Stanford v Princeton - STEM

Senior0991
Tue, 17 Apr 2012 07:11:54 +0000

Not out of a desire to be humble, but because being intellectually interested is sometimes seen as not cool for whatever reason among some.

I agree with Zenkoan’s analysis that, after the freshman year (for those who don’t do SLE), this radically changes. I’d add that a lot of the non-intellectualism in the freshman year probably stems from weed-out intro classes (which are inevitable, though some don’t go through them) and IHUM (which won’t be around next year, I think).

Being intellectually interested is not seen as not cool. Re my earlier post, it’s not that being intellectually interested is at all looked down upon, but most Stanford students just don’t feel a need to conform to the stereotypes associated with intellectualism (flowery prose, obscure allusions that are irrelevant to the topic at hand, fancy attire, etc.).

And regarding being humble, it’s not out of shame for one’s talents, but rather a recognition of some other factors (not everyone is as talented as you, talents do not make a person’s character). I’m not ashamed to set the curve. I’m proud of that. I would be ashamed if I felt a need to tell everyone that fact, especially those in the class who did not do as well.



[At Stanford], you’ll find a lot less pseudo-intellectual posturing

Totally agree.



… and besides, what they really care about is skiing or coding or doing whatever they do in their time outside the class.

If she wants a school filled entirely with people whose sole focus is on academics, she will not find that at Stanford. If she takes that a step further and looks down on those people whose focus might be split evenly between academics and extracurriculars, then Stanford is probably not the place for her. If she wants a school filled with people who care deeply about their classes, but where many of the students pursue activities that conflict with time that could otherwise be spent studying, then Stanford is a great place for her.

I’ll admit, sometimes my extracurriculars take priority over classes, even as my classes have become more of a priority over the years. Is that a choice I make? Yes. If I could do anything different, it would be adding more hours onto the day.



A Princeton degree is certainly not going to put her behind a Stanford degree if she eventually winds up aiming for Silicon Valley.

This just isn’t true. Apart from the connections, Silicon Valley companies love a CS educated Stanford student. I know of relatively unconnected freshman, non-CS majors, who have merely taken a couple intro CS classes, who have gotten 10,000 dollar plus jobs over the summer. Add in four years of connections, top notch classes, work experience in Silicon Valley, and the Stanford grad has a sizeable advantage. If someone has an end goal of winding up in Silicon Valley, it would be downright foolish, other things equal, to choose Princeton over Stanford.

If your daughter goes to Stanford, she will know in a couple years whether she wants to pursue the Silicon Valley world or not. For the STEM-types coming in, many get caught up in it, some do not. If the former, Stanford is the number one place in the world for that. If the latter, Stanford still sets one up for success in a variety of different careers. It’s not the best at everything (someone whose only interest is in film would be foolish to pass up USC or NYU for Stanford), but it is very solid across the board.

I don’t normally go to such lengths to defend Stanford. But what is being discussed I view as some of its distinct strengths.