Stanford University
Reviews

Free Buses for All

Stanford has an extensive free bus service open to everyone in the area. There are many different lines running all over campus, which I very convenient because Stanford is huge! Some buses go off campus to shopping centers or transit stations so you can take other forms of public transit elsewhere. They could come more frequently, but all in all, I'm satisfied.

Enforcement Is Lax

In general school officials tend not to get involved in students' personal lives. There's just one minor annoyance: campus police frequently give tickets to bikers who run stop signs or ride at night without a light.

Bring a Bike

Stanford is such a large campus that a bike is all but mandatory. It takes about 5 minutes to get from dorm to class on a bike. Plus, once you have a bike you can get to anywhere in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Menlo Park, or anywhere within a 10-mile radius easily. There is a San Antonio Shopping Center in Mountain View which can be reached by the Marguerite shuttle or by biking.

The public transportation in the Bay Area is quite nice. The Caltrain runs from San Francisco through San Jose down to Gilroy and costs $4.75 from Stanford to SJC. To get to SFO you can take the BART. VTA public buses cost $2 and have hundreds of routes throughout Santa Clara County.

Very Safe

Students are too worried about getting good grades to get into hard drugs.

Diversity

Stanford is a place where diversity is welcomed. There are literally hundreds of student groups, all of whom are treated with respect.

Tons of Food

Lots of restaurants, but they are on the pricy side.

The Best Package Ever!

Stanford gives you all that you need and more! I will graduate without a loan to my name, thank you Stanford!

Best Time of My Life!

The people, the community, the facilities, professors and location all make Stanford more than a dream come true. I have no regrets and thoroughly enjoy my time here. I will miss it when I graduate.

Kept in Check

Students here have a lot of lee-way, and authorities seem to tolerate a fair amount so long as everyone's being responsible about drinking. The real trouble comes with harder drug usage, violations of housing contracts, and of course academic dishonesty. Basically: if you act like an adult, policies will treat you like an adult. If you act like a loon, your mom is going to be brought in, and nobody wants that.

Hard to Tell

I'm not in the scene and am mostly oblivious to it, but as far as I can tell if it's available, it's low-key. Alcohol is always popular, and the drinking scene is pretty big, but in my experience there's not much trouble with peer pressure and the RA's always have really good policies in place about drinking in-dorm (if you're going to drink, do it safely).

Head Down El Camino Real

The area around Stanford's not much for catering to student tastes (and wallets) so I avoid University Avenue, but if cheap is what you're looking for, just a ways down the main road there's a few gems if you've got the free time to bike, drive, or hitch a ride on the bus. A Boston Market with tasty sandwiches and amazing macaroni and cheese, the ever-popular In & Out Burger, and even the elusive Dairy Queen can be found within a relatively short distance. Head down the road the other way and there's a Safeway within easy biking distance, a convenience when it comes to late-night cravings.

Ras Are Very Lenient

In freshman dorms especially, although this depends on the specific RAs themselves, RAs seem to be very chill and lenient. They are more concerned with your safety, well being, and happiness rather than getting you into trouble.

Stanford Is Very Safe!

The campus is very big and open, with no security gates or anything like that. However, since the campus is pretty detached from the cities around it, we don't get sketchy people coming around. It is almost like Stanford is in its own bubble. There are campus security people around though, and especially at night time they always patrol. There are infrequent cases in dorms where laptops and such gets stolen, but it rarely happens I would say.

Financial Aid - Not a Problem. for Anyone. EVER.

Stanford has one of the best financial aid programs in the country. I am a resident of California, and Stanford offered me the largest scholarship of any California school, including the UCs, and substantially more than many liberal arts schools that I applied to. The Financial Aid Office is amazingly friendly and helpful, and I have worked with them many a time on turning in forms and making sure that I had everything taken care of well before the deadline.

Did you know that even if you pay full tuition, it costs Stanford more than that to actually keep you here as a student? That extra money comes from donors, sports, and research. You can't put a price on the Stanford experience, and that's the truth.

A Fantastic College

Stanford University is a very helpful University . Love the College reccomend to anybody.

Stanford Bubble

There's a lot of stuff to do on campus - there's even a shopping center. Going to Palo Alto or Mountain View is usually done once or twice a month or so, and students usually stay on campus.

Fun but Not Central

While there are a variety of fraternities and sororities, a majority of students are not involved in Greek life. While parties are fun, they are not central to student life.

Lots of Top-Notch Facilities for Many Different Activities

The athletic facilities are top-notch, as are the labs and libraries. The gym I go to is big, with a rock climbing wall, weight room, mats for martial arts training/yoga/pilates/etc. Stanford is currently building a new gym, and has just finished a new concert hall. It needs more music practice/theater space, but those are supposedly coming in the next few years, as the university is in the midst of expanding its arts programs. There are also several students hang-out areas complete with food, and the campus itself is expansive and beautiful.

Abundant and Well-Equipped Facilities

There a LOT of well-equipped, well-run facilities on campus, from huge libraries to the Hume Writing Center for help with absolutely any writing assignment you might have, to the campus eateries. The only complaint I might have, and it's a small one, is that a lot of the stores on campus aren't open nearly late enough, which is strange considering they're supposed to be there for us students, who are all up at crazy hours

Alcohol and Marijuana

No one pressures you to do either. But people do both with a high degree of regularity. They are not strictly enforced but some people drink past the point at which it is still safe. In which case an ambulance generally arrives to take them to a hospital.

What Sets Us Apart

What sets Stanford apart from a lot of the Ivies is the athletic presence on campus. Lots of students are athletes themselves, and students who aren't try their best to support their friends in varsity games. For those who aren't at the Varsity level, there are lots of IM and club sports to choose from, as well as pick up games that are either organized by your dorm or are completely spur of the moment.

Special

Stanford is an awesome school which tries to make the freshman experience a great one. The RAs are trained intensely and freshman in your dorms (whether all frosh or mixed) is really the first group of people that you'll bond with at Stanford. The housing options are all on campus and guarenteed all 4 years and have a variety of options. As for classes, there are professors who regularly make it in NYT or CNN that freshmen can take classes from and research that is being done that is making world news. The people that you will meet at Stanford will change how you think about the world, and are some of the most unique and interesting people there are. It's an awesome school that focuses on community, academics, and social life of students.

Best Athletics in the World

We've won the Director's Cup for "best overall athletic program" for the past eighteen years straight. We have over 100 NCAA championships (only school besides for UCLA to do that) and have won a NCAA championship every year for the past thirty-five years in a row. The majority of our teams are always ranked in the top five in the nation -- usually first or second. It's an amazing scene on campus too: all the home games are free for all students, and the student section is always incredibly lively. All games have high attendance and high energy. Away games are broadcast throughout campus, so you can always find a good place to watch those, too. There's no better place on earth for athletics.

Small Town Adventures

Palo Alto is a small town with a limited number of college age venues. The restaurants range from mildly affordable to quite pricey. Overall boring town but very safe

Bike, Bike, Bike

If you're one of those kids who never took of the training wheels, this probably won't be a great environment for you. It's a huge campus, but you can't get anywhere on campus via car. A car is nice to go grocery shopping or catch a movie, but the bus system run by the school is relatively efficient and can get you through any crises.