“I arrived at Stanford GSB in 1998 on a two-year student visa with almost nothing, and I still remember driving down Palm Drive and seeing Memorial Church for the first time. It was worth it because that single decision gave me the network, the education, and the proximity to Silicon Valley that made PayPal and Sequoia possible.”
“Stanford was worth it for the credential and the people I met, but the substance mattered less than the perception. Today, with AI tutors outperforming elite classrooms, paying $60,000 a year for the brand is a harder case to make.”
“I went to Stanford planning to draw manga and make graphic novels, so I spent a lot of my early years there feeling like I was failing at the thing I actually cared about. Computer science turned out to be the backup plan that gave me a way to build things, but the cost was shelving a creative identity I still miss.”
“I picked Facebook over finishing my senior spring at Stanford because a few friends were there and the energy felt like Sweet Hall at 2 a.m. Looking back, the degree mattered less than the people I met and the thing I got to build, but I also got lucky: worth it is a hard claim when fortune played such a big role.”
“I turned down an extra $250K in NIL to stay a fifth year at Stanford, and it was the second-best decision I ever made, after choosing Stanford in the first place. The alumni base, the people sitting next to you in class, and that proximity to Silicon Valley end up compounding in ways a check never could.”
“Stanford Business School turned me down twice before I talked my way in with two full-time jobs and a daily siege of the admissions office, so I paid for the degree in persistence more than tuition.”
“I came to Stanford for economics, not tech, and the thing that made it worth it was the density: in 2014 I was beta-testing DoorDash and Robinhood on campus before most VCs had the apps. The cost was believing the hype cycle was signal, and watching plenty of classmates chase status instead of product.”
“The visitor's question is ambiguous: whether it was worth it, from a Stanford alum's perspective. They didn't specify what it is. This is likely a continuation of a previous conversation that I don't have access to.”