What's there to do at Stanford?

[Leif_Erikson]

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So I interviewed at Stanford a little while back. It was gorgeous and all. But I want to get the perspective of some people who maybe go there. What is there to do on/around campus for fun? Are there bars? Clubs? Music venues? Theaters? I unfortunately didn't get to explore anything around the campus on my interview day. I'm familiar with the whole "45 minute cal train ride to SF", so I just want to know if there's a decent amount of stuff to get involved in on or around the campus.

 

[lovedocta07]

palo alto is amazing...facebook headquarters lol, downtown is sick too

 

[qmcat]

I'm not a Stanford student, but I did some work at the children's hospital for a year. From my impression, the campus is kind of in a secluded area. If you want to have real fun, you'd need to go to either up to SF or down to San Jose.

Around campus, the main hangout areas were the shops on University Ave, Downtown Menlo Park, and a few hidden areas on Middlefield Road (there's an ice skating rink there). Most of the students I know also go to downtown Mountain View, Cupertino Village (near Wolfe Rd off 280), and to San Jose to have fun/eat/shop.

 

[ohmedschool]

Palo Alto has some bars and fancy restaurants (but they do get old after a while). A few recommendations:
-The Nut House (eat peanuts and toss the shells on the ground, drink beer)
-Bluechalk (bar and some dancing on weekends)
-Nola (popular destination but kinda small for my taste)
-Old Pro (class sports bar to catch all the games)
-Rose and Crown Pub (for weekly quiz nights)

As for clubs, live music, lounges.. I am not too familiar with that aspect of Palo Alto so maybe someone else can chime in.

If you have a car, there's definitely plenty to do around the south bay area. Stanford is in the burbs so it's not gonna be like NYC. Plenty of food places on El Camino (not as upscale as downtown PA). you can easily make late night jack in the box runs and in-n-out runs. movie theatre is at shoreline in mountain view.. lots of food in cupertino village and on castro street. if u want to see a movie Green Library has the largest collection u can imagine for free. of course there is SF but frankly it is too far for me to go, particuarlly without a car. what else? plenty of outdoors stuff.. monterrey is close, half moon bay is about 40 mins away (pretty cool norcal beach), santa cruz boardwalk about 1 hour away. if you want to do awesome hiking big sur is right down route 1 along the pacific ocean, yosemite is within reach, and incredible skiing is north near the nevada border at lake tahoe. if you are lucky maybe somebody will give u the directions the Lost Coast...
around campus u can never get tired of hiking/running the dish if you are into that. like i said, it's not nyc and it's not in a city, so everything will have to be accessed by car. but if u have a car, then u can find whatever u want within 1 hour's distance.

 

[silverlining1]

👍 to the above post. I enjoyed the variety of restaurants in Downtown Palo Alto and all over the Peninsula. I did visit some of the bars and clubs that ohmedschool mentioned - you can hit up everything from full-on clubbing to sports bars to drinks in a more sophisticated atmosphere. Not as awesome as San Francisco, but I think there are definitely a fair amount of options to keep you busy in the immediate area.

 

[BlueElmo]

You can go to one of Stanfurd's games and watch their teams get rained on by Cal.😀

 

[NotAndrew]

So I interviewed at Stanford a little while back. It was gorgeous and all. But I want to get the perspective of some people who maybe go there. What is there to do on/around campus for fun? Are there bars? Clubs? Music venues? Theaters? I unfortunately didn't get to explore anything around the campus on my interview day. I'm familiar with the whole "45 minute cal train ride to SF", so I just want to know if there's a decent amount of stuff to get involved in on or around the campus.

Past students have killed time by stealing an axe.

 

[kernel]

You can go to one of Stanfurd's games and watch their teams get rained on by Cal.😀

You go to the football games just for the halftime shows. 😎

 

[DrYoda]

I've never even been to California, but I'd bet they have the same stuff to do as most college campuses. Parties, sports, bars, coffee houses, parties and probably some california style hippies gatherings to top it all off.

 

[ButImLETired]

Um, sorry to be the party-pooper, but as someone who went to college in Boston (the college town of college towns) and now lives by Stanford, I can definitely say there is NOTHING to do in Palo Alto. The bars people mentioned get extremely old very quickly. San Fran IS far. There really aren't people from other schools around for you to meet and hang out with. Palo Alto is all Stanford students and obscenely rich families. I've been here about a year and a half and I feel like I want to crawl out of my skin.
On the other hand, a school is a school. You'll probably hang out on campus most of the time (and the people who enjoyed Stanford socially did precisely that- I'm just not a student so I'd feel weird going to on-campus parties). The weather is unbeatable so if you like going for runs or you like biking, it's a great place to be. I'm not terribly outdoorsy so this stuff is a bit lost on me. Also, Palo Alto is obnoxiously expensive. Everything around here costs a zillion dollars. Housing is expensive, food is expensive, groceries are expensive, you NEED a car, and the mall by campus has stuff like a gourmet hot dog stand (like, 6 bucks a hot dog), gourmet cupcakes, and then Burberry, Louis Vuitton...anyways, this town is a lot more fun if you have money (again, if you're going to be mostly on campus things are a bit different).

Anyway, it depends on where you're from and what you're used to. I'm used to Boston, where I met people from different schools constantly, I could take a subway or walk to get everywhere, and I had an unlimited number of options for my social life. Palo Alto isn't like that at all. If you're from suburbia and like it, or if you have no problem driving an hour to get to SF to get your city fix, then awesome.

 

[BlueElmo]

I've never even been to California, but I'd bet they have the same stuff to do as most college campuses. Parties, sports, bars, coffee houses, parties and probably some california style hippies gatherings to top it all off.

No, Berkeley is the worst college town ever. So boring and run-down.🙁

If it wasn't for the university, the city itself would become a ghost town overnight... Or just turn into Oakland.

 

[RoadRunner17]

No, Berkeley is the worst college town ever. So boring and run-down.🙁

If it wasn't for the university, the city itself would become a ghost town overnight... Or just turn into Oakland.

Oakland... 3 cops killed in one day, and a 4th pretty much brain-dead. 🙁

 

[guyski79]

.

 

[BlueElmo]

oakland... 3 cops killed in one day, and a 4th pretty much brain-dead. 🙁

rip.

 

[silverlining1]

NOTHING IS OPEN PAST 10 PM. It's awful. If you want to grab bite somewhere at 11:15 on Thursday night, you're SOL.

Of course, some people love it here. I'm just not one of them, so I hope I don't sound too bitter. There are good things about being here too, but I just want to make you aware of the bad.

Yeah, it's true that you can't do anything in town after 10pm on a weekday. I should add as a caveat to my optimistic post above that I come from a BORING suburb whose highlights are a golf course and a bowling alley. I live in San Diego and love it now, but I hated San Francisco (sorry). I don't like big, crowded cities. I like "big" suburbs with restaurants and bars and shopping centers... Palo Alto was decent enough for me.

It's also true that, as an undergrad, I spent most of my time hanging out with friends on campus anyways. There were food options on campus open late into the night, so I just went there.

 

[Superman78]

No, Berkeley is the worst college town ever. So boring and run-down.🙁

If it wasn't for the university, the city itself would become a ghost town overnight... Or just turn into Oakland.

Not true, Berkeley has a lot of character. It is run-down but most people adapt to that and grow to like it. There are plenty of nice local restaurants (some of which happen to make the best food you can find), little shops where the owners know who you are, jazz bars, plenty of social places. It's just a personal place - you see the same homeless guy on the same corner for 4 years straight, the same musicians playing on the sidewalk, everything is just familiar. But your second comment is right - without the university it would essentially be an extension of Oakland. Just another scummy city where cops get gunned down.

Stanford is the opposite of Berkeley, it's really pristine and Palo Alto is rich, which means everything looks and smells nice, and at the same time you lose some of the character and personality. It's just a preppier place, with richer older folk hogging most of the space. Berkeley is a young town, even the old people act young. But we're not young Freshmen anymore, we're all getting old anyway and med school will just accelerate the aging process, so Stanford is a great place to go.

 

[alibai3ah]

Yep....as someone who has been here for 11 years + (elementary school, middle, and high)....Palo Alto is relatively uninteresting. Unless you like the suburban, white town environment...then by all means go ahead. But if you are looking for a more urban environment, Stanford is not the best place to go.