<p>I read an interesting thread with the same name in the Harvard forum. Everyone knows how great a university Stanford is, but what are some reasons why it isn't so great? You don't need to obliterate them in your comments; I just want some fair judgement instead of the constant idealism. </p>
<p>Oh and.. I'm applying either way but I'd just love to know!</p>
<p>ONLY REASON I CAN THINK OF - ACCEPTS 7% of applicants. Which is understandable considering other competitive schools. The atmosphere is great. The weather is just amazing! Athletics is nationally recognized, and a beautiful campus! I just wish I was a recruited athlete. Some guy from our school last year got recruited and offered a scholarship. He is currently red shirting as a freshman (football). But he is not that smart. SAT of 1510 and I am not sure about the gpa. I believe it is around 3.4ish. Ohh yeah, the dude is also rich.</p>
<p>Hmm, well on our visit there was a student in the middle of campus in the middle of the day drinking a beer.</p>
<p>It’s not in a college town. There’s not much you can do outside the campus in Palo Alto. San Francisco is kind of far away.</p>
<p>The campus is too big? hahaha</p>
<p>^^ God forbid…</p>
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<p>Lmao welcome to college.</p>
<p>Too close to home!</p>
<p>The only reason I can think of is, if you don’t get in. LOL.</p>
<p>A Greek system.</p>
<p>Harvard is better. So is Berkeley for that matter.</p>
<p>Haha Berkeley…</p>
<p>@globaldolphin, lol good one</p>
<p>Well I think Reed is better than pretty much every college, so :P</p>
<p>^Seriously, though, that’s partly because it fits me so well</p>
<p>If you’re looking for an intense academic environment where people are always studying and being intellectual, you’re probably not going to enjoy it here. While everyone here is super smart, most are also really laid back and would rather chill than do extra work or discuss academic subjects.</p>
<p>You will likely experience several bike accidents and thus might scrape a knee or break off a reflector. Also, the campus is really big if you can’t/don’t want to bike or skateboard, and biking to an interview in the pouring rain wearing a good suit is not ideal. </p>
<p>Not many overweight people at Stanford, so if you aren’t particularly fit you might develop a complex.</p>
<p>You have to distinguish between things that are arguably “wrong” about Stanford (very few of them), and things which are fine or better at Stanford, but for which another university might be a little superior.</p>
<p>As far as I know, the first category is pretty limited: It’s very suburban. There’s a lot of conspicuous consumption, more than at most peer schools. Compared to peer schools, there is a persistent atmosphere of non-intellectualism. Historically academic advising has been weak, which is only a problem if you need a lot of hand-holding (which few Stanford students do). Personally, I dislike the office-park-like campus (while loving just about everything else about the Bay Area).</p>
<p>All of those things have flip sides, of course. Suburban means safe and comfortable to many people. It’s a really, really nice office park. Conspicuous consumption, minus the snobbery sometimes associated with it back East, can mean joie de vivre; non-intellectualism is also lack of pretension. No one looks over your shoulder.</p>
<p>In the latter category: The housing at Stanford is very nice, but the housing system isn’t as nice socially as the residential college set-ups at HYP, or the MIT dorm system. That and geography are the biggest differences between Stanford and anywhere else you might legitimately consider a rival.</p>
<p>In terms of a non-intellectual culture, what do students generally discuss—social events? Do students generally not have debates on topics like politics?</p>
<p>As a current undergrad, I strongly disagree with the characterization of anti-intellectualism. I have found my classmates to be very intellectually engaged and often up for long theoretical discussions. And I wasn’t even in SLE! I do concur that there is much less pretentiousness, and much less <em>pseudo-intellectualism</em> borne of insecurity, than I’ve witnessed on peer school campuses. That’s one of the main reasons that Stanford was my choice. There is some “duck syndrome”, and sometimes you get the sense that kids who were the major nerds in high school (which would apply to the vast majority of the kids here, actually) may not rush to display their intellectualism every chance they get, but there is still a very strong intellectual vibe. It’s just California style (dude). Peace out.</p>
<p>Good advice, and I guess the whole anti-intellectual thing might be a stereotype, just like Hahvad students aren’t all <em>that</em> pretentious. It’s probably just more of an image that goes with the overall more relaxed and less academically cutthroat feel of the school.</p>
<p>And also, how much of a problem is the Stanford Bubble? I guess the thing with Stanford is that you’re in an area with lots of stuff to do and pretty accessible, also near a major airport and all, so I would guess that the bubble effect would be much more powerful in places like Cornell where you’re really, really isolated.</p>