p>Hi everyone, this is my first post on the stanford forum, and I was considering stanford for engineering.</p>
<p>Here is what I am looking for in an institution.</p>
<p>1.Very collaborative peers (e.g. MIT or caltech, where everyone works together);
2. intense math/science education (rigorous but not busy-work)
3. Strong engineering program and research opportuties for undergraduate (this one concerns me a bit; I heard stanford professors tend to be self-absorbed in their own research to actually pay attention to their students)
4. Intelligent and supportive peers, who care more about learning than grades (sth that once again concerns me a little, because I heard stanford students tend to be overly goal-oriented, and care too much about their grades)
5. Not too grade deflated (because I want to do grad school)</p>
<p>Here's what I plan to do: applied physics, chemical engineering or maybe biochemistry. </p>
<p>How do you think Stanford ranks among those categories, vs an institution like MIT or Caltech (or overall)?
How good is the grad school placement/employment opportunities after graduation?</p>
<p>next week = finals so everyone busy; will give you a quick response.</p>
<ol>
<li>Very collaborative. </li>
<li>intense math/science education. busy-work on some problem sets on some very intro classes.</li>
<li>Extremely easy access to profs, extremely easy access to research projects. It was easy for me (no highschool cs background) to get into a high-profile computer graphics research group.
4./5. There's grade inflation. No need to be cutthroat. I personally don't give a **** about grades. As a CS/ART major, the research projects I undertake and a demo reel is far more important than grades.</li>
</ol>
<p>I have been to MIT early september and have been to its classes. In terms of the quality of education you get, Stanford Engineering = MIT Engineering = CalTech Engineering. MIT/CalTech students overall more intense. Stanford students more laid-back</p>
<p>Is Stanford Engineering more like Physics or Is it real Engineering??(sounds weird but it actually is a serious question because I find most people unclear about Physics and Engineering)</p>
<p>^ of course you learn physics (engineering w/o knowledge of physics...not good), but many engineering courses are project & "real-world" oriented.</p>
<p>With that said, you can do theoretical physics.</p>
<p>i had to make the choice of going to either mit or stanford. you're going to get a top notch education in both places, obviously. one thing that made me choose mit was the research opportunities. i know that stanford definitely supports undergraduate research, but at mit it seemed that undergrad research was a strong part of their culture already. also, since mit is focused on math/science/engineering i felt there was a wider variety of classes to take. those are just a couple of reasons, though i had more.</p>
<p>I posted this on the same topic in Stanford 2012 as well, but I hope pasting the responses here will help other potential applicants.</p>
<p>"
1. I am currently studying at Stanford. I definitely rely heavily on collaboration in doing math/physics/chemistry psets, and I happen to know a few seniors major in EE that has 4.0 and 4.2 GPAs. They all collaborate with peers heavily. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>What your looking for is very vague. Every single school can justify to fit in your #2.</p></li>
<li><p>I'm doing research right now, fall quarter freshman year in engineering. I'm more of a special case, but in general u wait till sophomore to do research. (Even at MIT, if u do research as a freshman, you only do the "b*tchwork" anyway). Stanford likes to talk how 60% of the students graduate with doing research. That is actually really high, considering how many humanities/social science major students there are at Stanford. </p></li>
<li><p>THere are people who care about grades everywhere. This is all about everyone's own experience. Any generalization is just ignorant and false. That said, Stanford happens to be in a place with good weather, relatively isolated location where people are very idealistic. As a result, people are generally "nicer" (for a lack of better word) to others, due to idealism (and perhaps, some naivety). When I visited Stanford, as long as I had a map in my hand, people keep offered help to point out directions for me. THat isn't the case in most schools I visited.</p></li>
<li><p>It's all about the curve. Stanford generally has a generous curve, and as long as you're better than most people you'll be fine. You'd be surprised at how many dumb people get in ivies, MIT, and Stanford each year. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>As for your majors, well, Stanford is basically top 5 or 10 in EVERY CATEGORY. Harvard is slightly better than stanford in humanities, and MIT is slightly better in engineering, but stanford is good for everything. As for other questions you ask, I guess I can relate that you're in high school...but stuff like grad placement/employment opportunities....Are you REALLY asking? If you just take 1 second to sit down and think, do you really have any doubt as for a Stanford graduate to get a job or get in grad school?</p>
<p>Lastly, I just want to say the stuff you look at are very vague and can be twisted by different people and different experiences. It is hard to generalize a school that has more than 1000 people per class, since colleges nowadays like diversity. </p>
<p>I chose Stanford over Caltech this year. Of course the technical courses are well taught BUT I don't have a supportive "techie" environment. Stanford is a liberal arts college with (oddly) a very strong engineering program. Even the engineering freshmen don't have very rigorous science/math backgrounds. If you are VERY passionate for engineering, try an "institute of technology."</p>
<p>Still, I love Stanford, but I probably prefer MIT (if I got in there lol).</p>
<p>It depends on you. Do you want friends with diverse interests or who are as nerdy as you.</p>
<p>1230wc, i wouldn't say that at an institute of technology people don't have diverse interests. and faraday, even though i haven't seen the statistics you're asking for, I'm guessing the differences between the schools will be negligible (though I may be wrong).
in terms of stanford's research program, i thought it was very unique that stanford had so many research opportunities in the humanities. and stanford2012, I also wouldn't generalize and say that all freshmen do b*tchwork as their research =P</p>
<p>Coolphreak, haha you're right. Stanford has a lot of fuzzies with some techies, whereas the IT's probably have mostly the latter (not saying that techies lack other interests).</p>
<p>
[quote]
one thing that made me choose mit was the research opportunities. i know that stanford definitely supports undergraduate research, but at mit it seemed that undergrad research was a strong part of their culture already.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's pretty much part of Stanford's culture, too. ;)</p>
<p>Seriously, you can approach the professor, talk to grad students, get involved in groups and labs, etc. Stanford has tons of research programs for undergrads, and spends more on undergraduate research each year than any other university ($4+ million). Many, if not most, departments have internship opportunities over the summer, with a $5200 stipend (many participate after freshman year). There are research/internship databases, as well. No undergrad can justifiably claim to have no way to do research.</p>
<p>
[quote]
also, since mit is focused on math/science/engineering i felt there was a wider variety of classes to take.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Non-sequitur there--if there's a focus, then there's less variety. ;)</p>
<p>Did you actually verify that? Stanford is also 2x as large as MIT, and has a very strong science/math/engineering part on its campus. If you look at the total number of undergrad course offerings as a % of students in math/science/engr, each has 500 or 600 courses. Not to mention at MIT, on the 4-1-4 calendar, you'll take fewer courses than you would at Stanford, which is on the quarter system.</p>
<p>One of my considerations when choosing colleges was the course offerings, and Berkeley had some 2x the number of courses offered each year than Stanford; but as it turns out, not all those courses are unique (multiple lectures, etc.), and given Stanford's 1,500 courses--not to mention all the grad courses that undergrads are welcome to take--there's enough variety to sate my tastes, and, I daresay, any science major. I'm willing to bet any material you find at MIT is taught in some class at Stanford (as well as many other schools).</p>
<p>Is there a significant advantage if you want to go to grad school, and you graduate from Stanford engineering, vs. a good state school engineering (like Michigan, Purdue, Georgia Tech)?</p>
<p>To answer Faraday's question about graduate schools, I attended Stanford Engineering about 20 (gulp) years ago for Masters/PhD program. The people in the graduate programs were from every where. I had as many friends from my state undergraduate college as from Cornell, for instance. I think being from bottom of class at top university would be worse than being top of class from solid university. Many many students stay on at Stanford for their masters degree in the "Co Term" program, which seems like a no brainer. Otherwise, it is pretty easy to go down in prestige for graduate school. If money is an issue, there's no harm in a state school or great scholarship for a few years, you just have to be at the top and get involved.</p>