[Mick]

“40 year decision.” Holy cow. Come on guys, hundreds of colleges have graduated millions of students who made the right decision and who prospered in every field that Stanford serves.

Some around here act like it’s the only possible decision. It’s not.

Well, you're both right.

I'll use myself as an example.  I've been a Stanford athletics supporter for as long as I can remember.  I applied to Stanford and Santa Clara.  Didn't get into Stanford, deservedly so.  Thrived and happy with my SCU degree for a variety of reasons, successful career, published books, added to my chosen profession.  Things worked out fine for me.

At the same time, I very much understood the 40 year decision.  I had an exceedingly successful grandfather (Stanford '42) and a still-successful-but-not-quite-as-successful grandfather who dropped out of Cal.  Neither of my parents had gone to a four year college by the time I was a senior in high school (Mom, as a re-entry student, made the President's List at SJSU multiple times).  I somewhat understood the importance of the best possible college as a 17 year old but WOW did I understand it ten years later and was trying to progress in my career.  Let's just add the 40 year decision to the list of things high schools don't teach that they really, really should.

To Phogge's point, I would ask those millions of graduates whether, in their heart of hearts, they would prefer to have a degree from Stanford over their alma mater.  I know what I would say.

[Mick]

“40 year decision.” Holy cow. Come on guys, hundreds of colleges have graduated millions of students who made the right decision and who prospered in every field that Stanford serves.

Some around here act like it’s the only possible decision. It’s not.

Well, you're both right.

I'll use myself as an example.  I've been a Stanford athletics supporter for as long as I can remember.  I applied to Stanford and Santa Clara.  Didn't get into Stanford, deservedly so.  Thrived and happy with my SCU degree for a variety of reasons, successful career, published books, added to my chosen profession.  Things worked out fine for me.

At the same time, I very much understood the 40 year decision.  I had an exceedingly successful grandfather (Stanford '42) and a still-successful-but-not-quite-as-successful grandfather who dropped out of Cal.  Neither of my parents had gone to a four year college by the time I was a senior in high school (Mom, as a re-entry student, made the President's List at SJSU multiple times).  I somewhat understood the importance of the best possible college as a 17 year old but WOW did I understand it ten years later and was trying to progress in my career.  Let's just add the 40 year decision to the list of things high schools don't teach that they really, really should.

To Phogge's point, I would ask those millions of graduates whether, in their heart of hearts, they would prefer to have a degree from Stanford over their alma mater.  I know what I would say.