[pefloresjr]

It is an interesting question.  When I was there in the early 80's, Stanford was very much built on the concept of residence based education.  I don't think that has changed.  A professor and his/her family lived on the ground floor of my dorms all 4 years on campus and we regularly interacted with them at meals and in other casual settings.  I was also in SLE (Structured Liberal Education) freshman year where we had many of our professors living in the dorm, small groups in the lounges/professor's apartments, and our TA's also served as our writing tutors and dorm RAs.  It seemed that as much of our education, if not more, took place in the dorm rather than in the classroom.  My fiance was a student at SJSU and lived with me as well as had a meal plan in my row house senior year.  She was in the honors program at San Jose but says that it was clear that Stanford was requiring higher level work.  The most striking difference she noted was the exposure to other high-performing, intelligent students everyday in the lounge and dining hall.  She really liked getting that exposure "for free" since she wasn't officially a Stanford resident.  Those are the things that distinguish schools like Stanford from other places.  

However, GR is right in noting that some of the interaction has changed over the years and students today are much more comfortable spending a great deal of time interacting with their peers on computers and phones.  That could change the dynamic of residence based education but I do see problems with scaling that experience up to large numbers.  The high school freshman who lives in the neighboring flat told me that, even though he is used to being on-line all the time, taking all of his classes on-line is really tiring and he is spending a lot less of his social time on line right now.  God forbid, but he is actually spending more time hanging out with and interacting with his sheltered in place family.  

I'm sure that the elite institutions, like Stanford and Claremont-McKenna ;-), will resist for a long time.  I am sure there are actual experts in education on this board who have greater insights, but this is my personal experience.  

Cheers,
Pete F.

[pefloresjr]

It is an interesting question.  When I was there in the early 80's, Stanford was very much built on the concept of residence based education.  I don't think that has changed.  A professor and his/her family lived on the ground floor of my dorms all 4 years on campus and we regularly interacted with them at meals and in other casual settings.  I was also in SLE (Structured Liberal Education) freshman year where we had many of our professors living in the dorm, small groups in the lounges/professor's apartments, and our TA's also served as our writing tutors and dorm RAs.  It seemed that as much of our education, if not more, took place in the dorm rather than in the classroom.  My fiance was a student at SJSU and lived with me as well as had a meal plan in my row house senior year.  She was in the honors program at San Jose but says that it was clear that Stanford was requiring higher level work.  The most striking difference she noted was the exposure to other high-performing, intelligent students everyday in the lounge and dining hall.  She really liked getting that exposure "for free" since she wasn't officially a Stanford resident.  Those are the things that distinguish schools like Stanford from other places.  

However, GR is right in noting that some of the interaction has changed over the years and students today are much more comfortable spending a great deal of time interacting with their peers on computers and phones.  That could change the dynamic of residence based education but I do see problems with scaling that experience up to large numbers.  The high school freshman who lives in the neighboring flat told me that, even though he is used to being on-line all the time, taking all of his classes on-line is really tiring and he is spending a lot less of his social time on line right now.  God forbid, but he is actually spending more time hanging out with and interacting with his sheltered in place family.  

I'm sure that the elite institutions, like Stanford and Claremont-McKenna ;-), will resist for a long time.  I am sure there are actual experts in education on this board who have greater insights, but this is my personal experience.  

Cheers,
Pete F.