| I am a Stanford grad and previously on admission committee (30+ years ago).
Without a doubt, Stanford is one of the best undergrad schools around. Harvard and Yale do not compete in my mind. With exception of labs, all courses are taught by faculty - not TAs.
That being said, I had Linus Pauling for a chemistry teacher. He was great in discussion of how he fed his daughter the "wrong information" - she was dating Watson and Watson used the data to get the Nobel Prize. (confirmed by Watson in the double helix). However, Linus was a TERRIBLE teacher. His comment was "I wrote the book, read it and we will discuss questions", otherwise there were no lectures. I had multiple teachers like that (In fact, 6 had or later had Nobels).
Ravelle College at UCSD is probably the best in the UC system (even better than UCLA). It is as well known (esp in california) as Stanford and some employees respect it MORE (some believe Stanford has grade inflation).
Go see both and ignore people here, find out which you will be happier at. It will not affect your future. |