Stanford University Visit Report by morgana199

Visit Activities:

Admissions Interview: No - Stanford doesn't do admissions interviews for CA students.

Information Session: Yes - Interesting session. Arrogant, but amusingly so. Successful parents were like puppies making big eyes for approval. I was very glad we toured when DS is a sophomore, HS preparation is intensive .

Campus Tour: Yes - We just popped into the campus, snuck onto a tour and admissions session. Bright, eager students, older than expected on campus. Very pretty, pretty noisy with all of the construction.

Classroom Visit: No - We'll be back for classroom visits.

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Campus:

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All friendly, intense, all tremendously busy.

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Amusing. We brought our small dog, some of the admissions staff thought he was so cute, asked questions about him. They'd never owned dogs.

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We all know it's beautiful, a far cry from public schools.

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Didn't see them this trip.

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The campus has a true "hub" to centralize campus life. Engineering departments had a lot of humor posted on the bulletin boards, a feature sadly lacking at other schools we toured.

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Off-Campus:

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We used to live there...nice town. I don't miss the congestion since we moved.

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It's easy to take the train into San Francisco.

Campus Visit Notes for Stanford University

Visit Description:

The defining moment for me about Stanford was around a conference taking place in the gleaming, marble alumni hall. The conference list was amazing, the top people in their field. A buffet was set out, (lighter these days than previous spreads, a friend who is a professor there informs me, reflecting the economy) of fruit, cheese, and croissants. In the center of the hall, conveniently placed, were containers for both trash and recycling. And, also, a compost bin. These world-famous participants were matter-of-fact expected to scrape their plates for compost. I loved it. That this would be thought of and implemented, the self-confidence and practicality that this implied, were to me typically Stanford. I did find the admin staff arrogant at times during the information session ( I asked about gap year, and the admin rep allowed as how a year in Europe would be broadening. I almost laughed out loud, I'd been thinking- send the kid to work for a year). But, perhaps that too is part of the "Stanford difference".

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

We found a dog-friendly motel in Cupertino.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

We knew the area, so we went downtown Menlo Park for great Asian food.

Other Comments (Transportation, local attractions, parking, etc.):

It's a safe, clean, boring town, like a grown-up Disneyland. Mountain View is more interesting.