Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. Stanford University Buzz Book is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting.
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Stanford University Buzz Book Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. Stanford University Buzz Book is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting. |
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Stanford University Buzz Book Welcome to the first edition of Vault's Stanford University Buzz Book. In this new and unique guide, we publish extended excerpts and sample admissions essays from surveys of students and alumni from Stanford to bring you the inside scoop on its undergraduate program. The survey comments cover the following areas:
The guide is intended to serve as a complement to other references to colleges and universities currently available that utilize school-reported data. Unlike those guides, Vault's Buzz Books (which also include the College Buzz Book, Business School Buzz Book and Law School Buzz Book) are composed almost entirely of information provided directly to Vault from students and alumni. (We asked Stanford to comment on the surveys after they were collected.)
We received comments from Stanford, which we have included comments next to appropriate survey sections, offset with a different font and indented to be easily recognizable as school-provided comments. Corrections within the body of the comments are enclosed in brackets. Stanford also provided separate narratives that have included them at the end of each chapter, under the heading "The School Says."
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Admissions: Students Speak
Status: Current student, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/2002-Submit Date
Survey Submitted: May 2006
Admissions is highly competitive at this school, with less than 12 percent of applicants accepted for the 2006-2007 school year. High value placed on academic background, with the expectation that an applicant has taken some of the most difficult courses offered at his or her school and done well in them. In addition, strong writing skills in response to the proprietary essay questions are critical, as interviews are not yet part of the admissions process. Stanford pays attention to racial, socioeconomic and geographic diversity, among other factors.
Academics: Students Speak
Status: Alumnus/a, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/1992-6/1996
Survey Submitted: September 2003
Stanford is unique among the top schools in that it is the only school that has strong programs in virtually every academic department: Computer Science, Engineering, Chemistry, Psychology, Political Science, Economics, Physics, Sociology and History. If you already know what you want to major in, then by all means it's not necessary to go to an all around academic institution like Stanford. But must high school students don't really know what they want to major in. Furthermore, academic departments do not exist in a vacuum. Cutting-edge research can cross several seemingly unrelated departments. Stanford is on a quarter system, which I found particularly tough. Professors tend to cram a semester's worth of material into 10 weeks. If you are a "slow" learner, know what you are getting into. On the other hand, you are able to try more classes in four years than at other institutions.
Finally, one of the best things about Stanford is that it builds up your confidence and trains you to expect no less than excellence from yourself. Professors treat you as if you are the smartest and the brightest and they expect no less. One CS professor has an on-going competition with a professor at MIT to see whose introductory CS class can write the most impressive programs.
Employment Prospects: Students Speak
Status: Alumnus/a, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 8/1997-5/2000
Survey Submitted: September 2003
In my experience, the Stanford name is worth its weight in gold, as far as opening doors with prospective employers is concerned. The school has a fall on-campus interview process that brings numerous industry leaders to campus in search of the best and brightest talent. While job recruiting has slowed down across the country due to the present economic downturn, I have heard through anecdotal stories that recruiting on campus by employers is still strong and in line with the leading Ivy League institutions on the East Coast.
Employment Prospects: The School Says
Stanford's 177,341 living alumni include two U.S. Supreme Court justices, as well as well-known academic leaders, astronauts, scientists and inventors, business leaders, government officials, athletes, journalists and actors. Stanford's entrepreneurial spirit has helped spawn an estimated 3,000 companies in high technology and other fields.
Quality of Life: Students Speak
Status: Current student, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/2005-Submit Date
Survey Submitted: July 2005
Life is very nice here on the Farm. Students seem to project an outward calm, collectiveness and nonchalance about schoolwork even though most of them are heavily worried down inside. There are probably more racial cliques than one would like, but generally everyone seems to get along. The campus is perfectly gorgeous, and the climate is wonderful, though somewhat boring. You won't see rain for several months, and cloudless days can stretch on for weeks. Palo Alto has fewer below freezing days per year than Houston and fewer above 90 days than Chicago.
Social Life: Students Speak
Status: Alumnus/a, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/1989-6/1993
Survey Submitted: January 2004
Greek system is not very big here, but it's there for those who are looking for the Greek scene. It's been a joke that dating doesn't exist at Stanford, but there are couples.
Status: Alumnus/a, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/1994-6/1998
Survey Submitted: December 2005
Not too much dating. Palo Alto's a little sleepy. Not too much interaction with grad students. Ballroom dancing was really big during my time.
