<p>I’ve got a D who’s a rising HS senior. Her older sister is at Harvard where the younger D loves the adjacent sidewalk scene. It’s urban / suburban with a college town buzz, the opportunity to step off the campus and be in a different, but still active, environment. What would she likely think of the Stanford neighborhood? Is it bustling or in a “bubble”?</p>
<p>stanford is definitely in a bubble. it has a scenic, bucolic campus that is the most beautiful i’ve ever seen. having seen both harvard and stanford in person, i can tell you that they are essentially opposites in terms of the “sidewalk scene.” with that said, i think it would be best for your D to experience it herself…it truly is a sight to behold</p>
<p>There are neighborhoods near Stanford? Haha, I don’t even recall seeing buildings when I went there. It was just trees, trees, and trees. Very beautiful.</p>
<p>Downtown Palo Alto has lots of great restaurants and the Stanford shopping mall (adjacent to campus) is one of the best in the area. It seems like students start to venture up to San Francisco for clubs and dates after freshman year. The Stanford campus itself is really beautiful. Remember the significant weather difference between Harvard and Stanford, too…if you compared them in winter, Stanford would always win.</p>
<p>This is one thing that bugs me about Stanford – the fact that it’s in a bubble. You can go to Palo Alto, which isn’t very interesting, and then there’s San Jose and San Francisco by CalTrain. But mostly, you’re confined to Stanford.</p>
<p>kyledavid, where do you go 2 sckool?</p>
<p>I agree with siliconvalleymom’s points. Sure, Stanford isn’t in the middle of a bustling city, but it’s pleasant and suburban. For some people, like me, this is great. I don’t like big cities, and I feel more relaxed in the suburban environment that Stanford and Palo Alto provide. There are definitely things to do, and yet it’s not overwhelming. If you can visit and decide for yourself, I’d highly advise it.</p>
<p>“kyledavid, where do you go 2 sckool?”</p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t quite understand you.</p>
<p>where do you go to school?</p>
<p>Hi, gadad, I’ll try to ask my son (at Stanford now, for a summer program) what he thinks about this. He has been to various other college campuses for summer programs, but never to Cambridge, MA.</p>
<p>Couple things you should probably know about Stanford. It is definately a bubble. Anything not on campus is going to be at least a mile away, if not farther. This is never felt more than during a person’s freshman year, because more than likely they won’t have a car and their mobility will be severely restricted.</p>
<p>Even when you do go into Palo Alto, it is most definately NOT a college town. SF and San Jose are perhaps more college friendly (if only marginally), but they are far away, even with the CalTrain, and I promise you that once you live on the Stanford campus, you will inevitably complain about having to walk to the CalTrain station, thus making those cities seem even farther away.</p>
<p>As for a comparison with Harvard, having been both places, I have to agree with the person that stated they could not be more complete opposites. The one thing I would bear in mind when you visit Stanford, however, is that if you do indeed become a student there, your mobility will likely be more restricted than it was whenever you visited, especially if you went with your parents.</p>
<p>It isn’t that easy to get off campus, but I want to emphasize that it is definitely possible. The Caltrain, which was already mentioned, can take you from San Francisco to San Jose, and it doesn’t cost much. While some people walk to the Caltrain station (probably takes about 20 minutes), you can also take the free shuttle that Stanford offers, the Marguerite. The Marguerite also runs into Downtown Palo Alto (during the day) and to a shopping center in a neighboring town, where you can get groceries, clothes, good stuff like that. Also, especially if you are in a 4-class dorm, you can make friends with upperclassmen who will drive you around :)</p>
<p>I should have emphasized this in my last post, but there is a difference in trying to get off-campus to, say, buy groceries and getting off-campus with the intent of “experiencing” the area outside of the campus.</p>
<p>Stanford has excellent transportation systems run by the University that are more than adequate to get you to a Safeway, a mall, etc. What becomes difficult is when you want to do something like go out to dinner with some people from your dorm and you don’t have a car, because then everyone has to go out, wait for the Shuttle, which you will have inevitably just missed, and then you must plan your outing based on eating at a restaurant near the path of the Marguerite. All in all it’s doable, but it takes a fair amount of planning and foresight, something many college students get too lazy to have very quickly upon matriculating.</p>
<p>Well, downtown Palo Alto is actually pretty cool. It stays open past midnight on weekends, unlike a lot of college towns that shut down at 9 or 10…</p>
<p>And it’s about a 20 minute walk from Stanford to Palo Alto’s town where you can find plenty of restaurants. But, this depends on where you actually are on Stanford campus, because at some points, you can walk for 20 minutes just to get off campus, considering how huge it is.</p>
<p>It’s different from Harvard, it’s more boring. Boston is a great college city, so many things to do. The area near Harvard has a lot of shops. I’ve lived at both places. But I think Palo Alto is nicer and safer with more natural beauty. However, San Francisco is not too far away.</p>
<p>One thing that I love about Stanford is that there is a great sense of community. Students are often on campus on the weekend by choice. If you live in the middle of a city I imagine students would go off campus fairly often. For some students they would be much happier with things to do in the city. I’d rather be at a school where people are on campus. When most students are there on the weekend there is motivation to arrange different events during the weekend, which definitely happens. I’ve never been bored on campus on the weekend. I think in many ways there is a trade-off between a sense of community and being in a city.</p>
<p>I don’t see how a city can compromise a sense of community. It’s simply another thing to do. While many students will go off campus, many more will stay on it, enough to create a cozy sense of community.</p>
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<p>In schools in urban settings, the student population more often bleeds out into the surroundings. It causes the student body to sort of disperse, and the campus doesn’t feel as much a center of activity anymore. Not to suggest that everyone is always abandoning the campus, but it becomes less “home” and more “a place to sleep at night.” I’m not too fond of that. I’ve been able to contrast this with Stanford’s lifestyle, and I love the balance Stanford strikes: having a constantly active, thriving campus with the opportunity to relax in downtown Palo Alto or the Stanford Shopping Center, or to take a 30-minute train ride away, should you feel empowered to, and enjoy the unparalleled array of activities available in the Bay Area, from San Francisco through Silicon Valley into San Jose.</p>
<p>And remember, part of the reason Stanford is its own bubble is due to its ginormous size. It’s situated on 8100 acres of land, which makes it technically twice as big as Cambridge, MA. (About 60% of that is undeveloped, mind you, but regardless. That’s still much, much, MUCH bigger than just about any college campus.)</p>
<p>“In schools in urban settings, the student population more often bleeds out into the surroundings. It causes the student body to sort of disperse, and the campus doesn’t feel as much a center of activity anymore.”</p>
<p>I understand the reasoning behind it, but I don’t buy it. While many students do go off campus, plenty stay on it, enough to put up events and activities, creating a strong community. I haven’t heard of any sort of diluted sense of community at, say, Harvard, or any other urban campus. Not to offend, but this assertion seems like a weak attempt to justify Stanford’s remoteness. =p</p>
<p>I live 20 min from Stanford. There’s nothing really in the immediate surroundings of Stanford except maybe the Stanford Shopping Mall. It’s pretty isolated. However, if you go a little farther there’s tons of great things to do such as yosemite, san francisco, beaches, etc.</p>