Anonymous
05/30/2023 00:37
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anyone who says the campus feels like a Taco Bell either hasn't spent much time at Stanford or doesn't regularly go to any Taco Bell I've ever visited! Having spent a lot of time at both places (I've been a Taco Bell taco salad fan for far longer than I've had any Stanford affiliation), I can confidently say Stanford is not like Taco Bell.
But how can we make Stanford MORE like Taco Bell?
When I was an undergrad there, doing the Taco Bell challenge was a thing. Maybe the fun committee needs to bring that back
Anonymous
05/30/2023 00:01
Subject: Re:What is Stanford like?
Went there for grad school in the 90s and “feels like a Taco Bell” is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Beautiful campus, beautiful weather, close to so many great things.
Anonymous
05/29/2023 23:46
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:My daughter is graduating from Stanford in the next few weeks (well, technically she graduated last year but she stayed on campus for another year for a coterm — more on that later) and we all really regret the decision.
She was a Black woman in CS — the amount of racist, sexist comments and actions that have been thrown at her have really demoralized her. Stanford’s undergraduate student body is ~6% Black (already lower than peer schools), and the percent plummets in CS. She was the only African-American woman in her graduating CS class (there are a few more Black girls who majored in CS in her year, but she told me that they were all international students), and her CS classes were overwhelmingly white and Asian (the few non-Asian minorities in her CS classes were almost all men).
The summer after her sophomore year at Stanford, DD had an internship at a FAANG. Many of her white/Asian classmates commented that she was “unqualified” for such an internship (because someone with a 3.8 as a CS major at Stanford is definitely not qualified) and was a “diversity hire.” Students are VERY competitive about internships/med school admissions; CS is by far the most popular major on campus (something like ~20% of undergrads major in it), and Bio is the next most popular.
It’s not a particularly creative campus. Not a ton of emphasis on the arts. DD majored in film studies but is co-terming (basically taking a fifth year to complete a double major) in CS. She told me that the arts community at Stanford is not particularly active with the exception of a few student acapella and theatre groups. Many of her CS classmates looked down on her for also majoring in film studies, saying that she should instead double major in something useful like Math or Economics… Um, she’s already co-terming in CS! It’s a very sterile, soulless, and risk-averse place.
It’s also a pretty socially dead campus, with much of the social life happening in Greek life (which only 20% of the school is in). The non-Greeks at the school have a much more tame social life, with a lot of studying, grinding, and striving. It’s not a laid back place at all.
I also think that DD was a poor fit for Stanford culturally.
We live in a pretty racially diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn where a lot of parents work in creative fields. DH and I aren’t in creative fields (we work pretty straight-laced corporate jobs), but most of our friends have an artistic or creative career (or at least a serious hobby in the arts). For high school, DD went to a performing arts magnet high school in NYC — she was really happy in an environment where being quirky, creative, inclusive, artistic, and most importantly, encouraged to fail were all valued traits. Yes, she spent her high school years academically focused and playing a sport. But she also was very active in student theatre, goofed off with her friends making short films, visited sketchy artist studios in Brooklyn (I was not thrilled about this), and spent a lot of weekend nights in terrible DIY basement shows. Stanford students couldn’t relate to this at all — their idea of fun is going to football games, frat parties, building robots, or catching up on problem sets in the library on a Friday night.
She was not happy about how over scheduled and perpetually stressed her classmates were — despite the advertising, the “laid back” California vibes aren’t there at all. It’s a super intense, careerist, and fast-paced (due to the quarter system) pressure cooker of a school. I’ll never forget when DD called me her freshman fall asking if it was normal for college students to have to schedule meals with their classmates nearly a week in advance, with a few kids even asking her to “send me a Google Calendar invite for lunch together for next Tuesday!”
She was relieved when COVID hit in the middle of her sophomore year and she was sent home. Her junior year was all online, and she was thrilled that she didn’t have to step foot in Palo Alto that year. She ended up living with her best friend from high school for her entire junior year at college (2020-2021). Her best friend went to Bard, so my daughter and her friend rented a group house in the Hudson Valley for that year with a couple of my daughter’s bestie’s friends from college. She was really happy to be in a more laid-back and artistic environment where there was a lot of creative energy, spontaneity, and warmth (and no talk of Leetcode or FAANG internships).
It wasn’t all bad though. She has a very nice job lined up for her after graduation (Product Manager at a unicorn tech company with a lot of Stanford alumni and ex-FAANG workers) that she mainly got through networking with Stanford alums.
Thank you for posting this. Your DD sounds like a STAR.
Anonymous
05/29/2023 23:16
Subject: What is Stanford like?
My daughter is graduating from Stanford in the next few weeks (well, technically she graduated last year but she stayed on campus for another year for a coterm — more on that later) and we all really regret the decision.
She was a Black woman in CS — the amount of racist, sexist comments and actions that have been thrown at her have really demoralized her. Stanford’s undergraduate student body is ~6% Black (already lower than peer schools), and the percent plummets in CS. She was the only African-American woman in her graduating CS class (there are a few more Black girls who majored in CS in her year, but she told me that they were all international students), and her CS classes were overwhelmingly white and Asian (the few non-Asian minorities in her CS classes were almost all men).
The summer after her sophomore year at Stanford, DD had an internship at a FAANG. Many of her white/Asian classmates commented that she was “unqualified” for such an internship (because someone with a 3.8 as a CS major at Stanford is definitely not qualified) and was a “diversity hire.” Students are VERY competitive about internships/med school admissions; CS is by far the most popular major on campus (something like ~20% of undergrads major in it), and Bio is the next most popular.
It’s not a particularly creative campus. Not a ton of emphasis on the arts. DD majored in film studies but is co-terming (basically taking a fifth year to complete a double major) in CS. She told me that the arts community at Stanford is not particularly active with the exception of a few student acapella and theatre groups. Many of her CS classmates looked down on her for also majoring in film studies, saying that she should instead double major in something useful like Math or Economics… Um, she’s already co-terming in CS! It’s a very sterile, soulless, and risk-averse place.
It’s also a pretty socially dead campus, with much of the social life happening in Greek life (which only 20% of the school is in). The non-Greeks at the school have a much more tame social life, with a lot of studying, grinding, and striving. It’s not a laid back place at all.
I also think that DD was a poor fit for Stanford culturally.
We live in a pretty racially diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn where a lot of parents work in creative fields. DH and I aren’t in creative fields (we work pretty straight-laced corporate jobs), but most of our friends have an artistic or creative career (or at least a serious hobby in the arts). For high school, DD went to a performing arts magnet high school in NYC — she was really happy in an environment where being quirky, creative, inclusive, artistic, and most importantly, encouraged to fail were all valued traits. Yes, she spent her high school years academically focused and playing a sport. But she also was very active in student theatre, goofed off with her friends making short films, visited sketchy artist studios in Brooklyn (I was not thrilled about this), and spent a lot of weekend nights in terrible DIY basement shows. Stanford students couldn’t relate to this at all — their idea of fun is going to football games, frat parties, building robots, or catching up on problem sets in the library on a Friday night.
She was not happy about how over scheduled and perpetually stressed her classmates were — despite the advertising, the “laid back” California vibes aren’t there at all. It’s a super intense, careerist, and fast-paced (due to the quarter system) pressure cooker of a school. I’ll never forget when DD called me her freshman fall asking if it was normal for college students to have to schedule meals with their classmates nearly a week in advance, with a few kids even asking her to “send me a Google Calendar invite for lunch together for next Tuesday!”
She was relieved when COVID hit in the middle of her sophomore year and she was sent home. Her junior year was all online, and she was thrilled that she didn’t have to step foot in Palo Alto that year. She ended up living with her best friend from high school for her entire junior year at college (2020-2021). Her best friend went to Bard, so my daughter and her friend rented a group house in the Hudson Valley for that year with a couple of my daughter’s bestie’s friends from college. She was really happy to be in a more laid-back and artistic environment where there was a lot of creative energy, spontaneity, and warmth (and no talk of Leetcode or FAANG internships).
It wasn’t all bad though. She has a very nice job lined up for her after graduation (Product Manager at a unicorn tech company with a lot of Stanford alumni and ex-FAANG workers) that she mainly got through networking with Stanford alums.
She was a Black woman in CS — the amount of racist, sexist comments and actions that have been thrown at her have really demoralized her. Stanford’s undergraduate student body is ~6% Black (already lower than peer schools), and the percent plummets in CS. She was the only African-American woman in her graduating CS class (there are a few more Black girls who majored in CS in her year, but she told me that they were all international students), and her CS classes were overwhelmingly white and Asian (the few non-Asian minorities in her CS classes were almost all men).
The summer after her sophomore year at Stanford, DD had an internship at a FAANG. Many of her white/Asian classmates commented that she was “unqualified” for such an internship (because someone with a 3.8 as a CS major at Stanford is definitely not qualified) and was a “diversity hire.” Students are VERY competitive about internships/med school admissions; CS is by far the most popular major on campus (something like ~20% of undergrads major in it), and Bio is the next most popular.
It’s not a particularly creative campus. Not a ton of emphasis on the arts. DD majored in film studies but is co-terming (basically taking a fifth year to complete a double major) in CS. She told me that the arts community at Stanford is not particularly active with the exception of a few student acapella and theatre groups. Many of her CS classmates looked down on her for also majoring in film studies, saying that she should instead double major in something useful like Math or Economics… Um, she’s already co-terming in CS! It’s a very sterile, soulless, and risk-averse place.
It’s also a pretty socially dead campus, with much of the social life happening in Greek life (which only 20% of the school is in). The non-Greeks at the school have a much more tame social life, with a lot of studying, grinding, and striving. It’s not a laid back place at all.
I also think that DD was a poor fit for Stanford culturally.
We live in a pretty racially diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn where a lot of parents work in creative fields. DH and I aren’t in creative fields (we work pretty straight-laced corporate jobs), but most of our friends have an artistic or creative career (or at least a serious hobby in the arts). For high school, DD went to a performing arts magnet high school in NYC — she was really happy in an environment where being quirky, creative, inclusive, artistic, and most importantly, encouraged to fail were all valued traits. Yes, she spent her high school years academically focused and playing a sport. But she also was very active in student theatre, goofed off with her friends making short films, visited sketchy artist studios in Brooklyn (I was not thrilled about this), and spent a lot of weekend nights in terrible DIY basement shows. Stanford students couldn’t relate to this at all — their idea of fun is going to football games, frat parties, building robots, or catching up on problem sets in the library on a Friday night.
She was not happy about how over scheduled and perpetually stressed her classmates were — despite the advertising, the “laid back” California vibes aren’t there at all. It’s a super intense, careerist, and fast-paced (due to the quarter system) pressure cooker of a school. I’ll never forget when DD called me her freshman fall asking if it was normal for college students to have to schedule meals with their classmates nearly a week in advance, with a few kids even asking her to “send me a Google Calendar invite for lunch together for next Tuesday!”
She was relieved when COVID hit in the middle of her sophomore year and she was sent home. Her junior year was all online, and she was thrilled that she didn’t have to step foot in Palo Alto that year. She ended up living with her best friend from high school for her entire junior year at college (2020-2021). Her best friend went to Bard, so my daughter and her friend rented a group house in the Hudson Valley for that year with a couple of my daughter’s bestie’s friends from college. She was really happy to be in a more laid-back and artistic environment where there was a lot of creative energy, spontaneity, and warmth (and no talk of Leetcode or FAANG internships).
It wasn’t all bad though. She has a very nice job lined up for her after graduation (Product Manager at a unicorn tech company with a lot of Stanford alumni and ex-FAANG workers) that she mainly got through networking with Stanford alums.
Anonymous
05/29/2023 23:05
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not laid back especially for CS
+1. It might be laid back in some majors (e.g., foreign language), but there is very intense competition between Stanford students in any STEM major. Grades are curved, at least in STEM, so knowledge of science/engineering that might get simeone a top score at a good public university might get a B at Stanford. Admissions is correspondingly tough.
+1
Anonymous
05/29/2023 21:48
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:Not laid back especially for CS
+1. It might be laid back in some majors (e.g., foreign language), but there is very intense competition between Stanford students in any STEM major. Grades are curved, at least in STEM, so knowledge of science/engineering that might get simeone a top score at a good public university might get a B at Stanford. Admissions is correspondingly tough.
Anonymous
05/29/2023 21:00
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:Anyone who says the campus feels like a Taco Bell either hasn't spent much time at Stanford or doesn't regularly go to any Taco Bell I've ever visited! Having spent a lot of time at both places (I've been a Taco Bell taco salad fan for far longer than I've had any Stanford affiliation), I can confidently say Stanford is not like Taco Bell.
But how can we make Stanford MORE like Taco Bell?
Anonymous
05/29/2023 20:54
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anyone who says the campus feels like a Taco Bell either hasn't spent much time at Stanford or doesn't regularly go to any Taco Bell I've ever visited! Having spent a lot of time at both places (I've been a Taco Bell taco salad fan for far longer than I've had any Stanford affiliation), I can confidently say Stanford is not like Taco Bell.
Anonymous
05/29/2023 20:34
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:Not what it once was - now oppressively PC:
https://www.palladiummag.com/2022/06/13/stanfords-war-on-social-life/
I'd disagree with the "oppressively PC" take having been on the Stanford campus quite a bit in multiple capacities. Doing away with some crazy houses and controlling frats were positive steps in my mind. The administration clearly speaks fluent tech corp speak with their explanations
Anonymous
05/29/2023 19:16
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It’s not laid back
There are more weirdos that go there than hypm
Anarcho-libertarians that don’t grow up
The campus feels like it’s a Taco Bell
Lots of grifters and scammers
Campus feels like a Taco Bell! I grew up in the Bay Area, was born at Stanford hospital, my mom worked at Stanford, and I’ve never heard this comparison, but it’s somehow so true!
But what does this mean???
I've never been to campus, but have been to many Taco Bells... not sure I understand!
I think they are referring to the Mediterranean/Hispanic architecture and I fully agree which is why I didn’t apply there for law school!
Many people, myself included, love that style of architecture.
+1 I love the Med architecture. Hate the ugly colonials here in the DC area. And the weather... sigh.. you can have a beautiful garden year round.
Palo Alto is gorgeous. I used to live around there.
But, I do think that area has changed a lot in terms of the types of people. It was a lot more interesting back in the 90s' early 2000s. Now, it's been taken over by tech bros.
California arch isn’t real med architecture — it looks out of place after going to med countries
Hence why multiple posters have said it gives off Taco Bell vibes
? Most of CA was owned by Spain/MX. I had a 1934 house that had the med architecture. A lot of the homes around where I lived near Palo Alto also had similar architecture. That type of architecture fits a lot of CA. Of course, it doesn't look like Spain or Italy. CA also has a lot of mid century bungalows that Europe doesn't have much of.
I lived in CA for 40 years.
Anonymous
05/29/2023 19:04
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It’s not laid back
There are more weirdos that go there than hypm
Anarcho-libertarians that don’t grow up
The campus feels like it’s a Taco Bell
Lots of grifters and scammers
Campus feels like a Taco Bell! I grew up in the Bay Area, was born at Stanford hospital, my mom worked at Stanford, and I’ve never heard this comparison, but it’s somehow so true!
I heard this as an undergrad in the 90s.
Anonymous
05/29/2023 17:06
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It’s not laid back
There are more weirdos that go there than hypm
Anarcho-libertarians that don’t grow up
The campus feels like it’s a Taco Bell
Lots of grifters and scammers
Campus feels like a Taco Bell! I grew up in the Bay Area, was born at Stanford hospital, my mom worked at Stanford, and I’ve never heard this comparison, but it’s somehow so true!
But what does this mean???
I've never been to campus, but have been to many Taco Bells... not sure I understand!
I think they are referring to the Mediterranean/Hispanic architecture and I fully agree which is why I didn’t apply there for law school!
Many people, myself included, love that style of architecture.
+1 I love the Med architecture. Hate the ugly colonials here in the DC area. And the weather... sigh.. you can have a beautiful garden year round.
Palo Alto is gorgeous. I used to live around there.
But, I do think that area has changed a lot in terms of the types of people. It was a lot more interesting back in the 90s' early 2000s. Now, it's been taken over by tech bros.
California arch isn’t real med architecture — it looks out of place after going to med countries
Hence why multiple posters have said it gives off Taco Bell vibes
Anonymous
05/29/2023 14:29
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, do you like Taco Bell? If yes, then you will like Stanford.
All of you saying taco bell are making me laugh because if little Billy or Muffy got into to Stanford you all would be shouting it from the top of Washington monument.
Lol. It's 2023. More like ' if little Ha Joon or Rakesh go in...'
Joon and Rakesh's parents don't care about the architecture. That's a white person's thing - to care about how the campus looks.
Yes, no Asian has ever cared about architecture.
Anonymous
05/29/2023 13:48
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It’s not laid back
There are more weirdos that go there than hypm
Anarcho-libertarians that don’t grow up
The campus feels like it’s a Taco Bell
Lots of grifters and scammers
Campus feels like a Taco Bell! I grew up in the Bay Area, was born at Stanford hospital, my mom worked at Stanford, and I’ve never heard this comparison, but it’s somehow so true!
But what does this mean???
I've never been to campus, but have been to many Taco Bells... not sure I understand!
I think they are referring to the Mediterranean/Hispanic architecture and I fully agree which is why I didn’t apply there for law school!
Many people, myself included, love that style of architecture.
+1 I love the Med architecture. Hate the ugly colonials here in the DC area. And the weather... sigh.. you can have a beautiful garden year round.
Palo Alto is gorgeous. I used to live around there.
But, I do think that area has changed a lot in terms of the types of people. It was a lot more interesting back in the 90s' early 2000s. Now, it's been taken over by tech bros.
Anonymous
05/29/2023 13:45
Subject: What is Stanford like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, do you like Taco Bell? If yes, then you will like Stanford.
All of you saying taco bell are making me laugh because if little Billy or Muffy got into to Stanford you all would be shouting it from the top of Washington monument.
Lol. It's 2023. More like ' if little Ha Joon or Rakesh go in...'
Joon and Rakesh's parents don't care about the architecture. That's a white person's thing - to care about how the campus looks.