3 ms·

Interesting point. Elite universities offer a good education, a respected credential, and connections. Stanford is also a startup factory, being (not coincident

Interesting point. Elite universities offer a good education, a respected credential, and connections. Stanford is also a startup factory, being (not coincidentally) adjacent to Silicon Valley and containing a business school in addition to the engineering school.

deleted 1y ago
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HDThoreaun 1y ago
What does stanford offer undergrads that berkeley doesnt? IMO access to legacies and the larger alumni network is about it.
- musicale 1y ago
  Better faculty to student ratio (1:6 vs. 1:19). Closer proximity to actual Santa Clara (Silicon) Valley (and Google, NVIDIA, etc.) More NCAA championships and Olympic medals. Still leading in "big game" football series (though currently on a losing streak.) More Turing awards. Not as many Nobel prizes - or elements on the periodic table - however. Berkeley (having many more undergrads) also has more alumni. (But note for both schools that good researchers are not necessarily good undergraduate instructors.)
  - suslik 1y ago
    > More NCAA championships and Olympic medals. Still leading in "big game" football series (though currently on a losing streak.) As a side note, I always found this obsession with sports to be a fascinating aspect of american culture. Being from an entirely different culture, it’s unclear to me why on earth would anyone give a fuck about this.
    - musicale 1y ago
      I have heard that in some countries soccer (aka "football") is a big thing for some reason. Also the Olympics seem to be a big thing every four years, particularly in the country where they are being held; Berkeley and Stanford do pretty well in that competition.
      - suslik 1y ago
        Sports can be big in a country, sure, but US is the only country I can recall where sports matters as a criteria to choose a university to go to (as an in op). But just in case - it’s cool, I wasn’t being judgmental.
        musicale 1y ago
        You may be reading too much into the original question, which was simply: > What does stanford offer undergrads that berkeley doesnt? IMO access to legacies and the larger alumni network is about it Non-academic advantages (e.g. athletics programs, student housing, etc.) are still advantages. Berkeley has its own set of non-academic advantages, such as closer proximity and access to San Francisco (via BART).

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HDThoreaun 1y ago

What does stanford offer undergrads that berkeley doesnt? IMO access to legacies and the larger alumni network is about it.

musicale 1y ago
Better faculty to student ratio (1:6 vs. 1:19). Closer proximity to actual Santa Clara (Silicon) Valley (and Google, NVIDIA, etc.) More NCAA championships and Olympic medals. Still leading in "big game" football series (though currently on a losing streak.) More Turing awards. Not as many Nobel prizes - or elements on the periodic table - however. Berkeley (having many more undergrads) also has more alumni. (But note for both schools that good researchers are not necessarily good undergraduate instructors.)
- suslik 1y ago
  > More NCAA championships and Olympic medals. Still leading in "big game" football series (though currently on a losing streak.) As a side note, I always found this obsession with sports to be a fascinating aspect of american culture. Being from an entirely different culture, it’s unclear to me why on earth would anyone give a fuck about this.
  - musicale 1y ago
    I have heard that in some countries soccer (aka "football") is a big thing for some reason. Also the Olympics seem to be a big thing every four years, particularly in the country where they are being held; Berkeley and Stanford do pretty well in that competition.
    - suslik 1y ago
      Sports can be big in a country, sure, but US is the only country I can recall where sports matters as a criteria to choose a university to go to (as an in op). But just in case - it’s cool, I wasn’t being judgmental.
      - musicale 1y ago
        You may be reading too much into the original question, which was simply: > What does stanford offer undergrads that berkeley doesnt? IMO access to legacies and the larger alumni network is about it Non-academic advantages (e.g. athletics programs, student housing, etc.) are still advantages. Berkeley has its own set of non-academic advantages, such as closer proximity and access to San Francisco (via BART).