Stanford vs Oregon academics

Currently an undergrad (not going to say where) and I have a split between all three. I have classes that have used online assignments for credit, classes where your mid-term gets dropped if you do better on the final, and ones where it was a mid-term and final and that was it. Obviously the first one was easy while the last was the hardest. However, they all were useful in some regard, whether that be cues to review certain material, or to challenge me intellectually.

If you are a business major (for example) in a non-numbers related specialization (say marketing) than calculus 1 probably doesn't mean that much to you. My school offers a watered down calculus for business students but there is nothing stopping you from taking the harder math courses that were meant for math majors.

Yeah France wrote:

Explainee wrote:

How is the education at Harvard better if the same material is taught in the same class at a different school? Math is math.

It is not taught the same, due to a different set of students. A smarter and better prepared student body will enable an instructor to teach more challenging concepts. The better students will demand a faster pace and will cover more in the semester. However, the distinction seems small once you start comparing major institutions, Kansas vs. Georgetown. Rather than Harvard vs. Bloomsburg(Pa).

Hop off Bloomsburg's D! They offered me money to run there!

Funny enough, I applied to Harvard, not Blooms, and got rejected. Whatevs

It's true that math is the same everywhere. However, expectations, grading curve, and average level of understanding are not. Math education and average quality of student work are arguably very different.

My grade point average at a large (>40,000 people) state university was 4.15 during high school (based on 2 general chem classes, 2 organic chem classes, and 1 organic chem lab). I put in very little effort to get A's or A+'s and even had enough time to take 10 AP classes and get a part-time job. In contrast, I just about killed myself at an "elite" university to get about a 3.7 (MCAT was a 41 though so I can't complain).

Homework wasn't worth much at either of the schools. Everyone does it and everyone gets roughly the same answers (people talk). It's more a question of learning the material anyway.

The two classes (Math 51, CS 106) that I mentioned earlier in the thread were the top two most enrolled, non-compulsory courses at Stanford. Using them as an example was not a product of my bias as an engineering major. They're just really popular classes.

And just to put this out there...Don't judge the writing/grammar here. This was written very quickly and math is more my thing.

In this thread: people who go to crappy schools trying to justify why they go to crappy schools.

All you need to see is the amount of on-campus recruiting that companies do. Do you think Google is going to Chico State to recruit programmers? No. They're going to Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, and CMU.

IN TIME, you could eventually work at Google if your post-collegiate performance indicated a very high level of knowledge and success in your work environment. You're starting off far behind, and that matters quite a bit. It's the difference between having options - attractive ones at that - and not.

And seriously, comparing Oregon to Stanford? What a joke.

Stanford #2

MIT #3

Berkeley #4

CMU #55

Oregon unranked

Chico State unranked

Shanghai 2011 wrote:

Stanford #2

MIT #3

Berkeley #4

CMU #55

Oregon unranked

Chico State unranked

I once read an research piece that ranked the universities by student post graduate success rather than the usual format of: peer evaluations, SAT scores, research output, etc. If I remember correctly, Texas A&M and Iowa State were one and two. The big Ivy League schools were on the list of course, but not in the order that I would expect. I think Johns Hopkins ranked higher than the traditional top Princeton/Harvard/Yale.

haha so obvious wrote:

In this thread: people who go to crappy schools trying to justify why they go to crappy schools.

All you need to see is the amount of on-campus recruiting that companies do. Do you think Google is going to Chico State to recruit programmers? No. They're going to Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, and CMU.

And seriously, comparing Oregon to Stanford? What a joke.

You are missing the point.

It all depends on the major. If you want to be an engineer, of course Stanford will be among the best schools that you can go to. But if your major is something else, then Stanford may not be the best choice or anywhere close to the best choice. There are plenty of things that Oregon is better at.

How do you not understand that?

Dr. Cho Wong tongue wrote:It's all about personality and personal drive in today's world.

I agree with this 100%...now...that I am 45. When I was 21, I was not that great at presenting myself. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I needed help. Places like Harvard, "help" young people - which is to say the alumni network understands that unfocused youth can do good work. Chico State cannot help as much - there is not as large a network to rely on.

If you are that rare breed who is very focused, then it does not matter where you went to school. I agree. I must admit that I didn't figure out what I wanted to do until I was forced to make money to pay the rent. Then I gravitated to something I enjoyed and could make a living at.

Dr. Cho Wong tongue wrote:

As a successful entrepreneur and businessman, I don't care what college a person graduates from as long as they have a degree.

If I'm interviewing an individual with a degree from Chico State versus a degree from Harvard, and the person from Chico State does better in the interview, guess what? Chico State gets the job.

It's funny that this poster brings up Harvard, when the original question was a comparison with Stanford. He actually acknowledges, apparently without being aware of it, the 'Harvard brand.' Whether you like it or not, having a Harvard degree or, to a lesser extent, a Stanford one, will open a lot of eyes and a lot of doors - around the world.

One obvious point here is that not everyone attending Stanford or Harvard wants to interview with this 'successful entrepreneur.' Believe it or not, there are still college students out there with genuine academic aspirations. I know several Ivy League, H-Y-P students and Stanford students who aspire to be professors. Or teachers. Or medical researchers at NIH or CDC. And making connections and studying in a challenging environment will definitely help these students who want to go on to become academics. Want to teach at an elite New England prep school, as opposed to an inner city public? You better believe that your Harvard degree will open some doors. Or work in international aid organizations. Or become a museum curator. Or any of a myriad of other jobs that don't involve impressing an entrepreneur at an interview along with all the Chico and Oregon students.

Are the academics more rigorous? Take a guess. Harvard concentrators are already doing tutorials in their chosen field by sophomore year. A semester class might involve 80 or 100 pages of papers in a history class. Class discussions in seminars will be challenging and stimulating. Most of the kids at the state school will just sit there, many will not have read the material. There are huge differences.

You guys really need to get your mouths off of Pre, lukas, salazar's anus....is this really a question????

You are telling me that if money was not an object, you never put on your trainers and skimpy shorts that you would go to Oregon over Stanford???????

right, keep telling yourself that lol

Slowdown90s wrote:

You guys really need to get your mouths off of Pre, lukas, salazar's anus....is this really a question????

You are telling me that if money was not an object, you never put on your trainers and skimpy shorts that you would go to Oregon over Stanford???????

right, keep telling yourself that lol

If Stanford doesnt have my major or isn't the best at my major, why would I go there?

Because most kids change their major, and everyone takes classes outside of their major, or majors. While Oregon may have a very few superior programs to Stanford, if you don't know what you're going to do in college than you should go to Stanford. Also the non-major classes you take at Stanford would be better...smaller class sizes, better profs, surrounded by better students, etc. Also, if a program at Oregon is ranked 3 spots higher than one at Stanford it doesn't really matter, because when you go into a job interview they aren't going to know the rankings of every program at every single school in the country, they are going to go: Stanford! Wow!.

Only the top ranked schools have individually ranked programs. Unranked schools are not even surveyed for their individual programs since there isn't enough data to make a determination.

All on you wrote:

Slowdown90s wrote:

You guys really need to get your mouths off of Pre, lukas, salazar's anus....is this really a question????

You are telling me that if money was not an object, you never put on your trainers and skimpy shorts that you would go to Oregon over Stanford???????

right, keep telling yourself that lol

If Stanford doesnt have my major or isn't the best at my major, why would I go there?

Because you don't necessarily know what your major will be.

Which programs at Oregon are better than the same program at Stanford?

All on you wrote:

If Stanford doesnt have my major or isn't the best at my major, why would I go there?

So you would only go to a school that is the best at your major? Mind if I ask what your major was and where you went to school?

altoroad wrote:

All on you wrote:

If Stanford doesnt have my major or isn't the best at my major, why would I go there?

Because you don't necessarily know what your major will be.

Why would you start college without knowing what you're gonna major in? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard (unless the school is giving you a free ride). You should go to community college or figure out what you want before you start spending loads of money and debt.

The only program in Eugene that is ranked is at Lane Community College aka University of Oregon Honors College.

Why would you start college without knowing what you're gonna major in? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard (unless the school is giving you a free ride). You should go to community college or figure out what you want before you start spending loads of money and debt.

It would be great if everyone knew what they wanted to work on for the rest of their life before they entered college, but that isn't the reality. Seeing as over 50% of students change their major at least once during college, I'm really surprised that is the dumbest thing you've ever heard.

So, for the majority of people, it is risky choosing a school just based on what you think you want to major in. And as one poster already mentioned, it is unlikely that many employers outside your narrow field of study will have any idea that your program is rated highly if you didn't go to a big name school like Stanford.