Stanford University

Date: Sep 10 2003
Major: Electrical Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
I picked Stanford over Harvard and MIT, and I'm really glad I did! I'm learning so much from my professors, my classmates, and especially from the people I'm living with. There's a really diverse group of people on campus, and befriending all the people in my dorm last year was an incredible experience.

The academic life here is really tough, especially if you're one of Stanford's "techies," or science/engineering students. The "fuzzies," i.e. the arts/humanities students, have it easier, but they still work hard. Life in general is pretty good. Our dorms are spacious, well lit, and clean. (Compare our dorms with Berkeley's if you want to see a night vs. day kind of difference). The campus is incredibly beautiful, and it really makes a difference in your mood when you have to walk or bike from one area on campus to another in a welcoming, aesthetically pleasing environment. The surrounding area isn't all that exciting, but Palo Alto is a nice place to catch dinner if you want to get off campus. The school is pretty generous with financial aid, and I got a great package - a couple thousand more than I got from either Harvard or MIT.

The only thing that can get kind of annoying is the fact that the student spaces on campus, while plentiful, is somewhat old. The student government is talking about building a new student center to replace Tressider, our current one. But I don't know if that's going to happen for another year or so.

Oh and one more thing: Berkeley students like to give Stanford students a hard time. They call us arrogant, spoiled, etc. Well, I won't deny that there are some people like that on our campus as there are at every other college across the United States. But then again, they're just bitter that they didn't get into Stanford. Really, really bitter. For all of you who aren't familiar with this relationship between the two schools, think of the relationship between the United States and France. One is a superpower and the other likes to be a pain in the rear. Berkeley is like France - the angry, resentful has-beens.