Why I Chose Stanford
“Next question...what is unique to Stanford students?”
“Good one. What I’ve discovered over my years here is that Stanford students have a certain kind of irrelevance - I mean, I mean - irreverence! I meant irreverence!”
The auditorium burst into laughter. President Marc Tessier-Levigne chuckled from the stage - we were a good half hour into the official welcome. The President, or Big Daddy MTL, was in the middle of a Q and A session.
And throughout my time at Admit Weekend, I saw that irreverence in every corner of Stanford: in the raucous band that greeted us fresh out of Memorial Auditorium, in the midnight confusion that was Humans vs. Zombies, in the student-made robots that careened after us ProFros (prospective freshmen).
Stanford enchanted me. Stanford’s entrepreneurial spirit is no secret - it’s a school of quirky and daring people, and it goes out of its way to express this.
That Wednesday, as my mom and I drove onto campus to poke around before Admit Weekend, I cried. Stanford had been my dream school for so long - a dream that I’d all but given up on with my decision to graduate early from high school. To walk across the Quad, to buy mango lassis from Tree House, to sit in Memorial Church…it was surreal. I glided through campus like a tourist, unable to digest the beauty before me.
But emotions aside, I was hesitant about Stanford. I didn’t know whether their English department would live up to my standards - I’d heard a lot about the pressure to pursue a STEM major. Besides, Palo Alto felt too small to me. Despite the sheer size of the campus, I could sense why students warned of the “Stanford bubble.”
I resolved the English department problem quickly - faculty and students were quick to attest to the high quality of the program. Besides, Jesmyn Ward, Marta Acosta, Allegra Goodman, and a whole lineage of powerful writers had studied here. I attended and performed at a spoken word event (does anybody else’s hands freeze over when performing poetry?), spoke to students participating in journalism on campus.
Other than that, here are some of the reasons why I chose Stanford (I don’t know whether this post is supposed to be a blog or a list lmao):
The people. As I mentioned above, there is a bold and quirky quality to Stanford, a quality unrivaled by any other colleges I visited. Almost everybody at Stanford is passionate (genuinely passionate) about a variety of issues and subjects and activities; almost everybody there was the founder, CEO, and/or manager of something. And Stanford students are kind - at Admit Weekend, there was an overwhelming sense of openness and solidarity. Students and staff discussed mental health without hesitation; there was nothing but support and curiosity for each other’s activities. That being said, students are also passionate advocates and activists - oftentimes, they’re the ones who initiate campus-wide change.
The philosophy. Stanford prioritizes the shaping of useful citizens over hyper-specialization of knowledge. This is evident in its curriculum: it encourages students to explore everything from black holes to Asian American art to biotechnology to pop culture to consumer-friendly design. Students only need to decide their major(s) by the end of sophomore year. I took IB (the International Baccalaureate program) in high school, and IB was just too specialized for me - it resembled a cult of obliqueness rather than a useful transition from school to “real” life. I’m tempted to spill the tea on IB sometime later.
The opportunities. It took me hours to get through the course catalog, much less the list of extracurricular activities and opportunities to research and study abroad.
Adding onto opportunities: the flexibility. There’s a common saying that you can go to an entirely different Stanford than the person sitting next to you, depending on your courseload, activities, schedule, etc. Freshmen have several housing options: SLE (Structured Liberal Education - based off a curriculum of literature and philosophy), ITALIC (art-orientated), Frosoco (“nerd central” - and I mean that as a compliment), and several cultural houses.
The weather. I’m practically a cold-blooded creature, considering how I’m always freezing in Seattle. California is the only place I’ve ever gotten sunburned. I’m in love.
That being said, I know there are drawbacks: as mentioned previously, Palo Alto’s size, Stanford’s STEM-orientated nature. And there are a whole host of other problems with Stanford: safety, the rights of ethnic minorities, the expense of living in Palo Alto.
In the end, there’s no such thing as a perfect college (what a cliche), and I didn’t go into the college app process expecting one. Still, I’m just as excited now as I was after Admit Weekend - I can’t wait to call Stanford my home.