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Is it? Why would anyone choose any other school over Stanford? California has great weather; Stanford is the most racially diverse top school; it's name holds a great deal of prestige; and it's 45 mins away from a major city. But what sets Stanford apart is, in my view, the fact that it has a top-rated program in almost every field, something other top 10 schools can't claim have.

By Lethalfang (Lethalfang) on Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 09:39 pm: Edit

Actually, UC Berkeley can claim that.
There are 35 ouf of 36 departments for which UC Berkeley is rated top 10, with majority of them in top 5, and many in top 3.

By Spartan858585 (Spartan858585) on Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 09:42 pm: Edit

plus it has the most well rounded atletic program in the country. Most if not all of their athletic teams are in the top 25 in every sport. The only schools I would chose over Stanford would be Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. but in terms of overall best schools athletics and academics Stanford is number 1 with Duke coming in at number 2

By Deepak (Deepak) on Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 10:01 pm: Edit

How about Columbia's basketball team, I hear they are great...They have a 2-26 record
HAHAHAHAHA

I'm horrible

By Dwayne_Hoover (Dwayne_Hoover) on Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 10:20 pm: Edit

I agree Zimmer--i mean harvard, yale princeton are NO WHERE near Stanford in Engineering/Science/Technology and other technical fields. Furthermore, Stanford ranks the same with them in more humanities-based--they hold a lot more prestige than UC Berkeley, they are higher ranked in most engineering fields. Stanford is just a much better school than any other in the country.

By Sac (Sac) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 01:17 am: Edit

UC Berkeley has one of the top engineering schools in the country, as does Stanford. It's not that one is so "much better" than the other, but that one might be a better experience for undergraduates. Their faculties are tops. It's the access to the faculty you can get as an undergraduate that might make the difference in choosing between them -- but then there is also the difference in cost. In terms of the quality of the faculty, UC Berkeley is the best deal in the country, at least for a California resident. $4,000 a year versus close to $30,000. But it's not the place for someone who needs a lot of individual attention.

By B18c1cx (B18c1cx) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 01:28 am: Edit

Stanford is not "that" great. It is a top university but lacks international recognition and unfortunately is still viewed as slightly lesser than the Ivies.*


*Last month at an FBLA lunch-in, I had to eat with this prominent businessman (from my local rotary Club) who called stanford a wanna-be ivy school when I told him I was wait-listed there.

By ~the_Chosen~ (~the_Chosen~) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 02:48 am: Edit

Harvard is fool, don't be stupid. It is the standard by which all other universities are measured.

Undergraduate doesn't mean much, graduate is what matters and Harvard is the #1 grad school. Is Stanford better than Harvard in Medical, Law, and Business? No, Harvard is even though US News may disagree once in a while.

Harvard is also the #1 research institution. Sorry, but nothing can compete with Harvard's overall prestige.

By ~the_Chosen~ (~the_Chosen~) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 03:02 am: Edit

Also rankings are so misleading, read what Stanford's 9th president said.

http://collegeapps.about.com/library/weekly/aa120702a.htm

How statistically significant is a school ranked 1 to a school ranked 10?

By Zimmer (Zimmer) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 03:21 am: Edit

Sure, in terms of *raw* prestige, the 3 big Ivies outstrip Stanford, but only to a certain degree and only for certain fields of study; for instance, *there is nothing more prestigious than a degree in psychology from Stanford
*; a Stanford psychology degree is indisputably the standard by which all other psychology degrees are evaluated. Nevertheless Stanford's all-round prestige is still extreme, and the pros of gong to Stanford over an upper-Ivy outweigh the cons -- by far.

By Dream5 (Dream5) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 04:55 am: Edit

You are all ranking-obsessed, mindless, and narcissistic bimbos.

By Trojan1444 (Trojan1444) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 05:51 am: Edit

I concur.....the "best" school is whatever the best school is for you.

By Chiangkaishrek (Chiangkaishrek) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 06:40 am: Edit

I have heard that on the east coast, top companies disregard Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA and Cal-Tech as great institutes. The reason for this? They think west coast colleges produce slackers, whereas east coast institutes, mainly the power-house Ivies, produce hard working students, who can contribute to a particulat department within a company. Don't shoot me for saying this...this is what I've heard at a meeting at Merril Lynch.

By Beenthereil (Beenthereil) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 09:04 am: Edit

My son was advised NOT to attend Harvard but rather go to Stanford because Stanford is more challenging in his undergraduate major than Harvard.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but it seems the "luster" had faded to some extent in recent years.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 12:04 pm: Edit

geez people...sure stanford is the best school for SOME people and others would much rather prefer harvard. many would find themselves happiest at UVA and your occasional student may like their local community college better. ALL OF THE TOP 50 SCHOOLS ARE GREAT. rankings dont mean much anymore, at least not for the raw quality of education. for instance, i'd choose harvard over stanford in law, stanford over harvard in engineering, but im not majoring in either. my first choice? CORNELL. why? its my best fit. Stanford is an awesome school and i plan on applying, but living in Ohio, Cali is far faarrrrrrrrrr away...

By Medprof (Medprof) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 02:31 pm: Edit

These law firms, financial companies like Merrill Lynch in NYC want their new hires who just got out of college to put in 100 hrs/wk for them. If you divide the salary by the hrs, it's not much pay. You have to ask yourself if that's the life you want.

By Zimmer (Zimmer) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 05:48 pm: Edit

I don't know about you guys, but after *thinking* about it; after employing my critical faculties; after visiting campuses; after getting a first-hand sense of the top schools; I have been unable to come to a conclusion as to why anyone would turn down Stanford in favor of any other school.

Stanford is just.... electric, exciting, exhilarating.

By Dwayne_Hoover (Dwayne_Hoover) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 06:03 pm: Edit

STANFORD BEATS ANY SCHOOL UNDERGRADUATE
HARVARD BEATS ANY SCHOOL POST GRADUATE--although stanford is very close behind harvard in graduate schools and harvard does'nt EVEN COME CLOSE To stanford in techincal fields for undergraduate....so overall, stanford wins!

By Quakerboy2 (Quakerboy2) on Monday, June 02, 2003 - 01:02 am: Edit

MIT, anybody? I've heard that's a decent school for both undergrad and grad in the technical fields. Probably slightly better than Stanford, perchance?

By Lethalfang (Lethalfang) on Monday, June 02, 2003 - 03:48 am: Edit

There are 3 really good Ivy schools, and 3 pretty good ones, the rest (Brown and Dartmouth) just aren't any good.
The academics of Brown and Dartmouth to Ivy League is like Baylor football to Big-12 Conference. They don't belong.

By Heythere (Heythere) on Monday, June 02, 2003 - 04:28 pm: Edit

I love how you say Dartmouth and Brown "just aren't any good."

Yeah all those dumb Dartmouth graduates...please.

By Zimmer (Zimmer) on Monday, June 02, 2003 - 04:45 pm: Edit

S-T-A-N-F-O-R-D rulez!

By 1214 (1214) on Monday, June 02, 2003 - 05:01 pm: Edit

give me 5 non-sarcastic reasons for brown not being on par with her ivy league peers

By Heythere (Heythere) on Monday, June 02, 2003 - 05:13 pm: Edit

Again, some people have horrible experiences at Harvard and wonderful ones at Dartmouth or Brown or Penn or Middlebury or Bowdoin, Villanova, Stanford, Pomona, NYU, UVa...anywhere, your education is NOT the school you go to after certain point. Once you reach the quality of high budget liberal arts/or doctoral schools it's really how you utilize that school's resources. I mean--Chemistry is chemistry. A major of chemistry at Brown who is excited by the subject and follows up on it with independent projects and research and a major of chemistry at Harvard who sits there, inactive, studying but not doing anything with it is going to be much more successful. Stop being elitist.

By Crackcorn (Crackcorn) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 01:32 am: Edit

John Elway and Tiger Woods attended Stanford.

By Zimmer (Zimmer) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 06:35 pm: Edit

Oh dear God. I love Stanford.

By Uncchlocalmayor (Uncchlocalmayor) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 08:10 pm: Edit

no.

By Dschnapps (Dschnapps) on Saturday, June 07, 2003 - 12:37 am: Edit

lol, Unc, we all know that chapel hill is the best.

By Nick1484 (Nick1484) on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 08:31 pm: Edit

An interesting link on all this:

http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=7792

By Cardinal15 (Cardinal15) on Sunday, September 07, 2003 - 12:19 am: Edit

Stanford is definitely better than Harvard -- not only because it can boast academic excellence in everything from English to Engineering, but also the school doesn't take itself too seriously. Undergraduate life there keeps students challenged, yet humble. Also, Massachusetts weather simply can't compare to the near-paradise climate of San Francisco!

Also the average graduate school ranking for Stanford is 3.2, I think -- higher than all the ivies (Harvard is 4.3, I think).

If you're undecided between majoring in the arts and sciences -- in fact, even if you are decided -- Stanford beats Harvard anyday.

(And the diploma certainly carries weighty international prestige.)