Product Description

College guides written by students for students

Your ultimate source for honest, unbiased information, College Prowler delivers an inside look at Stanford University, straight from the students mouths. Complete with hundreds of student quotes, grades, stats, and reviews, this student-written guide offers a comprehensive collection of information about Stanford. See how students rate their campus when it s time to look beyond the brochures and talk about the issues that really matter.

Introduction from the Author

When I started looking at colleges, I was a greasy-faced teenager in Upstate New York with a penchant for computer programming and the German language. I took honors and AP classes at my medium-sized suburban public high school, and I was engaged in that timeless and honorable process of getting into college. It was a fairly haphazard procedure for me. I knew roughly what I wanted to study, but didn t know what I wanted in a university. Ultimately, I found myself with just a few options for schools to attend. I lucked out in that the school I picked worked out to be a good match for me. I don t know how things would be if I ended up somewhere that didn t fit my personality or academic style; but I suggest you do what you can to avoid a negative outcome. By reading this book, it seems you are already taking a step in the right direction.

Back in high school, when I heard the word Stanford my first thoughts were of academic elitism, basketball, palm trees, and sunny skies. I ve come to find out that it s much more complicated than that. Now when I hear the word Stanford, I shudder as several thousand memories are triggered in my brain: Math 51 problem sets and Domino s pizza at 2 a.m., a social epiphany on my freshman ski trip in Lake Tahoe, impersonating and being impersonated by friends on Instant Messenger, eating Currywurst in Berlin, driving my shoddy automobile around in San Francisco, pulling three consecutive all-nighters during Dead Week . . . and these are just a few of the things that come to mind.

Stanford has been a mixed bag - mostly good, but also a bit unsatisfying. The weather is great, but I don t have much time to get out and appreciate it. A lot of the students are interesting and worth meeting, but the ones in my classes tend to be socially insane. Most of us are talented and smart, but we re also overcommitted and habitually unpunctual. But don t give up on Stanford just yet. If your college experience seems to end up absolutely perfect, I would contend that there s actually something wrong with you. So read on, and figure out what s good and what s mediocre about this place. If you like what you read, consider applying, visiting, or even attending. Good luck, and I hope you enjoy the book.

Ian Spiro, Author
Stanford University

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #382091 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-01
• Released on: 2006-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 180 pages

Review
"...get viewpoints on a variety of topics from the student body, which is where the Prowler gets its roar." -- Melissa Kaplan, Boston Globe, May 23, 2004

"There is information on which schools have packed computer labs, which dorms are studious or riotous, ..." -- Ben Gilbert, The Washington Post, April 27, 2004

"This is the kind of information kids really want to know before they pick a college." -- Michelle Slatalla, The NY Times, March 9, 2006

"...get viewpoints on a variety of topics from the student body, which is where the Prowler gets its roar." --Melissa Kaplan, Boston Globe, May 23, 2004

"There is information on which schools have packed computer labs, which dorms are studious or riotous, ..." --Ben Gilbert, The Washington Post, April 27, 2004

This is the kind of information kids really want to know before they pick a college. --Michelle Slatalla, The NY Times, March 9, 2006

About the Author
College guides for each of the top colleges and universities in the US

While writing our series of college guides, we felt it was critical that our content was unbiased and unaffiliated with any college or university. We think it s important that our readers get honest information and a realistic impression of the student opinions on any college campus that s why if any aspect of a particular college is terrible, we (unlike a campus brochure) intend to publish it. While we do keep an eye out for the occasional extremist the cheerleader or the cynic we take pride in letting the college students tell it like it is. We strive to create a college guide that s as representative as possible of each particular campus. Our guides cover both the good and the bad, and whether the survey responses point to recurring trends or a variation in opinion, these sentiments are directly and proportionally expressed through our guides.

College Prowler guides are in the hands of students throughout the entire process of their creation. Because you can t make student-written guides without the students, we have students at each college campus who help write, randomly survey their peers, edit, layout, and perform accuracy checks on every college guide that we publish. From the very beginning, student writers gather the most up-to-date stats, facts, and inside information on their colleges. They fill each section with student quotes and summarize the findings in editorial reviews. In addition, each college or university receives a collection of letter grades (A through F) that reflect student opinion and help to represent contentment, prominence, or satisfaction for each of our 20 specific categories. Just as in grade school, the higher the mark the more content, more prominent, or more satisfied the students are with the particular category.

Once a college guide is written, additional college students serve as editors and check for accuracy even more extensively. Our bounce-back team a group of randomly selected students who have no involvement with the project are asked to read over the material in order to help ensure that the guide accurately expresses every aspect of the university and its students. This same process is applied to the nearly 300 colleges and universities College Prowler currently covers. Each guide is the result of endless student contributions, hundreds of pages of research and writing, and countless hours of hard work. All of this has led to the creation of a student information network that stretches across the nation to every college that we cover. It s no easy accomplishment, but it s the reason that our college guides are such a great resource.

When reading our guides and looking at our college rankings, keep in mind that every college is different and that the students who make up each college are not uniform as a result, it is important to assess colleges on a case-by-case basis. Because it s impossible to summarize an entire college with a single number or description, each guide provides a dialogue, not a decision, that s made up of 20 different topics and hundreds of student quotes. In the end, we hope that this guide will serve as a valuable tool in your college selection process. Enjoy!

Customer Reviews

Nice info, great listings
Stanford is one of those schools that just seems to have pretty much everything (great academics, great facilities, great weather, proximity to San Francisco) and this guide seems to paint the same picture. It was interesting to see, though, that most of the kids tend to stay on-campus to party and don't venture out of the city too much. Luckily, the book also includes plenty of listings for local restaurants and nightlife spots - very helpful for someone new to the city. Highly recommended for those who aren't from the area.