<p>"So Mr. Fifi, if you're going to be so much happier at Berkeley for all of those reasons, why was Stanford your godly number one?"</p>
<p>Why don't you try to make a productive post? You call us defensive, and you have me flatly accepting that my rejection from certain schools, including Stanford, influenced my asking some of the questions I ask...and fifi admitting he is biased flat out. I don't think I have anything to hide here, and yet students accepted to and/or attending the school you've attended have agreed with some concerns I have expressed. </p>
<p>You're doing nothing but name-calling man, and if people think my posts are stupid, they'll ignore 'em fine without your telling them to. If they think they're worth reading, they can read them.</p>
<p>A post consisting entirely of personal attacks does not provide a strong argument in favor of your position, nor does it stick to the main topic of the thread.</p>
<p>But, your post may serve to exhibit one of the problems of Stanford.
Once you get accepted, you get that huge ego boost until you arrive on campus, when you're just a minnow in the shark infested waters.</p>
<p>I wish I had that ego boost, but it's not going to matter much in a couple of months anyways. :]</p>
<p>I'm a really nice and unique person in real life and Stanford would have just sucked that out of me.</p>
<p>It's statements like these that make you sound extremely bitter and validate Beef Supreme's posts. You keep trying to qualify your statements by saying how wonderful stanford is but then you throw in nonsense like this. I think it's really transparent that you're trying to rationalize your rejection and that you're still not quite over it. Do you honestly think that by going to stanford you'd lose your "niceness" and uniqueness? </p>
<p>Also, your criticisms of Stanford and your praise of Berkeley, are, for lack of a better term, odd. You've stated that Berkeley students come from all walks of life while Stanford students are all overachievers and not representative of the normal population. Really now? Are you actually going to sit there and say that Berkeley is a better school because it (in your mind) doesn't have as strong of a student body? It's like you're just fabricating reasons to not like Stanford. </p>
<p>I also have to agree with Beef Supreme that I have the feeling that if you did get accepted, you'd have probably enrolled by now.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm a really nice and unique person in real life and Stanford would have just sucked that out of me.</p>
<p>It's statements like these that make you sound extremely bitter and validate Beef Supreme's posts.
[/quote]
I should have qualified that more. I would have let my own ego take control if I had gotten in, and that would have really changed who I am. Some people portray Stanford as the ultimate intuition, and I believed that I had to do whatever it takes to become the quintessential Stanford student.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Stanford students are all overachievers and not representative of the normal population.
[/quote]
Overachievers? They don't have to be, because most of them are naturally the best.</p>
<p>I'm not just "fabricating" reasons. I would hate to be at a school with so many amazing students, because the competition would be so brutal. One person said that the Stanford Duck Syndrome is caused by one comparing themselves to their peers and creating some sort of superhuman being. I'd be a victim of that, and it would be better if I stayed out of it.</p>
<p>And you're right. If I had been accepted, I was planning of making my deposit that night. I got too swept away with the illusive grandeur of Stanford and I began to lose sight on what I really wanted and who I wanted to be.</p>
<p>Dude give it a rest. No one cares that you're totally convinced you'll be happier at Berkeley (you won't), quit trying to defame Stanford simply because you can't go there. You got rejected, GET OVER IT. There's no reason to be bitter, there's no reason to fabricate reasons why you're glad you didn't get in (you're not), and there's no reason to dwell on this. Go to the Berkeley thread and take comfort in the many others that sure your exact complex. Get off this thread though now, you're just ****ing me off. Any further comments will be construed as a full confession of your self-perceived inferiority.</p>
<p>Alright, I think this has gone on long enough. Personal attacks from BOTH sides are getting us nowhere in regards to the thread topic. Can we please return to the task at hand, which is giving the OP, and the rest of us that applied and are awaiting decisions, a list of reasons that Stanford may not be perfect. For example: How is the food? What are the dorms like? What are particularly brutal classes/professors? Etc, etc, etc.</p>
<p>"I agree Locke19... The posts should go bck to the thread's topic"</p>
<p>Whew, finally. While I agree with Beef heavily that this stuff should be given a rest, he's kind of the one who should get off this thread, given he A. veered off topic, and B. began a name-calling game, which resulted in all the other junk that came up in this thread.</p>
<p>I'd be glad to, but those questions aren't really on topic. Nevertheless, to stay on topic, I will tell you what I think is bad about each of those subjects you asked about. Keep in mind that my overall opinion of them could be positive, I'm just giving you the negatives, although I'll try and qualify what's major/minor.</p>
<p>
[quote]
food
I think the biggest negative about the food--and I'd be willing to be this is going to be a pretty universal sentiment no matter who you ask--is that it gets really, really old after a while. How good or bad the food itself is varies a lot more according to personal opinion (and location as well), but I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone that isn't at least a little underwhelmed with their food options by the end of spring quarter.</p>
<p>
[quote]
dorms
[/quote]
I actually don't have anything bad to say about freshman housing. The rooms are pretty plain, but you won't be crammed 5 to a room or anything like at some schools, so there's not a whole lot to complain about. In terms of dorm activities there'll be plenty of stuff to do, and you can participate in it to whatever degree you want.</p>
<p>
[quote]
classes
[/quote]
Pretty big subject there. One man's trash is another man's treasure, so I'll let you form your own opinion about a lot of the classes.</p>
<p>Can anyone answer my questions from before?"</p>
<p>Wise-guy ;) fine. Hmm, one thing I don't like about almost any school is its lower division math...usually kind of annoying, and not very successful at getting students excited about the subject. E.g. I do not like Math 51 at all, and that's a class lots of people probably take. Then again, I hate my own school's Math 54, which I never took, but know ain't the best course. I do not like the idea of IHUM, and friends of mine going to Stanford don't seem to either.</p>
<p>Suffice it to say, I don't think linear algebra should be paired with anything else in your first intro, unless you're in an overambitious honors course which really does everything it does thoroughly. Instead, I favor a slow progression through linear, but done properly. The books they use for these first courses are horrible often, and nobody remembers how the stuff is taught...and engineering professors have to reteach this kind of material for students to have a hope at really using it.</p>
<p>I am glad to see that this thread got back on topic. My daughter loves Stanford (including the honors math sequence) and is very glad that she chose it. However, there is one serious negative that Stanford shares with only a few other schools. She knew this going in but the reality of it hit recently when she was told she shouldn't even bother applying to a particular program for summer 2009 because she couldn't get there in time because she would still be taking finals. QUARTER SYSTEM: She loves being able to take more classes and the pace of it (and not fretting about exams over winter break) but the very large downside is that spring quarter ends too late for many opportunities (some of which start in May). There are some that start later but not the majority. This includes internships, jobs, camps, etc. Even during the year, this creates problems. A big math competition is held just before many of the other schools go on break and well before their exams. For Stanford, this is the Saturday before finals and it is an all day contest. This makes it more difficult to give up that important study day. When she is home on break, many of her friends aren't or are only here a few of the days. She wouldn't change her decision because of this but it is a legitimate negative that should be considered. So, whether you like the city or the suburb, the rain or the snow or the sun, keep this one in mind.</p>
<p>"because she couldn't get there in time because she would still be taking finals. QUARTER SYSTEM:"</p>
<p>Of course, negatives can somehow be positives =] though this thread is about criticism, just as a response, the one big positive about quarters is that you can switch around your schedule a little in between. I have often gotten sick of my classes by the end of my semesters, and wished for a quarter system. Basically, I got a HUGE winter break, but I think I'd rather have things be spread out a bit more. </p>
<p>Then again, my courses are graded based on problem sets for the most part, not exams. Exam-based courses can be better on the semester system, I think. So by that token the quarter system can be a negative -- since exams basically "block off" a good portion of your grade, you might like them to come a little less quickly to prep.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think we should take a poll of everyone who reads this thread. How many people think mathboy's continued focus on Stanford and the specific nature of his posts reveal that he is not only trying to convince others but also himself that his inability to gain admission to Stanford has not had an enduring effect on him, when really it has seemed to have had one?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sorry to derail the thread again. I've read a lot of mathboy's posts, and I agree with Beef Supreme.</p>
<p>Yeah, well in order not to derail the thread further [more than this post does], I am PM-ing the above poster, but I do want to mention that I prefer posters not guess at what I mean, and let me know if I'm out of line. For the record, I made it clear in as many words that the college admissions process when I went through it with my friends did have an effect on me, and led to my asking many questions I ask + post many things I post in threads. I don't think that's a secret at all...but to state that I don't acknowledge these things is pretty false.</p>
<p>I am pretty shocked that grown people would suggest that people "take a poll" to see who has a negative opinion about an individual poster. It's.....juvenile. </p>
<p>I don't see any problems with mathboy's posts whether or not I agree with them. And I definitely don't think he has done anything to warrant being submissive or apologetic.</p>