<p>Did your daughter meet with any students at Stanford or visit the dorms? The campus is very spread out, but the dorms are very social and fun and there is a lot of organized activity and bonding into a social group in the dorms.</p>
<p>Agree with MotherofTwo. Residential life is very personal and active. Compared to schools of comparable selectivity on the east coast, Stanford seems pretty Type B to me.</p>
<p>Northwestern. Thought S would like it but it left him cold. He is by no means an aesthete, but hated the architecture and layout. It was before school started last september so I’m concerned he did not get a accurate impression.</p>
<p>NU has a linear jumbled layout and no central place where students seem to gravitate. S was right. Best thing is the beach in summer but most kids are gone then.</p>
<p>After visiting University of Chicago, it’s definitely the school that I thought I would like most but ended up being my last choice of the places I got into after visiting in April. No doubt it’s a great school and you can get a good education, but I don’t think it’s for everyone. Here’s an excerpt of what I wrote on the U of C board about what I thought were the school’s flaws:</p>
<p>“While many kids I met were social and outgoing, there always seemed to be something hanging over their heads. I noticed the stress factor among most students to be very high and about to burst. Also, during the tour guide and info sessions, they made too much of a point of the “Yes, kids have fun here too!” kind of deal. This self-reassuring of the fun factor worries me. Also, the class I sat in on was an Econ class. The subject itself was VERY interesting, so I enjoyed the class. Still the prof was very flat, and only 2 or 3 students out of 30 really participated in the discussions. Also, some students seemed to be a little on the pretentious side, and very impressed with themselves. There also seemed to be a real backlash against athletics and athletes here, much more so than at even Swarthmore. Finally, I stayed in Shoreland, which was not very well-kept up. The room size was great, but why would you want to live in a dorm in such disrepair?”</p>
<p>You raise a good point, Sent!, I’ve never been all that clear on types A and B, but it’s a safe bet that most students at HYPSM are academic high-achievers focussed on their studies. Although the atmosphere at Stanford is anything but cutthroat, the courses, at least in hard sciences and engineering, are very tough and graded on a tough curve to boot. I’m sure your daughter is brilliant, but at Stanford the chances are she’ll be in class with students who are even more brilliant, and hard working as well.
But, they have lots of fun on that campus, much to do for fun at all times, lively social life with infinite choices. Weather usually delightful–it was unusually damp this year-- infinitude of bikes, skateboards, etc, as you point out: it’s just a big place, geographically, and it’s that or car culture.
Might come down to what kind of kids she wants to be around. Usually does.</p>
<p>Agree with idler that the Stanford hard sciences are nothing to scoff at. My daughter, a President’s Scholar there (a program that no longer exists, but was apparently their quasi-honors designation there) worked very hard to stay on top of the curve in organic chem. She was more than a bit humbled by the experience. So I agree that while the students seem to be a bit less intense than their East Coast counterparts ( a distinction that the Stanford students seem to relish), they work mighty hard.</p>
<p>A friend of D is a Junior at Stanford and loves it. We visited her dorm. D likes everything about it, I don’t. D will apply, but not early action<<a compromise.</p>
<p>D will visit again in the Fall, without 'rents. She will have to sell us on it.</p>
<p>Unless she wants to apply Single Choice Early Action or Early Decision somewhere else, there’s no harm in applying EA, since it’s not binding!</p>
<p>We live in Stanford’s front yard and know tens of graduates if not hundreds. I have never met one who hadn’t liked their experience and sciences in particular are incredible.</p>
<p>Sent!
What is it about Stanford that you don’t like?</p>
<p>It might have been my preconceived notions, but I was sincerely hoping to like Amherst and UChicago. I visited both only for the pre-frosh overnights receptions, and I just could not see myself in that crowd. Some parts of chicago were great, but I do not think it is the place for me as an undergraduate. Weak advising system, the university paying more attention to professors, and some really bad, and unfortunately well-respected, professors than the students, the surrounding area (though downtown was nice–great shopping there too!), the dead campus (even when kids were up and about on the quads, the campus never really lit up), the food (it is just too expensive to eat at bartlett everyday… btw, bartlett is the only good cafeteria on campus), the dorms were just some reasons why I just could not connect with Chicago. </p>
<p>I had a lot of fun at Amherst, but I just could not see myself staying there for four years. Students there were awesome, but when I walked around the campus at night, I saw a lot of lame parties. They weren’t for socializing, just drinking. As a non-drinker, it is not the perfect environment for me. Besides, out of the five classes I sat on (a history class discussing women’s role in the 1960’s, a physics course, a computer science course–I was supposed to sit on “Number Theory”, but there was a typo in the schedule, LJST, and a philosophy class called Chances, Choice, and Conflict), only one, the LJST course, was even slightly stimulating. The history class was a lecture class, so it felt like a typical history class, and the others were terrible.</p>
<p>I am happy with my choice, though. </p>
<p>Ephman '09</p>