Well, it's official. According to a survey of 4,500 high school guidance counselors conducted for the Kaplan Newsweek College Catalog 2000, Stanford is the "nation's trendiest college."
We discussed the results over lunch at Tresidder. (Among the choices: grilled mahi panini with caponata and pesto from the Baker Street kiosk; California Combo sushi from Tresidder Express; Apricot Mango Fandango smoothie with wheat grass from Jamba Juice.) Later in the day, after a quick stop at the Bookstore (PalmPilots downstairs; Aromatics Elixir body smoother up at the Clinique counter), I cut through White Plaza to the Green Library coffee bar (nonfat chai latte; vegan Russian tea cake). Driving home that night in my Ford Explorer, I got stuck on Sand Hill Road by the Stanford Shopping Center (Coach; Pottery Barn; Baby Gap).
Stanford? Trendy?
It turns out that even though Stanford does serve Starbucks coffee in the dorms, that's not the kind of trendy we're talking about. "It really means popularity," says Laura Sigman, the public relations manager for Kaplan/Simon & Schuster. According to Sigman, the counselors were asked to recommend schools in 10 different categories, from best value to top athletic program to best liberal arts education. Stanford came up first in two categories -- "academically competitive" and "best range of extracurricular activities." On top of that, a computer analyzed the random comments jotted by the counselors and found Stanford "the most popular school by far," Sigman says .
There are lots of ways to explain Stanford chic: great academics, athletic excellence, palm trees, the Chelsea effect. But don't overlook another key factor: the University's relationship with Silicon Valley. Internet firms are hot, the iMac comes in blueberry and Sand Hill Road is to venture capitalism what Hollywood is to the movies. Many of the region's start-ups owe their existence to Stanford people and technology. The Valley and the University bask in each other's glow. That's good for Stanford's reputation -- until, perhaps, the NASDAQ plunges. What then? Sure, housing prices may drop (have you heard the one about the four-bedroom in Palo Alto that was listed for $2.2 million and sold, days later, for $3.2 million?), but will Stanford's sky-high profile take a hit, too?
The Valley is especially fashionable in publishing circles, with at least four major nonfiction books hitting shelves the second half of this year. This issue, we excerpt one of them. In The Nudist on the Late Shift and Other True Tales of Silicon Valley, Po Bronson deliberately avoids what he calls "a round-up of the Valley's Most Important People, its movers and shakers, its A-list." In the book's introduction, Bronson, '86, writes, "The Valley is about the opportunity to become a mover or a shaker, not about being one."
I went to see Bronson one July night at Kepler's Bookstore in Menlo Park. With C-SPAN cameras running and more than a hundred people crammed into a corner of the store, Bronson explained his decision to write about the everyday entrepreneurs in the digital world. He talked about the kinds of stories that turn him on. "Some writers have a b.s. meter. I have a goosebump meter. If I don't get goosebumps hearing your story, I throw my notes in the trash." One entrepreneur who affected Bronson's skin is Sabeer Bhatia, MS '93. Bronson's account of how Bhatia started Hotmail -- and then sold it to Microsoft -- begins on page 70.
Bronson himself has become, well, trendy. The author of two novels in addition to Nudist, he has been hailed by Tom Wolfe and called "a genuine voice of a new generation" by Harper's editor Lewis Lapham. Skillful self-marketing has helped his rise. Visitors to his website (pobronson.com) see striking photos ("He looks like Richard Gere," said a woman next to me at Kepler's), learn that his novels have been translated into 10 languages and find this message: "I beg you: join my mail list." Buck's Restaurant in Woodside, a Valley power-breakfast spot, offers a display of Bronson's new book near the entrance. (It may be friendly payback: in June Bronson wrote a New York Times Magazine profile of venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, '88, MS '89, MBA '95, that opened with a long scene at Buck's.)
Here's another trend we've noticed: readers squinting when they read Class Notes. Starting this issue, we are increasing the size of the type in the back of the magazine. The upgrade will add four to eight pages to each magazine -- and years, we hope, to your vision.
You can send e-mail to Bob at bobcohn@stanford.edu
