<p>I’m currently a freshman at Stanford and I really like it here, and most of my friends do too. That being said, here are some bad parts about Stanford that you might want to consider when trying to decide between schools, all you prospective freshmen.</p>
<li><p>Yes, the weather here is beautiful… but only about 70% of the time. It also rains here a lot, especially during winter quarter… from light drizzles you can hardly feel to downpours that will leave you sitting miserably in wet clothes during lectures. Raining also makes wet bike seats a hassle to deal with, as well as slippery road conditions, and a constant spraying of water on the back of your pants from your back tire if you don’t have a bike fender. </p></li>
<li><p>As with all universities, there are great professors here, but there are also really bad ones. There’s no doubt that thye’re all doing really impressive research… but there’s a difference between an effective researcher and an effective teacher. You will have both.</p></li>
<li><p>Everything is expensive here. Oftentimes you may get the feeling that Stanford is trying to get as much money out of you as it can… from arbitrary late fees to expensive meal plans to other random fees that you cannot avoid. Also, financial aid only helps out a certain amount of people, while others (who are not necessarily from an upperclass background) are left trying to handle the $43,000 bill that is continuously increasing as the years go by.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s hard to leave campus without a car, and as a freshman, you cannot (or at least are not supposed to) have a car. That means buying groceries and fresh food can become a big task.</p></li>
<li><p>Palo Alto is not a very exciting college town. Its downtown has some great restaurants, but everything is mostly upscale and does not really cater to a college student’s budget.</p></li>
<li><p>San Francisco is not as accessible as they try to make it seem. Using the Caltrain is easy, but it means having to time your schedule accordingly to the train’s schedule, and can get expensive after awhile. Caltrain also makes the trip longer (60 min ride, though the baby bullet trains get there in 35 min).</p></li>
<li><p>Many upperdivision classes (especially in the sciences) have lots of prequisites you have to get through first in order to take the class. For example, most of the upperdivision bio classes require the bio core first, but the bio core requires the chem core first. (This is what I heard from a friend of mine who was recently complaining about STanford’s rather strict academic core, and its prereqs). Some students find the intro classes too easy, but cannot pass out of it because of Stanford’s AP policy. Speaking of requisites, some people like IHUM, some people think its a waste of time. Same goes for PWR.</p></li>
<li><p>The advising program gets mixed reviews… some people have great advisors, others haven’t talked to their advisor since Orientation.</p></li>
<li><p>The quarter system (though it allows greater flexibilty in choosing your classes) makes it very difficult (especially for students not from around the area) to find a summer job in their hometown, since you get out of school a month after most other schools.</p></li>
<li><p>There is definitely a feeling of living inside a “bubble” here. Again, this is a matter of personal taste. Some people love how it builds a sense of community, and it definitely makes you feel safe on campus (I walk back from the library to my dorm at 4 am and feel completely safe). However, it does sort of make you feel sheltered from the rest of the world sometimes. It always feels strange to leave the campus. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Anyway, I hope these points are useful. I dont’ at all mean to say that Stanford is a bad school… on the contrary, it is a great school. But it is also a REAL school, which means that its not completely perfect. So instead of building a perception of a “perfect paradise” in your mind and being disappointed with certain aspects of Stanford when you get here, I think you should all take these common complaints into mind first.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks! Very detailed and exactly what I need to help decide between Brown and Stanford. I think that finding out the less glamourous parts of a school is as important as its strengths.</p>
<p>"It's hard to leave campus without a car, and as a freshman, you cannot (or at least are not supposed to) have a car."</p>
<p>Speaking of transportation at Stanford, I find the Marguerite (SP?) bus system frustrating, though I admit I don't have another college transit system to compare it with. On a recent trip to visit friends, we wanted to go to the shopping center but found out that the Shopping Express started at noon and came around every 45 minutes. Then the bus was uber late, blah blah blah, took us about 2 hours to get to the mall. My friends told me that this was an unusually bad day, but it still fueled my annoyance. Mostly because as a freshman you're dependent on the bus, your bike, and/or a kind upperclassman--makes you feel helpless.</p>
<p>Thank you for posting this. It's nice to see a Stanford student (or rather, any student at all) to be perfectly candid about all aspects of their school.</p>
<p>About the Marguerite.... it is generally a pretty dependable service, but definitely not for when you have to go somewhere in a rush. Now they have real-time maps online where you can track where exactly every single Marguerite bus is on campus, so that way you can time when to leave your room and head towards the bus stop.</p>
<p>1) Does it often get REALLY hot and humid? Is there air conditioning?</p>
<p>2) Is a bike 100% necessary? How long does it take to walk from one end of campus to the other? Is there a shuttle bus that travels around the campus?</p>
<p>It NEVER gets really hot and humid until the summer, but by then you won't be on campus anymore. There is no air conditioning in my dorm, but there has also never been a need for it. If it's hot, we just open our windows, and a cool breeze always comes in. Some people bring fans in their rooms, too, though it's really not necessary. However there is a heater, since it does get chilly sometimes.</p>
<p>A bike is not 100% necessary, though sometimes you might find yourself in a rush and need to get somewhere fast. In those cases, a bike is helpful. You can walk from one end of the campus to the other end in about 20-25 minutes. There are several shuttle buses that go around the campus.</p>
<p>Great post! The above is definitely true, but you learn to work around it. Like getting off campus is usually only really a problem once every quarter or so when you need more shampoo. It is important to realize that no school is perfect, even Stanford. I'd still like to think it's damn close though :)</p>
<p>ps. i'm not trying to say that there aren't any negatives to stanford, just that the ones listed really haven't bothered me much so far (ie. dealing with the core courses in sciences is tough at most colleges, but hey, i'm doing international relations so i sorta don't care).</p>
<p>i don't know about getting summer jobs in your hometown, but stanford does have a lot of great resources for locating an awesome summer internship, which makes up for the getting out of school late in my opinion (plus the summer before freshman year was the longest summer EVER!!! it was awesome...). also, i have thus far found courseguide.stanford.edu fairly effective for weeding out any bad professors, and i really haven't had anyone bad (yet). by the way, i find that i can speed walk from my dorm to most classes in 10 minutes, but i prefer biking because i can seriously leave 1 minute before a class starts. yay for procrastination. i take the marguerite a lot to volunteer in palo alto, and while the fact that the only weekend bus is the every 45-minute shopping express is fairly annoying, the bus drivers are fairly accomodating once you get to know them and have been known to drive off-route to take you somewhere if nobody else is on the bus. also, in case anyone wants to know, a round trip caltrain ticket for san francisco costs about 10 dollars. considering how expensive gas/parking permits/etc. would be, i just sold my car back home instead of choosing to take it to stanford next year, i find the public transportation to be adequate for me (and better for the environment)...so at least i think it's totally possible to get around without a car.</p>
<p>wow thnx for the post...top unis are only about the positive side, but its niceto see some detailed facts which come in handy before anyone takes a plunge !! </p>
<p>I imagine to most people this is not a negative but... is Stanford really as laid back as people make it seem? And, are parties/drinking common or necessary for a social life? Thanks!</p>
<p>Stanford is pretty laid back. This doesn't mean that no one cares about academics. EVERYONE cares about academics or they wouldn't be here, just some are less vocal about it. Parties/drinking are fairly common but by no means necessary for a social life. I think they said like 30+% of students don't drink, which sounds about right. You can go to parties and not drink and have fun, you can not go to parties and have fun, there's no pressure at all to drink. You can totally find people who will enjoy making bad, nerdy puns or you can find people who go out and get drunk every weekend. Both types (and everything in between) exist at Stanford.</p>