DO THEY BREAK STUDENTS’ HEADS IN STANFORD?
I was reading the profile of the new Google CFO few days ago and predictably saw she is also an ex-Stanford. Google founders themselves were also ex-students of Stanford.
I notice that a good number of Stanford students that dropped out ended up being entrepreneurs/inventors while most that finished ended up as corporate executives or academics.
So I ask again, what exactly do they teach in Stanford?
Do they break the head of their students and put some crazy ingenuity in them?
Or is it just plain networking?
I heard there are some tech and investment banking companies that only hire grads of Stanford and like three other schools.
I posed these to some of my friends on Facebook and here are some top responses:
I think you could say that Stanford “break the head of their students and put some crazy ingenuity in them”. What I have noticed about schools like Stanford and other schools in their class is that they teach from first principles; meaning no la cram la pass.
Concept s are explained in a way that the student can own it, use it, touch it, feel it and hence produce something novel with it. Actually let’s back up. The caliber of students that get into Stanford is top tier, the professors have gone to schools like Stanford; so, when they want to teach a concept they don’t mind inviting the originator of that concept which makes for a lot of inspiration.
Also, there is the repetition aspect of their teaching methodology. What they teach in the first year is touched upon in the second and third years in a way that assume the students may have forgotten some of the concept.
Then there is also the pride that “I went to stanford so I am the smartest in the room” and you are right – the networking opportunities is off the chain.
Then there is the law of “winner takes all”, which works in their favor. The law is pretty simple.: We ascribe success to those who are successful and we tend to overlook their failures sometimes. I am not saying this is bad. it is what it is. It is a law.
Just my thought.
Samuel Adewale, Bsc Ife, Msc Arkansas, Msc Tulsa
It may be because Stanford has one of the lowest acceptance rates in the US. In Medicine it is 2nd only to Mayo in rejection of applicants. Most ambitious foreigners favour the East Coast Unis like Harvard, Hopkins, Yale, Princeton. Stanford is in faraway California on the West Coast.
Dr. Muhammad Shakir Balogun, MBBS (ABU)
I believe Stanford is enjoying the following factors: Prestige, Location, Less competition from Ivy league in the East due to location, and Networking.
It is the most prestigious University in the whole of West coast of US, leading the likes of UC Berkeley, USC and UCLA.
It’s located in California, (the 6th-8th largest economies in the world).
It’s located very close to Silicon Valley (the hub of the biggest high tech companies in the world). Also, Silicon Valley accounts for 30 percent of venture capital investment in US.
The Business School and Computer science program is one of the best in the world.
Networking (just like you mentioned above) – the relationship between Stanford, the faculties and Silicon Valley is splendid.
If you give me any of the Ivy league or Stanford to attend. I will pick Stanford
Tayo Adetoro, Bsc Ife; Msc Unilag
Another factor may be traced to history of the university. The founder wanted to donate a building to Harvard in memory of his son. Harvard folks didn’t know that he was a billionaire so they thought he was joking. He eventually founded Stanford University and probably wanted it to be as famous as Harvard.