What isn't good about Stanford?

Flip the tables. Are there “hot” guys? Why are women still being judged on their looks? This is pathetic.

There would be more if there wasn’t a discriminatory affirmative action policy…

So much humble bragging here guys. Please give legitimate answers only. You can mention all the hundreds of reasons why you like Stanford in the other threads.

Not good things from my perspective: A big campus makes it harder to get to class on time; they just shut down their Bing Study Abroad Program in Beijing because it was losing money which I am very disappointed because a big rich university like that should be willing to lose money temporarily and continue until they find a replacement program; campus definitely has the STEM feel to it which might be a negative or a plus to a Humanities major; Quarter system can be bad or good; dorms can be better for a rich university like Stanford with lots of land IMO; food, so-so. These are some negative points for me that I can see.

I can see some good points but this is not the forum for that. lol

Another bad point I thought of: Stanford gives very few AP credits especially if you are Humanities major.

^I don’t know if that is the case for all students. My friend who took 8 AP Exams got about 18-20 units of credit as a freshman at Stanford, that she can apply to any quarter.

Here is the AP credit chart and it is pretty limited: Calculus, Physics, Chemistry and Foreign Language

https://registrar.stanford.edu/students/transfer-credit-and-advanced-placement/advanced-placement/ap-credit-chart

For STEM kids, they can take around 15 credits if they take right Paps and get high scores. For non-STEM kids, not much. One thing I did “love” about Honors Colleges at state schools was their policy of allowing all kinds of AP credits even with scores of 3. You can get in with 30 to 50 AP credits so you can triple major and graduate in 4 years. Basically, finish one year of college through AP courses. lol

Very fast pace because of quarter system—students start registering for the next quarter’s classes just a few weeks into each quarter. Also, at least in some departments, courses typically have a semester’s worth of work in 10 weeks. But you do get to take many more courses, and they’re over quickly.

Overall I like the quarter system better, but to your point there are pros and cons. Certainly the semester system is far more common so quarter starting/stopping dates and breaks are a bit out of sync with most schools and some summer opportunities, but in California things are more in balance as most of the UCs (IIRC all except Berkeley) are also on quarters.

How’s dorm food at Stanford? I visited there and food didn’t seem that good. I was telling my family that you would think with the money and land they have, their dorms and food would be darn good.

@websensation It’s pretty terrible imo

@LordBendtner Food should be one of the priorities in life because you do that 3 times a day. lol

The culture doesn’t suit everyone. Students are becoming increasingly interested in entrepreneurship at the expense of fully enjoying the four year college experience. Most are ready to bolt to work in a startup. I’ve heard from several sources that the education could be improved. This is rather unfortunate.

@hangooknative You talking about STEM area or Humanities included? Tx.

You can’t expect the prevailing entrepreneur mentality to be confined to one area of study. It will spill over. If committed to the humanities, I would choose Harvard. If committed to STEM, I would choose MIT.

There might be some bias in anonymous comments on a message board. If you are inclined to make decisions based on anonymous opinions, you might look at a posters history to ascertain their objectivity.

Here are two comments by the previous poster.
“MIT is a fantastic place, as close to perfection as is possible…”
“My time at MIT is one of the brightest highlights of my life. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe how wonderful a place it is.”

Of course, everyone is free to express their bias/opinions here and I agree with that policy. It is up to the viewer to decide how much weight to assign comments by others. I am sure I am biased in favor of Stanford.

I had many opportunities to join start-up companies during my senior year and while getting my master’s degree. I chose not to accept those opportunities. A couple of my friends became wealthy in a short time by joining start-up companies. My anecdotal experience is that an extremely small percentage of STEM students actually left school to join a start-up. My guess it is less than 1%. I don’t see how additional opportunities is a bad thing. Everyone can decide for himself/herself what they want to do.

of course if you’re interested in Humanities and STEM there is only one choice

Stanford.

lols:)

I don’t expect anyone to decide on one school over another by reading comments on a forum. I do encourage students to wonder whether there is truth in any claim and try to research on their own so that they make informed decisions. I tend to think there is usually a reason people believe certain things about each school. What I posted isn’t fabricated. It is a summary of what I hear from Stanford students, parents, and professors.

it’s ironic that a MIT person is complaining about Stanford being entrepreneurial when their own university along with Harvard is emulating Stanford’s lead. MIT has made entrepreneurship and VC one of its top priorities… and hearing their president speak… he’s always alluding to Stanford in some round about way.

like it or not… As the birthplace of Silicon Valley every university is looking at Stanford as the model to follow.