Stanford University

Date: Sep 09 2003
Major: Economics (This Major's Salary over time)
I've totally enjoyed my two years at Stanford. I'm really glad I chose to go there instead of the east coast ivies I got into. Having lived and grown up in Westchester, NY my entire life, I can really appreciate how getting out of that Chote/Rye Country Day/Horace Mann atmosphere has done wonders for my outlook on life. The quality of life is incredible, seeing as how the dorms are almost all new (thanks to an ongoing $1.2 billion project called the CIP or Capital Improvement Project), the food is good (though not Cornell good), and the weather… well, lets just say during the winter of 02'-03' when the Northeast was buried in snow, I was walking around campus in a T-shirt and khakis.

The academics are also uniformly incredible, with the notable exception of our music and arts departments. The engineering school is second to none, and having taken a bunch of Comp Sci classes and an electrical engineering class, I can totally understand how Silicon Valley sprung up around Stanford. Economics, Poli Sci, History, and psychology are also amazing departments, with profs like Ken Arrow, Zimbardo, and other huge names.

The only real beef that I have with the school is that the surrounding area isn't as fun as say Boston or D.C. (two notoriously fun college cities), because Stanford is nestled in the middle of a suburb. That means for out of state students like me, getting off campus can be tough if you don't have a car. Other than that though, I've loved my time out there, and I'm looking forward to another two great years!