Stanford

[Anonymous]

That isn't to say students aren't highly motivated but there is less of a cutthroat directly competitive culture that is more prevalent in the Ivies/Northeast generally.

Eh, I think this is overrated. The bay area and especially sillicon valley has a ton of hyper competitive type A types who have a veneer of being chill on top of their intensity. The less competitive culture isn't real--it's just you have to pretend to be chill on top of being on your A game. In some ways, just being openly intense is less tiresome because it's less that you have to fake. The Stanford grads I know are plenty cutthroat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

That isn't to say students aren't highly motivated but there is less of a cutthroat directly competitive culture that is more prevalent in the Ivies/Northeast generally.

Eh, I think this is overrated. The bay area and especially sillicon valley has a ton of hyper competitive type A types who have a veneer of being chill on top of their intensity. The less competitive culture isn't real--it's just you have to pretend to be chill on top of being on your A game. In some ways, just being openly intense is less tiresome because it's less that you have to fake. The Stanford grads I know are plenty cutthroat.

Agree Stanford grads are highly competitive and but are more "chill". Disagree about it being fake. There is a difference between being focused on winning the game vs beating the other person. This is a big generalization and certainly there are many examples that prove the opposite but I think entrepreneurs tend to have a vision they are aiming for / want to build something that lasts. Sure they want to make a buck too but it's a different mentality than the hedge funders who are just trying to make a buck off of someone or the investment bankers who are just trying to get a deal closed. No question the tech scene in SF is competitive and "annoying" but that game is still less "cutthroat" than Wall Street.

[Anonymous]

Stanford is a little less establishment driven than some of the more venerable institutions. That can be good or bad depending on your preferences.

Stanford is currently in vogue given the tech boom and the tech industry has always been more about what are your ideas and what have you achieved than who you are.

However, if you come from an established family with a lot of tradition, Stanford is a little anti-tradition in the sense many in CA are newcomers themselves. Some of the people from here and the tri-state area that I know that have gone to Stanford wanted to get away from legacies, traditions, oppressive families. In CA people look at someone with the name of "so and so the IVth" and just laugh--in part because they don't know what to make of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh? So Stanford might not be sufficiently focused on undergraduate education compared to what other school? Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, MIT, Caltech? If your child can get in to Stanford she/he is a serious candidate for admission anywhere. On what planet are you on that you think your child might not be well educated at Stanford? Maybe you should insist they go instead to an intellectual powerhouse like Regent or BYU or Liberty?

The major difference between Stanford and the other elite schools is that there is a serious Division I athletic program, so there are a good number of future professional athletes mixed in with the future Silicon Valley nerds/future billionaires, lawyers, doctors, and academics. Because of the combination of serious jocks and misogynistic geeks and perfect California weather, the bro/frat quotient is super high compared to the other elite schools.

Was that comment really necessary? Sorry you got dumped by a great Stanford guy back in the '90s, but really....

Where do you think the silicon valley culture that's absolutely toxic to women came from?

Signed,
A Computer Scientist that went to Stanford

Can you tell me about the toxic Silicon Valley culture that is toxic to women? I have heard that it is but don't know anything about it. Is it just because there is a high percentage of males?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know Stanford is the toughest school to get into, but I'd like some insights about the undergraduate education there. I've heard vastly different reports. Is the school sufficiently focused on undergraduate education? What is the social life like?

GMU is more value for the money. Plus it has a Nobel laureate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Stanford is the toughest school to get into, but I'd like some insights about the undergraduate education there. I've heard vastly different reports. Is the school sufficiently focused on undergraduate education? What is the social life like?

GMU is more value for the money. Plus it has a Nobel laureate.

Meaning GMU has 1 Nobel laureate? How many does Stanford have? They probably have one EVERY YEAR!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh? So Stanford might not be sufficiently focused on undergraduate education compared to what other school? Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, MIT, Caltech? If your child can get in to Stanford she/he is a serious candidate for admission anywhere. On what planet are you on that you think your child might not be well educated at Stanford? Maybe you should insist they go instead to an intellectual powerhouse like Regent or BYU or Liberty?

The major difference between Stanford and the other elite schools is that there is a serious Division I athletic program, so there are a good number of future professional athletes mixed in with the future Silicon Valley nerds/future billionaires, lawyers, doctors, and academics. Because of the combination of serious jocks and misogynistic geeks and perfect California weather, the bro/frat quotient is super high compared to the other elite schools.

Was that comment really necessary? Sorry you got dumped by a great Stanford guy back in the '90s, but really....

Where do you think the silicon valley culture that's absolutely toxic to women came from?

Signed,
A Computer Scientist that went to Stanford

Can you tell me about the toxic Silicon Valley culture that is toxic to women? I have heard that it is but don't know anything about it. Is it just because there is a high percentage of males?

You mean the toxic male driven culture compared to what? Wall Street? Big Law? Surgeons? Professional Sports? Inequality is a wide spread problem in most of the lucrative careers...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Stanford is the toughest school to get into, but I'd like some insights about the undergraduate education there. I've heard vastly different reports. Is the school sufficiently focused on undergraduate education? What is the social life like?

GMU is more value for the money. Plus it has a Nobel laureate.

Meaning GMU has 1 Nobel laureate? How many does Stanford have? They probably have one EVERY YEAR!

Nice supportable statement. I gave facts. You gave opinion that Stanford has more Nobel laureates than Mason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Stanford is the toughest school to get into, but I'd like some insights about the undergraduate education there. I've heard vastly different reports. Is the school sufficiently focused on undergraduate education? What is the social life like?

GMU is more value for the money. Plus it has a Nobel laureate.

Meaning GMU has 1 Nobel laureate? How many does Stanford have? They probably have one EVERY YEAR!

Nice supportable statement. I gave facts. You gave opinion that Stanford has more Nobel laureates than Mason.

It's not even worth looking up. I just did, Stanford has 21 current Nobel laureates and 60 total Nobel laureates who graduated or were on the faculty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Stanford is the toughest school to get into, but I'd like some insights about the undergraduate education there. I've heard vastly different reports. Is the school sufficiently focused on undergraduate education? What is the social life like?

GMU is more value for the money. Plus it has a Nobel laureate.

Meaning GMU has 1 Nobel laureate? How many does Stanford have? They probably have one EVERY YEAR!

Nice supportable statement. I gave facts. You gave opinion that Stanford has more Nobel laureates than Mason.

It's not even worth looking up. I just did, Stanford has 21 current Nobel laureates and 60 total Nobel laureates who graduated or were on the faculty.

So many DC natives are so lame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Stanford is the toughest school to get into, but I'd like some insights about the undergraduate education there. I've heard vastly different reports. Is the school sufficiently focused on undergraduate education? What is the social life like?

GMU is more value for the money. Plus it has a Nobel laureate.

Meaning GMU has 1 Nobel laureate? How many does Stanford have? They probably have one EVERY YEAR!

Nice supportable statement. I gave facts. You gave opinion that Stanford has more Nobel laureates than Mason.

Did you get rejected by Stanford?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh? So Stanford might not be sufficiently focused on undergraduate education compared to what other school? Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, MIT, Caltech? If your child can get in to Stanford she/he is a serious candidate for admission anywhere. On what planet are you on that you think your child might not be well educated at Stanford? Maybe you should insist they go instead to an intellectual powerhouse like Regent or BYU or Liberty?

The major difference between Stanford and the other elite schools is that there is a serious Division I athletic program, so there are a good number of future professional athletes mixed in with the future Silicon Valley nerds/future billionaires, lawyers, doctors, and academics. Because of the combination of serious jocks and misogynistic geeks and perfect California weather, the bro/frat quotient is super high compared to the other elite schools.

Was that comment really necessary? Sorry you got dumped by a great Stanford guy back in the '90s, but really....

Where do you think the silicon valley culture that's absolutely toxic to women came from?

Signed,
A Computer Scientist that went to Stanford

who

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

That isn't to say students aren't highly motivated but there is less of a cutthroat directly competitive culture that is more prevalent in the Ivies/Northeast generally.

Eh, I think this is overrated. The bay area and especially sillicon valley has a ton of hyper competitive type A types who have a veneer of being chill on top of their intensity. The less competitive culture isn't real--it's just you have to pretend to be chill on top of being on your A game. In some ways, just being openly intense is less tiresome because it's less that you have to fake. The Stanford grads I know are plenty cutthroat.

Perhaps they are mostly from the DC and/or East Coast area.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps they are mostly from the DC and/or East Coast area.

Nope, plenty of people who are originally from the west coast. If cutthroat competitive isn't an issue on the West Coast, why do you think there is such a big suicide epidemic at the two Palo Alto high schools, Gun and Palo Alto High?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Perhaps they are mostly from the DC and/or East Coast area.

Nope, plenty of people who are originally from the west coast. If cutthroat competitive isn't an issue on the West Coast, why do you think there is such a big suicide epidemic at the two Palo Alto high schools, Gun and Palo Alto High?

Some of that is parental pressure. I'm originally from that area. Admittedly, I don't know many HS/college aged kids, but, the parents that I know are not as competitive when it comes to their kids' education as I am finding here. Parents don't start prepping their kids to get into Ivys (or Stanford) starting from ES, like I've seen here. Maybe it's just the circle of people that I was around.