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It really surprised me to see a Stanford undergrad fail at anything to be honest Why? The impression I've gotten from a lot of time in industry is that the ave

It really surprised me to see a Stanford undergrad fail at anything to be honest Why? The impression I've gotten from a lot of time in industry is that the average Stanford student/graduate is, well, average.

akhilcacharya 8y ago
Because Stanford is incredibly selective, and is one of the 4 premier CS institutions in the world? I dunno, as someone that went to a public school with a 50% accept rate it seems difficult to imagine “academic superhumans” struggle with anything, ever.
- pritambaral 8y ago
  > it seems difficult to imagine “academic superhumans” struggle with anything, ever. I know a person who went to a comparable institution in my country, who was considered something of a prodigy by his peers (and me) both before being selected and after joining the institution, and who struggled a lot with his academic responsibilities. In fact, I know a few of them. One of them had to drop out of the institution after repeatedly trying to finish his academic programme, and after two years of extensions. People struggle with things, in general. Everybody has their struggles, everybody has their demons. Even "superhumans". What we should be aiming for is not the lack of struggles — for that is merely the absence of effort — but perseverance in the face of it and growth from going through it.
- ubernostrum 8y ago
  I'm sure you believe that there's something special about Stanford. Many people believe that. What I'm saying is that, in my experience, the belief doesn't hold up. If it were possible to reliably identify "academic superhumans" and concentrate them in one place, we'd have absolutely indisputable evidence of it. The fact that we don't suggests that perhaps your beliefs about how Stanford's admission practices correlate with quality of graduates may be mistaken.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- CuriouslyC 8y ago
  The best performing students I've ever met weren't ridiculously smart. They were slightly above average, but they excelled at finding out exactly what the teacher was going to test and drilling that ruthlessly. They also worked harder than most of their peers. They also know how to present their answers well, and I think teachers subconsciously give them more credit when they're not exactly right. As a funny anecdote, once I let a top copy my homework because he had just come home from a family emergency. He actually got a higher score on that homework than I did, despite the content of our answers being the same.
- kthejoker2 8y ago
  I forget who, but in (99% sure) Werner Herzig's Lo and Behold there's a (Stanford?) professor who says when they first did some MOOC they had all the kids in the Stanford course taking it as well, and of the 50,000 or whatever number of people taking the course, the top Stanford student finished like #430 in the course.
samfisher83 8y ago
If you are Indian you need a 1500+ + 4.0 + good extra curriculars and there is a very good chance you are not getting in. It might similar for other folks, but I don't know. So if the people getting into Stanford are average not sure who you are comparing them to.
- akhilcacharya 8y ago
  You probably need better than a 1500 these days. Closer to 1600. For what it's worth, I got a 1500 out of 1600 with a 4.0 and went to my safety (My EC's were nonexistent and never applied to Stanford though..)

akhilcacharya 8y ago

Because Stanford is incredibly selective, and is one of the 4 premier CS institutions in the world? I dunno, as someone that went to a public school with a 50% accept rate it seems difficult to imagine “academic superhumans” struggle with anything, ever.

pritambaral 8y ago
> it seems difficult to imagine “academic superhumans” struggle with anything, ever. I know a person who went to a comparable institution in my country, who was considered something of a prodigy by his peers (and me) both before being selected and after joining the institution, and who struggled a lot with his academic responsibilities. In fact, I know a few of them. One of them had to drop out of the institution after repeatedly trying to finish his academic programme, and after two years of extensions. People struggle with things, in general. Everybody has their struggles, everybody has their demons. Even "superhumans". What we should be aiming for is not the lack of struggles — for that is merely the absence of effort — but perseverance in the face of it and growth from going through it.
ubernostrum 8y ago
I'm sure you believe that there's something special about Stanford. Many people believe that. What I'm saying is that, in my experience, the belief doesn't hold up. If it were possible to reliably identify "academic superhumans" and concentrate them in one place, we'd have absolutely indisputable evidence of it. The fact that we don't suggests that perhaps your beliefs about how Stanford's admission practices correlate with quality of graduates may be mistaken.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
CuriouslyC 8y ago
The best performing students I've ever met weren't ridiculously smart. They were slightly above average, but they excelled at finding out exactly what the teacher was going to test and drilling that ruthlessly. They also worked harder than most of their peers. They also know how to present their answers well, and I think teachers subconsciously give them more credit when they're not exactly right. As a funny anecdote, once I let a top copy my homework because he had just come home from a family emergency. He actually got a higher score on that homework than I did, despite the content of our answers being the same.
kthejoker2 8y ago
I forget who, but in (99% sure) Werner Herzig's Lo and Behold there's a (Stanford?) professor who says when they first did some MOOC they had all the kids in the Stanford course taking it as well, and of the 50,000 or whatever number of people taking the course, the top Stanford student finished like #430 in the course.

samfisher83 8y ago

If you are Indian you need a 1500+ + 4.0 + good extra curriculars and there is a very good chance you are not getting in. It might similar for other folks, but I don't know. So if the people getting into Stanford are average not sure who you are comparing them to.

akhilcacharya 8y ago
You probably need better than a 1500 these days. Closer to 1600. For what it's worth, I got a 1500 out of 1600 with a 4.0 and went to my safety (My EC's were nonexistent and never applied to Stanford though..)