<p>Stanford is one of my top choice schools and I have many reasons for loving it. But I want to hear from you all. Why do YOU like Stanford? What makes it unique? Why is it one of your top choices?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/1130505-101-reasons-why-stanford-awesome.html?highlight=101+reasons+stanford[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/1130505-101-reasons-why-stanford-awesome.html?highlight=101+reasons+stanford</a></p>
<p>Fixing this:</p>
<p>[Story</a> of Stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>I was lucky enough to visit Stanford over the summer, which is even more amazing considering I live on the east coast. I had naturally heard about the school and done my research on my colleges, but visiting is what sealed it as my number one choice. I spoke to an architecture professor there for a while, and I was absolutely amazed at the academic flexibility that Stanford had. They truly want their students to take a wide variety of classes and succeed in whatever interests them. On top of that, hearing an admissions officer speak really set Stanford apart from other top schools. Stanford is not just looking for good grades, hard work, and some crazy patent/business/fundraising community service with a cherry on top. They want people who are interested in a wide variety of subjects, and who are genuinely very nice, interesting, and caring people. Above all I think they love to see passion and community in their students. Every student there seemed very driven but relaxed and of course likeable. I was an absolutely incredible environment, with a beautiful campus and beautiful weather to boot. It would be an absolutely fantastic place to study</p>
<p>Great responses! And thank you @zenkoan for providing that link to a post they made earlier this year.</p>
<p>@littlebuilder on a similar note, I too was fortunate to visit Stanford in early August even though I’m from the East Coast and that was the difference between Stanford being just another school on my list to Stanford to Stanford rivaling with Harvard as my top choice school. I love both of them. Besides Stanford’s perfect location, I love how innovative it is and I feel like I can dip my feet in the water of a start-up company, well before I graduate. Not to mention their Management Science and Engineering program suits what I want to ultimately do. Ugh it’s so perfect!</p>
<p>Harvard’s academic calendar is a bit better however. Stanford students start way in late September (which I hate) and end in early June. They also don’t get a generous full month off for Winter Break and I don’t know if they offer anything for students to do over that winter break or if students are on their own to seek things to do during that time.</p>
<p>I talked to an admissions officer and I think that most students tend to go stay with friends who live in California over breaks. I like Stanford’s calendar because they work on quarters which means more classes over 4 years than I’d be able to take on a semester schedule.</p>
<p>Another reason to love Stanford: Structured Liberal Education (SLE). All the benefits of Stanford AND a LAC combined for freshman. Freshman in SLE are consistently among the happiest students on campus (and it’s one reason by the IHUM requirement was modified, per Dean Elam.) [Structured</a> Liberal Education | Structured Liberal Education](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/cgi-bin/sle/]Structured”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/cgi-bin/sle/)</p>
<p>^Yup, SLE is right up there at #3 on the list.</p>
<p>SLE seems pretty interesting, but also seems a bit isolated. I just looked through all of the FAQs and info about SLE and a “myth” is that they’re isolated. To an extent they sort of are isolated since they mainly interact with their 90 peers that are also in SLE. I’d want to be a part of the larger Stanford community, but SLE seems very interesting. It’d be a tough choice.</p>
<p>If SLE-ers are isolated, it definitely by choice. Unlike most freshman who discover some time during the first quarter that proximity doesn’t necessarily equal compatibility and they need to get out of their dorms to find ‘like-minded’ friends, SLE-ers are somewhat pre-selected for their ‘like-mindedness.’ If you are a SLE-er by inclination - quirky, non-preppy, and intellectually oriented - then you are starting off your freshman year with a big advantage. And you always have the option of joining any non-SLE activities you are interested in. Nothing stops you. Just remember, you’ll have three more years after SLE to be part of the larger Stanford community.</p>
<p>Not everyone who chooses SLE is particularly “quirky”, and some prep school kids choose it also. It’s not so homogeneous, which is part of what makes it appealing. It doesn’t have many athletes, mainly because the hours tend to conflict with practice schedules, but otherwise it usually has a pretty representative cross-section of the freshman class.</p>
<p>I didn’t say kids who attended prep school don’t apply to SLE. I said SLE-ers tend not to be preppy. There are preppy kids at our local public high school and plenty of non-preppy kids at private prep schools. No, SLE isn’t homogenous (and one of the misconceptions is that they aren’t STEM majors, when many actually are) - but the students tend to have more in common than those in your random freshman dorm - which is one reason why the SLE student satisfaction level is especially high.</p>