<p>Like you, I’m from Southern California, and wanted a change of scenery for college; I wanted to go out of state and had offers from similar East Coast schools but ultimately chose Stanford for its strength in my field. I don’t know where you’re from, but I was surprised that Nor Cal was such a huge change of scenery, very very different from where I’m from. Like night and day. That’s partly why California is so awesome - it’s like several different states in one.</p>
<p>I had several friends who went to high schools not far from Stanford. When I asked them why they chose to go to school so close (when they got into schools like Yale as well), they said that being at Stanford was like being extremely far away. I was surprised by this; they couldn’t explain exactly why it felt that way, even to the person who lived a few minutes’ walk off campus. My closest friend from Stanford went to a high school that sends lots of people to Stanford each year, and her experience was that you mostly would not encounter them. The freshman class is large enough (1,700) that the few from your high school remain relatively dispersed, and I think the students who make house assignments intentionally separate those from the same high school (e.g. putting one in FloMo, the other in Wilbur, two different parts of the campus). Even when graduating, you’ll still be meeting people in your class that you hadn’t met before.</p>
<p>I won’t pretend that Palo Alto is a college town. But downtown is far better than people make it seem. Yes, much of it is expensive, but there are plenty of places to eat/shop that are not expensive at all (being low-income, I paid a lot of attention to this; awesome decently-priced - even cheap - places in downtown are plentiful, just mostly not on University Ave).</p>
<p>Regarding campus size: it’s large, no doubt. But contrary to popular belief, it is not sparse in the slightest. The buildings are generally close together, and the population density is similar to that of New York. The reason it’s large is that Stanford has tons of strong schools/departments/centers/institutes/programs/labs, and that requires space. The alternative would be to build the buildings even higher, but they’re already pretty high (esp. in the core part of campus), and Palo Alto puts limits on the heights of buildings. Regardless, the campus is large, which means walking from the farthest edge of the campus to the other can take 15-20 minutes.</p>
<p>Re: recruiting, you’re not at a disadvantage at all if you don’t major in MS&E. Companies recruit for a variety of industries and a variety of majors. Lots of students in humanities, social sciences, etc. - not just econ or MS&E - end up working in business, and not just in IT. Remember that the Bay Area covers all sectors, from tech to media to the arts to law to consulting. And companies from all over the nation recruit on Stanford’s campus (consider that a company has to pay thousands of dollars to get access to Stanford’s recruiting fairs - yet they do it in droves because the return on that investment is high).</p>
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<p>Often? Interesting. Perhaps it’s honest for you, but not for most.</p>
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<p>Maybe you’re hanging out with the wrong people? Everyone goes through difficult times during college. But that’s wholly different from disliking Stanford itself. And satisfaction surveys among graduating seniors show that nearly all had a positive experience and would choose Stanford again.</p>
and you can’t beat a pheonix mascot!! cmon now, pheonix vs tree? 
plus food is better!