<p>lack of good asian food :)</p>
<p>Really? That’s surprising seeing as a quarter of the students are Asian. However Palo Alto has som,e good Asian restaurants.</p>
<p>I’d agree with JHS that other schools such as Yale likely have better residence systems, and there are probably nicer dorms out there too. No closets in D’s room this year or last–just wardrobes. I suppose that allows for greater flexibility of room arrangement, but some kids might prefer a closet. As to residential bonding, my daughter has done a lot of fun stuff with her dorms on top of the typical get-togethers, games, and BBQ’s, including trips to San Francisco for an MLS game and Cirque du Soleil, and a talk and private dinner with Condi Rice. But that is not the same as a house association like at some of the Ivies.</p>
<p>Being from N. Calif, there are mainly 2 colleges the high achievers aim for - Stanford or Berkeley.Stanford is perceived as elitist by some, maybe the Palo Alto location and there isn’t a lot of college town out there. A lot of us like me are not crazy about stanford, berkeley is our first choice (and cheaper too and we can deal with the propoganda stuff there…:))</p>
<p>Though not nearly as elitist as Hahvad…</p>
<p>Down with harvard!</p>
<p>How much of a rivary does Stanford have with Harvard? I mean it’s not like they’re in the same sports league or anything. Do many Stanford students dislike Crimsons as they dislike Bears?</p>
<p>Idk, but harvard sucks</p>
<p>GlobalDolphin, I think there’s much more mutual respect than rivalry between H and S. But H likes to emphasize how very old it is, while S prides itself on its future orientation in addition to its own illustrious history. And in the winter, I have to admit that many of us at S feel sorry for people at H trudging through the cold and dark. 
I have legacy at H, but to me S beats it hands down. It has all the positives of H and almost no negatives.</p>
<p>Harvard tops rankings just because of its prestige and not because its quality is significantly better. However Stanford (and, yes, it’s true, <em>Berkeley)</em>) have very high qualities of life compared to nearly all the Ivies.</p>
<p>I’ve never detected a rivalry with Harvard, or any of the Ivies.</p>
<p>Most Stanford trash talk is aimed at Berkeley, followed by USC.</p>
<p>USC? Really? That seems to be way out of Stanford’s league.</p>
<p>^USC is a top 20 school</p>
<p>^Hmm that’s interesting. Is there also a rivalry with Caltech seeing as both have very famous engineering/compsci programs?</p>
<p>
close, but actually they’re #23</p>
<p>@GlobalDolphin I don’t think so as much with CalTech. CalTech’s main rivalry lies with MIT :D</p>
<p>@premed4 </p>
<p>USC is the most overrated college here on CC.</p>
<p>That’s probably because it has the best parties.</p>
<p>Whenever I hear CalTech mentioned at Stanford, it’s always accorded respect. I suppose people feel it’s too small to be regarded as a rival.</p>
<p>The USC rivalry seems to have gone from a mostly athletic rivalry up until about 10 years ago, to one that’s now both athletic and academic. Plus, there’s the issue of them both being large, private, wealthy California universities, in addition to the whole LA vs. SF thing.</p>
<p>Oh well, SF is better than LA in every respect except for maybe beach availability…</p>