<p>do the students at stanford have a lot of school spirit?</p>
<p>yes. they call it the big game</p>
<p>hereiam.....if you dont wanna go to stanford....don't go. i dont see the praticality of you telling us you dont like it etc., go to the board of somewhere you got into and want to go and post.</p>
<p>The practicality ? Since when do you have practical on an internet site?</p>
<p>lol good point. typically i dont become bereft of my sensibility when i log on the internet....but i guess it doesnt really matter since its just the internet. still, some things can be annoying.</p>
<p>"i heard that stanford is just like high school, where all the football players get the girls and stuff.</p>
<p>im so unhappy about going there"</p>
<p>don't go and make room for us on the waitlist that WANT to go? hmm.</p>
<p>zephyr, I agree that Stanford is not fundamentally different than many of the "top" private schools. However, each school, as I'm sure you've witnessed firsthand, has a unique character, and Stanford seems, on the surface, like a happier place than say, Harvard or Princeton or Berkeley. But it is sometimes said that the ducks swim hard and fast under the surface. </p>
<p>My daughter's experience at Stanford was wonderful (as was my husband and my post-grad work there), but it is no utopia, and the OP asked for "cons" about the school. My younger daughter didn't even want to apply to Stanford given the "types" of students from her high school who desperately wanted in at Stanford. My older daughter agreed that there is a noticeable and sometimes unpleasant group of hyper-driven students who are, in reality, much less interesting and diversified than their college apps would lead you to believe, but that the school is big enough she has been able to avoid them. Having said that, many of those types end up in premed which may have contributed to her reluctance to commit to a premed track. She will be one of the four student speakers chosen to speak about their Stanford experience at one of the main presentations to prospective freshman and their parents during Admit Weekend. In particular, she will share her on, off, and on again winding path to premed. </p>
<p>No school is perfect, and Stanford offered her tremendous opportunities, opened many doors, but in the end, she won't apply to any of the "top" medical schools because she wants an experience of bright but more "normal" people.</p>
<p>Oh, and California kid, you are absolutely right about Princeton. After visiting there, my daughter said "no way." Same for Harvard.</p>
<p>wait i have question...why the h@#$ did you apply hereiam? you deserve congratulations (come on, its pretty wicked that you got into stanford), but if you are so anti-stanford why did you apply? is it parents or something weird? and again, no one is twisting your arm to go.</p>
<p>"i heard that stanford is just like high school, where all the football players get the girls and stuff.</p>
<p>im so unhappy about going there"</p>
<p>Dude, never base things on first impressions. I got completely the wrong impression about stanford when I first visited. Don't enter with the wrong mindset - and besides, how much you enjoy your undergrad experience has a lot more to do with you than the school. I'm sure you'll really enjoy it.</p>
<p>And definitely not, about the whole jocks thing. I can also say that's not true from personal experience. I'm a pretty nerdy guy, and I've gotten a whole lot more attention from girls here than I did in high school.</p>