<p>Thank you crazyglue, it makes me feel so much better about myself for not choosing to go to stanford.</p>
<p>I'd have to say education isn't everything when going to college. One could get a great education almost anywhere. It's how much the student puts in regardless of how accessible the professors are or how well they teach. What you learn in college is what you teach yourself, professors are there to coach you and keep you on track.<br>
That said, much of the undergraduate experience is the student body that surrounds you and the fun you have exploring new areas and doing fun things. Student body is very important. If you go to a low-level state school, you will most likely be surrounded by people who just want to party and aren't there to learn. At Stanford, there will be a larger proportion of students who place high importance on learning and experiencing new ways to learn (when I say learn I don't completely mean academically, but also learn socially and morally). From what I've read, almost everyone except crazyglue has loved their Stanford experience. This is what you should base your next four years of life on. If you have the motivation, you can find a job, so spend the next four years of your life having an exceptional, and memorable experience.</p>
<p>Ok first of all, I DID NOT WRITE THAT REVIEW. It was some anonymous one I found at <a href="http://www.studentsreview.com%5B/url%5D">www.studentsreview.com</a>
I REPEAT! I DID NOT WRITE IT! IM TRYING TO CHOOSE BETWEEN STANFORD AND CALTECH FOR UNDERGRAD.
And datalook, I think you missed the point of this guys review. He says that stanfords undergrad sucks, not its graduate school. He even specifically says
"Don't go to Stanford for your undergraduate degree, but DO go there for your graduate degree"
So, how bout a list of some famous engineers/scientists who attended stanford for UNDERGRAD? And some competitions where stanford undergrads placed highly?</p>
<p>Cal Tech has an 80% graduate rate...and EVERYBODY there is a genius.</p>
<p>crazyglue,</p>
<p>If you like Caltech and are not so sure about Stanford, you may want to go to Caltech for undergraduate and then Stanford for graduate.</p>
<p>I don't know much about Stanford undergraduates, but here is a list of people who attended Stanford as undergraduates whom I know:</p>
<p>Vint Cerf, father of the internet, Turing award winner
Alan Newell, pioneer in artificial intelligence, Turing award winner
Craig Barret, chairman, Intel Corp
Jerry Young, founder of YAHOO
Dudley Robert Herschbach, 1986 Nobel prize winner in chemistry
Eric Allin Cornell, 2001 Nobel prize winner in physics
John Steinberg, Nobel prize winner in literature
Derek Bok, former president of Harvard
Richard Levin, president of Yale
Frederick Emmons Terman, father of Silicon Valley
Richard Fairbank, CEO, Capital One
William Reddington Hewlett, founder of HP
David Packard, founder of HP
William Webster Hansen, pioneer in microwave electronics
Russel Varian and Sigurd Varian, inventors of klystron, the foundation of radar.</p>
<p>Aahh theres a better list. Thanks datalook. lol im not so sure about either school right now which is the problem though. I guess Ill call stanford on monday and ask them if they can give me a list of where students are going this year for grad school. I really need to see that first I think.</p>
<p>crazyglue,</p>
<p>The guy who wrote that article obviously hated Stanford for some reasons. He might have failed in his career badly, out of job or something. Who knows? He cited lots of famous people from IT industry and claimed that those people didn't attend Stanford as undergraduates and hence Stanford sucks in undergraduate education. He did this by totally ignoring the fact that Stanford Computer science department didn't even have an undergraduate program until mid 1980.</p>
<p>Stanford is a research powerhouse. It had been focusing on graduate education before. In Stanford EE and CS, the number of graduate students far exceeds the number of undergraduates. For example, the following is some statistics for EE,</p>
<p>Degrees granted (2005/2006) </p>
<p>PhD: 66
MS: 228
Engr: 5
BS: 69
Number of students by category (2005/06)</p>
<p>PhD: 466
MS: 453
Engr: 34
BS: 124 </p>
<p><a href="http://ee.stanford.edu/about.php%5B/url%5D">http://ee.stanford.edu/about.php</a></p>
<p>I believe in recent years, Stanford has started putting lots of resource on its undergraduate programs. </p>
<p>Finally, both Stanford and Caltech are among the best universities in the world. Going to one for college and the other for graduate school might be your best option.</p>
<p>Crazyglue I remember you posting that same review a while back (<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=220110)%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=220110)</a>. I too became worried after I read that review but I chose to ignore it. Now after being at Stanford for ~6 months I can honestly debunk many of his claims. </p>
<p>1) The idea that famous Stanford Profs don't teach undergrads is ridiculous. So far I've been taught by Eric Roberts (famous CS prof), Paul Wender (Amazing OChem prof who used to teach at Harvard), Hans Anderson (Physical Chemistry professor), Channing Robertson (ChemE professor who's been teaching at Stanford for over 35 years) and Ralph Cohen (great Math professor who's very respected in his field) and this is just me a freshman! </p>
<p>2)Yes there are some classes that are large (intro classes usually) but there are also many smaller classes. Stanford really makes an effort to try and get freshman to interact in small groups with profs (introsems which have around 15 ppl (they are not extremely limited they're actually not too tough to get into) PWR classes etc) and even in those larger classes there are sections where the TAs recap the lectures and which are around 15 ppl in size. </p>
<p>3)People take classes in community colleges not because Stanford teaching is bad but rather because the competition is stiff and they want to get As without working as much</p>
<p>4)Stanford engineers are great. Just because they don't care about NATCAR doesn't mean they're not good. They're probably doing research elsewhere</p>
<p>5)Stanford students not getting jobs, especially as engineers, is hogwash. I know many graduating seniors all of whom have already landed jobs.</p>
<p>If you have any questions please ask :)</p>
<p>Thanks, superwizard! The main thing I want to find out about stanford right now is where ppl are going for grad school after. Do you know where engineering majors seem to be going? Also, how easy is it to get into research?</p>
<p>Hmm I know quite a few engineers who are co-terming and so they simply stay another year at Stanford and graduate with both Ba and Masters degrees. I also know a friend who got into both Berkley and MIT EE phd programs. Many of the engineers I know are MS&E (management science and engineering) who go on to work for Investment Bankers (Goldman Sachs etc). I've personally not heard of anyone who wanted to do research and didn't find any.</p>