Its not just about money. Having legacies at the school is what makes non legacies want to attend. If applicants didnt care about networking with the rich and powerful theyd go to caltech, the reality is that having connections to powerful people is the main value add undergrad at ivies provides versus upper tier state schools. Why would stanford ever get rid of their main value add?

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cherryteastain 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

We know this argument does not apply in practice because tons of people want to go to top universities that do not consider legacy like MIT. Outside America, universities that regularly feature in global top 20 lists like Oxford, Cambridge, ETH Zurich and Imperial College London etc also do not do legacies and they also get tons of interest.

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sahila 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You're making big assumptions here regarding students desires to attend stanford. Ignoring everything else though, having two elite universities that cater to merit is better than one just for the sake of doubling the number of students.

	▲	HDThoreaun 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		> Ignoring everything else though, having two elite universities that cater to merit is better than one just for the sake of doubling the number of students. Not for stanford. Its goals largely boil down to increase the endowment and create a powerful alumni network. Accepting legacies is a great way to accomplish both those things. This is the same reason schools give preference to athletes even though it brings down the schools academics. Competitive athletics requires skills that translate very well to the workplace(grit, teamwork) so successful athletes are likely to become successful corporate workers.

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musicale 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Interesting point. Elite universities offer a good education, a respected credential, and connections. Stanford is also a startup factory, being (not coincidentally) adjacent to Silicon Valley and containing a business school in addition to the engineering school.

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HDThoreaun 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

What does stanford offer undergrads that berkeley doesnt? IMO access to legacies and the larger alumni network is about it.

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musicale 6 days ago | parent [-]

Better faculty to student ratio (1:6 vs. 1:19). Closer proximity to actual Santa Clara (Silicon) Valley (and Google, NVIDIA, etc.) More NCAA championships and Olympic medals. Still leading in "big game" football series (though currently on a losing streak.) More Turing awards.

Not as many Nobel prizes - or elements on the periodic table - however. Berkeley (having many more undergrads) also has more alumni.

(But note for both schools that good researchers are not necessarily good undergraduate instructors.)

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suslik 6 days ago | parent [-]

> More NCAA championships and Olympic medals. Still leading in "big game" football series (though currently on a losing streak.)

As a side note, I always found this obsession with sports to be a fascinating aspect of american culture. Being from an entirely different culture, it’s unclear to me why on earth would anyone give a fuck about this.

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musicale 5 days ago | parent [-]

I have heard that in some countries soccer (aka "football") is a big thing for some reason.

Also the Olympics seem to be a big thing every four years, particularly in the country where they are being held; Berkeley and Stanford do pretty well in that competition.

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suslik 5 days ago | parent [-]

Sports can be big in a country, sure, but US is the only country I can recall where sports matters as a criteria to choose a university to go to (as an in op).

But just in case - it’s cool, I wasn’t being judgmental.

	▲	musicale 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		You may be reading too much into the original question, which was simply: > What does stanford offer undergrads that berkeley doesnt? IMO access to legacies and the larger alumni network is about it Non-academic advantages (e.g. athletics programs, student housing, etc.) are still advantages. Berkeley has its own set of non-academic advantages, such as closer proximity and access to San Francisco (via BART).

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6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

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