Stanford University

Date: Jul 26 2010
Major: Linguistics (This Major's Salary over time)
There are some fabulous things about Stanford, but by and large those resources are restricted to grad students and well-connected west coasters. I loved my department, but after a while academic satisfaction wasn't enough to overcome my deep dislike of the Stanford social scene. White, rich, and Californian is the name of the game. Greek life, as small as it is in terms of number of bodies, still manages to find a way to be oppressive. For those of us who like to cut loose on the weekends, there really weren't very options, especially because Palo Alto is possibly the worst college town in North America. The dot com bubble yuppified the place, and now it's too expensive for regular folks to hang out in. Academically speaking, Stanford has a lot going for it, but this is tempered by the university's focus on grad students, science and engineering (the real rainmakers without which Stanford would not be as highly ranked), and the consistent underutilization of resources by the complacent, arrogant, and self-absorbed undergrad population.

The athletic culture is just too big. Stanford regularly recruits athletes who can't hack it academically, leading to a stratified social scene consisting mainly of disaffected students desperately seeking intellectual stimulation from their peers, and juicehead jocks who generally do not associate with anyone else but themselves. Stanford is simply a really, REALLY expensive state school in this respect. I'm transferring out, and I couldn't be happier about it.