<p>Please give both sides honestly, I am already going, just curious to know(and just in case I get off any waitlists). Thanks!</p>
<p>Palo Alto is a boring, expensive college town. In fact, it's the most expensive college town in the nation. (source: <a href="http://most-expensive.net/college-town%5B/url%5D">http://most-expensive.net/college-town</a> ). Housing off-campus is astronomical even with the recession. Median home prices are still increasing with an avg median price of $1.4 million.</p>
<p>Not having a car limits your mobility since bikes and legs can only get you so far in a suburban area. Stanford provides a free bus system for the local area. For reaching the rest of Silicon Valley VTA is the only option for public transit, which was deemed the "worst managed transit agency" in the US. (source: Cato-at-liberty</a> The Nation’s Worst-Managed Transit Agency)</p>
<p>Knowing that the campus is lacking a local college town, Stanford provides a lot of resources for its students on campus. Even though Palo Alto is expensive, it's a very safe community. Murders, rapes, and violent crimes are very rare. Compare Palo Alto to national avg for crime rates (Crime</a> Rate Comparison: Palo Alto Vs. Mountain View)</p>
<p>Likes:
- top-notch academic reputation
- beautiful campus
- very safe, although petty thefts do occur (bikes, laptops, car break-ins)
- If you have a car, you can go to San Francisco, skiing in Lake Tahoe, camping in Yosemite, etc.</p>
<p>Dislikes:
- Palo Alto is boring and expensive.
- The campus is pretty isolated. There are no businesses within walking distance, and it's difficult to get around without a car, so most students are stuck on campus.
- The dorms are kind of old and run down, yet 96% of undergrads live on-campus since off-campus is way too expensive.</p>
<p>Basically, having a car would make a huge difference in the quality of life here.</p>
<p>^ Are you guys both Cal students? (that's fine if you guys are, just curious)</p>
<p>Well since the first two posts basically said it all i will just say what I most like / don't like.</p>
<p>no like - location
While the bus system immediately around Stanford Area / Mountain View is ok, to get to places further within/across the bay (for ex. cal) it is literally a pain the ass (you will do a lot of sitting and standing and sitting and standing on buses that don't go fast enough). Fortunately, there is a mall within walking distance for your weekend shopping needs, and a convenience store and two restaurants open till 2:30am if you want to grab munchies late in the night. However, other than that there are no big shopping malls / convenience stores around Stanford.</p>
<p>like - opportunities
One day, I was looking online at cs profs doing graphics research. I found one heading an interesting project that involved an innovative way of modeling 3d objects. So I called him up, he asked me what kind of math background I have, and after 10 minutes I suddenly had a paid research position during the summer and autumn of 2008. This is a project that will be submitted to SIGGRAPH and for a technical Oscar within 5 years if all goes well. Enough said.</p>
<p>Haha...I guess it's obvious looking at my location "Palo Alto & Berkeley"</p>
<p>I am a Cal student, but I lived in Palo Alto all my life, so I listed the things that annoyed me the most... terrible mass transit and a lack of fun places nearby.</p>
<p>Getting a driver's license changed my life forever! No more long waits for buses, commute times became shorter, entertainment became accessible.</p>
<p>Cons about cars:
-Parking is hard to find on Stanford (for visitors at least)!
circled Roble four times for an open visitor's space... had to wait for P&T to tow a car to get a space
-Strict parking enforcement
Stanford is huge! It's amazing how the police manage to ticket/boot/tow all violators in all the parking lots across campus
-Parking is expensive
violations/fines are even more expensive
-Annoying stop signs on campus
There must be over 80 stop signs on Campus Drive. It's impossible to drive more than 100 ft before you encounter yet another stop sign.</p>
<p>^Are any other drivers annoyed by the excessive stop signs too? Or am I suffering from road rage? =)</p>
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Are you guys both Cal students? (that's fine if you guys are, just curious)
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<p>No, I'm a Stanford student. No Cal bias here.</p>
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Are any other drivers annoyed by the excessive stop signs too? Or am I suffering from road rage?
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<p>I'm with you about the stop signs! People who bike 2 or 3 in a row (I've even seen 4 or 5!) and spill out of the bike lane into my lane also annoy me.</p>
<p>"Expensive college town" is an oxymoron. A college town is supposed to cater to college students. Extremely expensive areas like Palo Alto do not cater to students.</p>
<p>And that's my biggest dislike. There are some other ones, like some of the elitism/arrogance of some students, or the huge spread-out campus that all pretty much looks the same and that makes my legs hurt, or the cicadas that dominate the trees and tick incessantly, or the lack of "energy" (some call this "laid-back") feel on the campus.</p>
<p>I love the trees though. Such a tree-hugger. The random little native statues are cool too. And of course the typical things about Stanford (great professors, great students, awesome facilities, the diversity, etc.).</p>
<p>my main reasons for not going to stanford (based on 5 days on campus during AW):
-location. 'nuff said about palo alto. sf is wesome but students never go there and its hard to move around without a car. its also sooo isolated. its so huge my legs hurt (tho that was at aw and i guess during the year its not so bad with a bike)</p>
<p>other than that stanford is awesome. in fact even in spite of that stanford is the most awesome school ever. </p>
<p>*the stanford band is so amazing it kinda makes up for stanford being in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>Where'd you decide on going andy_g?</p>
<p>eh, that's true, but I think location is way overrated...there is plenty to do in palo alto, just not always big typical college things</p>
<p>My daughter is graduating in June and has never complained about Palo Alto. The comment that people NEVER go to SF is not true...my daughter called me tonight from the Giants game. She actually goes there quite often.</p>
<p>It does help having a car, but there is a lot to do on campus, so that does make up for it. Palo Alto is expensive, but so is every town in the Bay Area.</p>
<p>I think the thing she would say she likes most about Stanford are the people. The thing she likes least is ...right now, nothing. She is not looking forward to graduation...for her it has been an amazing experience.</p>
<p>im going to penn. ^ i think it depends on whom you ask. the vast majority of people i met at AW absolutely loved stanford even if they thought palo alto sucked. i met two people (coincidentally the only two students from where im from...) who didnt love it there and i think that messed with my head a lot. one of them was so bored there he applied as a transfer to penn this year; the other one said he was starting to like stanford more now that he got a car (he's a junior now...and i considered that i would never have a car there). in retrospect, tho, i dont think i should've taken their opinions into consideration as much as i did, especially since most people i talked to were so in love with stanford.
almost everyone i asked told me they dont usually go to the city, but i guess that depends on how much time and money you have if you want to go there often.
but like i said, i think stanford is the most amazing school ever. in fact i think i would choose stanford over penn if i could decide again right now (not that i regret my decision, i really love penn too, but i only had three days since first visiting stanford to decide and i think i chose the school i knew most about. even though stanford was my dream school, i had thought id be going to penn since i applied b/c i made some mistakes w the sford app and didnt think id get in, plus penn sent me a likely letter before decisions came out)
i cant really judge stanford and palo alto objectively having spent just 5 days there, so better listen to people who actually live there :)
and sorry for the ridiculously long post it was just really hard to decide for me and im still not over it lol</p>
<p>^and the thing i loved most about stanford while i stayed there, besides the opportunities there and the weather, were the people, too. i havent been to harvard or any other top school besides penn, but there is something about the people at stanford that is unique. everyone is so nice and friendly, and passionate about something (not to mention absurdly smart). at the same dinner table you could be eating with an olympic athlete, a published writer, all kinds of geniuses and they were all so nice to me :D</p>
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Palo Alto is expensive, but so is every town in the Bay Area.
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<p>Er, Berkeley isn't expensive. (The shops and such, that is.)</p>
<p>Eh, i'd have to disagree kyledavid80-any city in the Bay Area has both expensive and inexpensive places ** including ** Berkeley</p>
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Eh, i'd have to disagree kyledavid80-any city in the Bay Area has both expensive and inexpensive places including Berkeley
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<p>Yes, there are expensive places in Berkeley, but overall, the city's businesses/restaurants are not expensive. That's why Berkeley's considered a college town--because there are tons of cheap places to go.</p>
<p>You don't come to stanford for the city life - there isn't much of that. BUT the campus is large enough that you'll have more than enough to do on campus - "the stanford bubble."</p>
<p>Palo Alto may be "the most expensive college town", but it also probably has the highest mean income and IQ of any college town.</p>
<p>There are alot of fun restaurants, pizza, movies, etc in PA. But Stanford has most all of that.</p>
<p>I would advise AGAINST getting a car your freshman year. You are trying to study. You will get your first B or C ever. If you need to go to San Fran, someone in your dorm will have one.</p>
<p>ps
as regards to Berkeley being cheaper. It is. It has a much lower standard of living, is dirty, has higher crime and drugs, has a lower IQ (both on and off campus) and has "the dirty golden bear"</p>
<p>^^ well, it's a tradeoff. All cities will be like that.</p>
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has the highest mean income and IQ of any college town.
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<p>Er, and Stanford students care... why? Who cares if they have high incomes and IQs? I'm sure students at Stanford are exposed to people with high IQs sometimes, a little bit, on campus. =p</p>