Words of Caution

Even if a university wants to replicate the entrepreneurial successes of Stanford, they should not ignore the importance of a broad classical liberal arts education. Many Stanford students still realize the necessity for a well-rounded education, as seen by the 76% of students choosing a broad classical education over a focused vocational one. It's part of what makes Stanford students so successful as well, as Marty Hu puts it, "Liberal arts are good for what I am working on. In a lot of ways, they help more than the tech classes I have taken."

Or take a look at what Travis Kiefer says about non-technical courses: "I pulled a lot from psychology classes and urban studies classes… Different perspectives, different thought processes, thinking about problems… For a CS major who has no idea about psychology, it's hard to get your product out there by just thinking it's good and it will come, but that's not the case."

Stanford "copy-cats" need to be supportive of not only entrepreneurship, but also of the liberal arts. Stanford realizes this and is fighting to keep it alive as evidenced by the Study of Undergraduate Education at Stanford (SUES), a group of faculty members trying to "reclaim a vision of liberal education" in a technologically advancing time by restructuring the undergraduate curriculum. It will be a tough battle because many students don't believe there is a problem in Stanford's liberal arts education (82% of undergraduates don't believe that Stanford is focusing too heavily on entrepreneurship at the expense of a liberal arts education).

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