The 40 Year Commitment - Printable Version
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The 40 Year Commitment - yvonne - 08-08-2015
Discuss
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - Hulk01 - 08-08-2015
Changed my life. Utterly. And forever. Every day.
It's been a 46 year decision, and counting.Â
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - Rally - 08-08-2015
(08-08-2015, 03:56 PM)Hulk01 link Wrote:Changed my life. Utterly. And forever. Every day.
It's been a 46 year decision, and counting.
Completely agree. Some good, some less good, but affects everything.Â
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - CornFed - 08-08-2015
None of the selections allow a response that endorses the forty-year decision's benefit for anyone fortunate enough to be offered the option. I think it is true for all categories of students, athletes, intellectuals, age groups, income demographic, etc. I believe the experience Stanford offers resonates throughout the remainder of any person's life who has taken advantage of the opportunity to immerse themselves.
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - CompSci87 - 08-08-2015
None of the above. My life would have been very different had I not made the long leap from undergrad at a hometown school (Marquette U. in Milwaukee) to Stanford for grad school.
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - 82lsju - 08-08-2015
(08-08-2015, 03:56 PM)Hulk01 link Wrote:Changed my life. Utterly. And forever. Every day.
It's been a 46 year decision, and counting.
+1, although only 37 years and counting here
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - amartinsu13 - 08-08-2015
(08-08-2015, 07:50 PM)82lsju link Wrote:[quote author=Hulk01 link=topic=12483.msg123836#msg123836 date=1439074599]
Changed my life. Utterly. And forever. Every day.
It's been a 46 year decision, and counting.
+1, although only 37 years and counting here
[/quote]
+1, although only 6 years and counting here
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - 82lsju - 08-09-2015
(08-09-2015, 06:53 AM)garvin link Wrote:For me, the 40-year effect was that Stanford taught me to think -- not just to collect a lot of facts, but to put them together and analyze them, to understand what they mean and what they imply. That's made me better at my job, but more importantly, made my life richer by helping me to understand the world I live in. I believe passionately in this 40-year effect and literally cannot imagine my life if I hadn't gone to Stanford.
there's that as well as the people I met while there and in the alumni community since graduation. In general a great collection of people who have made my life better in many ways.
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - Hulk01 - 08-09-2015
I'm not measuring the 40 year impact economically, although I have experienced it. I constantly find myself applying lessons I learned there, and for which I am nicely compensated.
Instead, I'm looking at every aspect of a life well-lived: friends made, lessons learned, wisdom gained, even the richness of the memories. And being a Stanford guy brought me into this forum, and all that I've gained from it. The rewards that cannot be quantified--becoming best friends of one of the great thinkers of my generation, and best friends of the most admirable person i know, to name two more--have been greater, and made more a difference in my life's quality and the pleasure I take in it.
As I've said before, I've sampled other schools: a small liberal arts university and a mediocre, large public university. All those two had in common with Stanford was the title, "university." The difference was at least two standard deviations, and more likely three. That's just me; for me, incalculable.
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - yvonne - 08-09-2015
Thanks for the perspective, guys, especially Garvin. I had always seen the 40-year commitment as some special insider network wherein you are able to connect and make thousands more than people with similar degrees. I think the only times I've benefitted from such a network were a) when the director of our journalism program found me a great internship when she was at a newspaper convention, and b) when one of the posters here persuaded the head of sports marketing to give me a courtesy phone interview (When she started out with "You're so overqualified," I knew it was a courtesy interview.)
When I was at Stanford, I heard Coretta Scott King, Jimmy Carter, Seymour Hersh, a Mercury News Pulitzer Prize winner, and the editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times. I could have learned to write a lede at San Jose State, but I probably wouldn't have heard from that crowd.
BTW, so far, the results of the unscientific and small sample poll are:
4 - It applies to undergraduates only
1 - It's real, but like everything else in Silicon Valley, doesn't apply after 40
2 - Is a fiction told to athletes
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - jacketree - 08-09-2015
Yvonne, you sound so down; I sincerely hope you are OK.
I voted for "fiction". Stanford is a great place to go and you can get a great education if you are so inclined. It is not, however, some magic golden ticket that guarantees 40 years of career and life bliss. Too many variables, only some of which are under your control. Nothing beats good fortune and the willingness and ability to take advantage of it. It is too easy to say "well, just make some of your own". There is only so much you can do.
P.S. I hear you on the over 40 comment. Thankfully while in the Valley, I'm not in that industry. We are working on the new Googleville out near Shoreline in Mountain View. I was on campus on a Friday afternoon and streams of young people rode their (free I assume) Google Bikes to enjoy a (free I assume) Google BBQ with live Google Bands and unlimited Google food and Google beverages next to all the (free I assume) Google tennis courts, soccer fields, basketball courts and playgrounds. I was older than everybody by at least 20 years. Do places like Google even have adult supervision?
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - CornFed - 08-09-2015
(08-09-2015, 11:45 AM)jacketree link Wrote:Yvonne, you sound so down; I sincerely hope you are OK.
I voted for "fiction". Stanford is a great place to go and you can get a great education if you are so inclined. It is not, however, some magic golden ticket that guarantees 40 years of career and life bliss. Too many variables, only some of which are under your control. Nothing beats good fortune and the willingness and ability to take advantage of it. It is too easy to say "well, just make some of your own". There is only so much you can do.
I certainly didn't mean to imply, nor did I get the impression that others did, that the 40-year decision involved any assurance of relief from life's turmoils. My comments reflected my sense of what my life might have been like if I'd gone to another school. And that isn't to imply that going to another school would have led to a bad existence. I am simply grateful for what I perceive to be an internal lift of personal enhancement that I believe is incremental to that I would have had from any other choice I might have made. Over 40 years there is quite a compounding effect.
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - JJJ - 08-09-2015
(08-08-2015, 07:50 PM)82lsju link Wrote:[quote author=Hulk01 link=topic=12483.msg123836#msg123836 date=1439074599]
Changed my life. Utterly. And forever. Every day.
It's been a 46 year decision, and counting.
+1, although only 37 years and counting here
[/quote]
Ahh, you're counting from frosh year. I thought my math skills had deteriorated substantially and couldn't comprehend 2015-1982=37...
By that count, 34 years, although 30th reunion is this year!
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - PrinceLightfoot - 08-09-2015
(08-08-2015, 03:56 PM)Hulk01 link Wrote:Changed my life. Utterly. And forever. Every day.
It's been a 46 year decision, and counting.
+1 although only 14 years and counting.
(08-09-2015, 06:53 AM)garvin link Wrote:If "the 40-year effect" is supposed to be some kind of economic benefit, then it's wildly exaggerated. Though some of my classmates have become wealthy, a lot of us have not. (I once ran into one who was giving driving exams at an MVD office.) Going to Stanford by no means guarantees any material payback, though of course it certainly doesn't hurt you in that respect.
For me, the 40-year effect was that Stanford taught me to think -- not just to collect a lot of facts, but to put them together and analyze them, to understand what they mean and what they imply. That's made me better at my job, but more importantly, made my life richer by helping me to understand the world I live in. I believe passionately in this 40-year effect and literally cannot imagine my life if I hadn't gone to Stanford.
+2, there are enough information gatherers in the world. To be able to understand information to formulate the best course of action, decision, or strategy is without a doubt something that was forged while obtaining my economics degree. Also, the countless informal discussions with so many highly intelligent people in dorm lounges and over meals influenced how I thought about a situation or problem. I am not referring to a change in opinion rather if the conclusions presented were grounded on a solid foundation.
(08-09-2015, 10:47 AM)Yvonne link Wrote:I had always seen the 40-year commitment as some special insider network wherein you are able to connect and make thousands more than people with similar degrees.
I have not attempted to utilize Stanford's network to advance my career (not much of a network here in Iowa and have little desire to move elsewhere at the moment), but I know for a fact that some positions I obtained were swayed by having a Stanford degree on the resume. If I decide to switch industries, I will probably contact friends from Stanford to assist me in my search, but I know that wouldn't necessarily ensure placement.
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - Hank 91 - 08-09-2015
I checked the first option about the undergraduates, but only because it was the closest fit. Had there been a bubble that said "The 40 Year Commitment Will Change Your Life Forever," I'd have clicked it.
My four years at Stanford were the best four years of my life up to that point (it gets even better after that), and that time changed my life forever. From an economic standpoint, it hasn't made a difference. I was lucky enough that my parents didn't see the tuition as an investment from which they expected a financial return, so I was able to follow my heart and become an English major. (At least a couple of my freshman dorm mates arrived with clear mandates to go into engineering.)
My Stanford degree hasn't helped me in my teaching career. Probably more than half of my colleagues got their degrees from Long Beach State. There's an extraordinary lack of emphasis on undergraduate education in the teaching profession; all that matters to most is that you've jumped through the right hoops. I noticed this soon after I decided on this career path. As a senior at Stanford, I met my girlfriend's parents and thought I'd have an in with her mom since she was a teacher. When I told her I'd be pursuing that career as well, she asked with visible disdain, "Why did you go to Stanford to become a teacher?" I could've gotten a degree from any school in America and still gotten a job teaching middle school English, but I would be neither the teacher nor the person that I am today.
But Stanford has given so much more than digits in a bank account. I met all of my best friends at Stanford, and most of them were in my freshman dorm, Rinconada. The second person I met, probably about thirty minutes after checking into the dorm, stood next to me as the best man at my wedding. I did the same for him. The quality of people that I met at Stanford continues to amaze me. (You won't be surprised to know that that hasn't changed. When I asked Kyle Murphy and Blake Martinez if their Stanford experiences had lived up to their expectations, they both gushed about the people on campus.)
Stanford taught me to give my best effort in all things, even if I didn't always give my best effort while I was there. It taught me that learning never stops.
And now, twenty-four years after graduating, I'm still incredibly proud to be a part of this institution.
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - BostonCard - 08-09-2015
A cynic might say that Stanford (and other elite institutions) run the greatest con of all time. Convince the already best and brightest that the "secret sauce" that the institution provides is both necessary and sufficient to have success and happiness in life. The truth, of course, is that Stanford (or Harvard or any other elite institution) is neither necessary nor sufficient. There are plenty of happy, successful people who went to schools that we might look upon with disdain, and turned out ok. While there aren't many, we certainly here about Stanford graduates who are miserable with their lives, or who turned out to have "wasted" the education they were given. In truth, most of the people in this forum, who subscribe to the idea of a "forty year decision" would have done quite well otherwise. Yes, our lives would have turned out differently had we gone elsewhere, but lacking the ability to do randomized corssover studies in post-secondary education in humans to test our counterfactuals, we really only have speculation about "what would have been".
I certainly have been very satisfied with what has turned out of my life in the 18 years since I graduated Stanford (sh*t, has it been that long already). I thoroughly enjoyed the four years I was at Stanford, but I can't really say that I wouldn't have been happy somewhere else. I got into a prestigious medical school (though not Stanford, so bleh). Coming from an elite school probably helped a bit, but so probably did my very good MCAT scores, and my guess is those were only helped marginally by the scientific education I received at Stanford. After that, I can't really say that Stanford has had much of an impact in my career, though I have met a couple people with connections to the school, and though I haven't used the networking provided, I will probably put that to the test in the next couple years (of course, I will also call upon my networking from medical school, residency, fellowship and faculty, none of which were at Stanford).
I met my wife at Stanford, and it seems exceedingly unlikely that I would have met her had I gone somewhere else. Would I have fallen totally in love with someone from a different school (or, having not met someone as an undergraduate, would I have met someone in my subsequent adventures)? There is no way of knowing. I do know that people who don't go to Stanford do fall in love and get married and have happy marriages (e.g., my parents).
As others have said, I have a lot of friends that date back to Stanford, but again, I have friends going back to elementary school in Venezuela, as well as from high school, medical school, residency, fellowship, etc. Though there's no way to know for sure, I'm pretty sure I would have made friends at my alternate university.
And yet, my life has turned out pretty happily for me, and I went to Stanford. I'm married to my Stanford sweetheart, we have three wonderful kids together; I live about a half hour north of the University, have a happy and fulfilling career, and really cannot complain about how things turned out (and if ever given a chance to go back, I would take it in a heartbeat). Stanford isn't the reason I am who I am and my life turned out the way it did, and yet, it must have had something to do with it, no? Certainly, my life would be different otherwise. Maybe not worse, but likely very different.
BC
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - Rally - 08-09-2015
It's interesting to look back and ponder but of course it is imponderable. So many choices in a lifetime, from the moment you realize you are a being independent of your mother. I was a fairly big fish in the little pond of my public high school and chose to apply to Stanford because it was pretty and my uncle lived nearby. Naive in the extreme I applied no where else and was offended when my high school counselor told me I was an idiot. I got in but was way out of my depth. I wrote an essay my freshman year and used the phrase "all intensive purposes." I asked a dorm ate to proof read it. He laughed at me, shared it with others, who also laughed. They spoke Latin, for God's sake. My roommate spoke Greek. Mostly preppies, they used marijuana; I had not yet had a beer. I finished the year with a 1.8 and thanked God my parents didn't know my grades. I was in panic. But failure wasn't an option so I pulled myself together and graduated with a 2.8. Stanford contributed nothing to my academic standing. I never took a course remotely related to business, economics, math, etc yet aced the BizBoards enough to earn admission and a fellowship. For me Stanford has been a double-edged sword. I have carried an inferiority complex ever since, but I also learned, not in classes but in dorm bull sessions, etc. how to look at life, how to cut through bullpuckey, how to make sense of most things. I have sometimes wondered if I would have been better off somewhere where I would not have been such a very small fish.
One of only two high school teachers I respected, Richard Bolton, was a Stanford grad and recommended me. But he also told me, "Mike, I don't know about this. You are the perfect Stanford man for the 40s or 50s, but this is the 60s; are you sure you want this?" Cocky as only a big fish can be I laughed him off.
On the other hand, I have good friends from my undergraduate years, and enjoy the recognition that comes with the diploma. I also enjoy the company of people like you, here on this forum. So, all in all, I am glad to be a Stanford Man, whatever that means. It is telling that my best remaining friend from those days is somewhat like me. 2.8 GPA. Together, as seniors, we decided we shouldn't graduate without ever have taken Trig, so we enrolled in Math 0,a non- credit class. He recently joked he aced the final. I told him I don't remember a final.
Obla dee, oblah dah, funny how this life goes on.
For a slightly different perspective on The 40 Year Commitment - Mick - 08-09-2015
I didn't attend Stanford, I went to that decent little Jesuit school down the peninsula. You can't, generally speaking, prove a negative, and I can't say what I've missed without a Stanford degree, except perhaps in the broadest of strokes. So I know the following:
* When I joined BofA out of SCU, I got to talking with the recruiter who mentioned that the really plum entry level jobs were saved for graduates from 17 very specific schools. Stanford was one, SCU was not.
* I know over the years I've missed out on opportunities to people with degrees from the most selective schools.
* I only applied to two schools, Santa Clara and Stanford. I was accepted to SCU with honors, didn't get in to Stanford. Had I been accepted to a better school, I'm not sure my ultimate career trajectory would have been any different. I'm reasonably intelligent, but I don't have that mental fifth gear that I see in so many Stanford grads and so few of my fellow Broncos. I had my first national role at age 29, international role at 36, CXO at age 43. My suspicion is that a Stanford degree would have accelerated all that by five years, I would have had a better network and learned things I didn't learn at SCU. More than likely, same role at a much larger firm.
My message to a young person...go to the best possible school you can. You will feel the results your entire life.
Anyway, my life is richer for having known grads from both schools over the years, and yes, I even have friends from C.al. But not U$C...;)
Re: For a slightly different perspective on The 40 Year Commitment - Rally - 08-09-2015
(08-09-2015, 08:49 PM)Mick link Wrote:I didn't attend Stanford, I went to that decent little Jesuit school down the peninsula. You can't, generally speaking, prove a negative, and I can't say what I've missed without a Stanford degree, except perhaps in the broadest of strokes. So I know the following:
* When I joined BofA out of SCU, I got to talking with the recruiter who mentioned that the really plum entry level jobs were saved for graduates from 17 very specific schools. Stanford was one, SCU was not.
* I know over the years I've missed out on opportunities to people with degrees from the most selective schools.
* I only applied to two schools, Santa Clara and Stanford. I was accepted to SCU with honors, didn't get in to Stanford. Had I been accepted to a better school, I'm not sure my ultimate career trajectory would have been any different. I'm reasonably intelligent, but I don't have that mental fifth gear that I see in so many Stanford grads and so few of my fellow Broncos. I had my first national role at age 29, international role at 36, CXO at age 43. My suspicion is that a Stanford degree would have accelerated all that by five years, I would have had a better network and learned things I didn't learn at SCU. More than likely, same role at a much larger firm.
My message to a young person...go to the best possible school you can. You will feel the results your entire life.
Anyway, my life is richer for having known grads from both schools over the years, and yes, I even have friends from C.al. But not U$C...;)
Thank you for sharing, Mick. I don't have that fifth mental gear either. I have certain gifts that I have never been able to control, so I can never count on them. Not a fifth gear if you don't know how to shift to it. Earlier when I said I only applied to Stanford I forgot that I also applied to Santa Clara, only because it was close to Stanford. I don't remember but assume so. Certainly with no money offered else my father would have taken notice. I was also accepted to U.SC without ever applying. That's another story and the source of my disdain.
Re: The 40 Year Commitment - jacketree - 08-09-2015
Damn. Looks like I am wrong.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/27/qa-author-new-book-how-elite-students-get-elite-jobs
You should all take up squash before it is too late!