your average college that's not Harvard or Stanford I don't know why you think the intellectual tenor would be different at those colleges. My respect for Stan

your average college that's not Harvard or Stanford I don't know why you think the intellectual tenor would be different at those colleges. My respect for Stanford took a major hit when I saw this: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1907908-stanford-band-forms-snapchat-logo-during-rose-bowl-halftime-show http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1907908-stanford-band-for... There are pockets of intellectualism at any college, but the truth is that American culture is just not very intellectual, and among the business elite there's a pronounced antiintellectualism. You're going to find more philistines than intellectuals at any college in the U.S. and, yes, that includes the top ones. Technology people aren't an exception to this. The old Silicon Valley nerds had at least an interest in history and literature and art. They weren't experts, but they agreed that it was important. The new business-oriented pseudonerds? Narrowly specialized in one technical field ("social graph logistics") and complete ignoramuses about everything else. Does that mean one shouldn't go to Harvard or Stanford? Of course not. It's great for the resume and there are a lot of connections to be made. But if you think that you're going to be discussing high intellectual concepts with most people meet-- or that the people bringing the connections and the people with high intellectual interests will have any overlap whatsoever-- you'll be disappointed.