<p>Thanks, collegeparent, you make Stanford sound like the perfect choice for me. Can you tell me anything about the town its in? Are there opportunities to get off campus, or is it pretty closed in?</p>
<p>You should not expect teachers at say, Stanford, to be more dedicated to teaching. It is of course a great University with brilliant students, but I have heard undergrad teaching can be subpar. Other small LACs might have more dedicated teachers than Wesleyan -I don't know... Carleton for instance is very strong in math and sciences and the faculty does a great deal to have cohesiveness in dept programs through capstone projects, etc...</p>
<p>bump. any more advice, please?</p>
<p>Palo Alto is right next door to Stanford and is an easy walk or ride on the campus bus system. University Avenue has a tree-lined canopy and is filled with good restaurants, nice stores and a genial atmosphere. Also, the Whole Foods there is packed with students and townspeople all of whom get along famously. It is really quite an amazing campus and a beautiful (and expensive) town. And if you need to get away for a bit, San Francisco is a half-hour train ride. As for the comment about the undergraduate courses being sub-par, there is extensive emphasis being placed on the curriculum right now and several of the core courses are being reconfigured. If there is one criticism it is the lack of exceptional art courses because there is so much emphasis on the social and hard sciences (and the new film school opens in the fall, I believe). But, by all means you should see Stanford and if you love it, walk into the admissions office and fill out your application right then & there.</p>
<p>Well, I can't say much about the school, but I was raised in Palo Alto, so I can at least comment on the city life. Palo Alto is a definite white yuppy little city. It has good restaurants, but the night life doesn't focus on the college. SF is 30 to 45 minutes on the train, and of course has all the entertainment you're looking for. There's also berkeley pretty close too.
Stanford is a very sporty, fun campus with intelligent people. There is a sense of egotism and self-satisfaction among students and alums, but then, it's top 3, so I guess it's warranted.</p>
<p>Since this thread turned into a why stanford one, ill add</p>
<p>I really like it here, a great transfer choice for me. </p>
<p>"soon...3 most wealthy" - it already is, close to 13 billion, right behind yale at a little over 13 billion. Harvard of course at 1. This year I believe stanford had the largest giving of any school, 500+ million.</p>
<p>"new quad" - there is new construction, several projects, it seems that there is just a lot of money given for that stuff. Just recently money was given by an alumni for closer law school residents. Seems like there is a better use for your money then building new dorms because as a law student you didnt like walking so far, but whatever. However, there is no new quad. That is just silly, why would they do that?</p>
<p>city - sf is possible to go into on weekends, but most people dont go that much. Thats fine for me, palo alto is a very nice (and upscale) town. It works for eating out. If you feel that you need a active night life and frat/house parties won't do it, you are out of luck. I find it a good mix, I can do all the theater, art stuff in the city on the occusional weekend but the only type of activies Im tempted to do on the weekdays (eat out) are in palo alto.</p>
<p>courses- stanford is likely the only school in the country as well known for social sciences as engineering as applied sciences as humanities. Im doing an interdisplinary major and I have really benefitted from this. First it means that all the students will be the best (the major factor for students sure about what they want to do in choosing a school seems to be looking at the rep of the departments). Also, all the research will be the most cutting edge stuff. That is the supposed tradeoff of you leaving for stanford. The argument is that for schools to have research the profs must not devote enough time to teaching. I have found my classes to be very well taught and I don't think this argument has much value. I think big research draws profs who tend to be better teachers. Not to mention the educational value that being involved has, ive been a part of 3 research teams and will be doing some this summer. The learning that I have been the most excited about has been research. </p>
<p>Anyway, stanford has put a lot of money towards undergrad education (just compleated fundraising of 1.1 bill for solely undergrad). I think you will find the average class size larger but there are more classes total and you can always do introsems or adv. semaniars which are capped at 5-15.</p>
<p>You could have a good chance (the most important info you cant provide, recs + essays). Perhaps you wouldnt have gotten in from hs, I wouldnt have, but think if you can convince them you are in the top about 15 percent of your current selective college. If you think you have a good shot at doing this you are really at the same level as those students who got in out of hs. </p>
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<p>im just looking at the dates here, all the posts were months ago and it was revived from dead by ella today. Well, perhaps this information isnt relevent because you have already sent in/or not your app but I typed it already.</p>
<p>Oh, I'm sorry; I'm not sure how that happened, I thought it was recent.
Well, you have a valuable opinion anyway.</p>
<p>_42, yes there is a new quad -- SEQII -- Wade Woods is underwriting one of the buildings -- And when this quad is finished, it'll be hard not to argue that Stanford is the premier university in the country, if not the world (Harvard's same plans, BTW, are on hold now that Larry Summers is out and the town of Alston is stalling them.)</p>
<p>uhhhhhhhhh</p>
<p>I do not understand the basis for comparing Stanford to Harvard. The former is still, in my opinion, inferior to Yale and Princeton in many areas. The latter two schools' undergraduate programs are arguably even better than that of Harvard's.</p>
<p>Oh but nspeds, Stanford is building A NEW QUAD. This is going to like, revolutionize the academia as we know it!</p>
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Oh but nspeds, Stanford is building A NEW QUAD. This is going to like, revolutionize the academia as we know it!
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</p>
<p>Like... oh... my... god... no... frickin'... way.</p>
<p>Oh laugh all you want, boy! But once that new quad is finished....you'll see. For there shall be but not a soul that can contest the supremacy of the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-goodlooking, Stanford University...</p>