[StanfordMatt]

On top of that, IMO Stanford is socially much further from the mainstream than it was even in 2014. Lots of other schools are too. However Duke Wake Forest etc are closer than Stanford. Lots of football players are somewhat turned off by that fact. Stanford always was "different", but now it is "more different". Going to the Stanford (that hates fun) just isn't as attractive to lots of people as it used to be. Of course, there are some football players that are attracted to an opportunity where football doesn't define them. There are just a lot fewer than there used to be. 

At the risk of getting too far off topic, is campus life really that different from a decade ago? If so, what's changed?

[StanfordMatt]

On top of that, IMO Stanford is socially much further from the mainstream than it was even in 2014. Lots of other schools are too. However Duke Wake Forest etc are closer than Stanford. Lots of football players are somewhat turned off by that fact. Stanford always was "different", but now it is "more different". Going to the Stanford (that hates fun) just isn't as attractive to lots of people as it used to be. Of course, there are some football players that are attracted to an opportunity where football doesn't define them. There are just a lot fewer than there used to be. 

At the risk of getting too far off topic, is campus life really that different from a decade ago? If so, what's changed?