Recent college grad but no more than 2 years.
Pros
Worked here several years ago and my experience was the worst. I wish I was out of work instead of having worked here and I finally decided to write a review. It's at an elite university and great compensation as part of Stanford University. You may make a difference by your presence but because it's a committee process everyone will second guess you at every turn and you'll leave a cycle feeling like your perspective and voice is meaningless.
Cons
Management treats employees like children, overly focused on small mistakes while completely ignoring dedication and passion. They don't care if you kill yourself for this job. Admission is a tough field. As an incoming counselor you'll make 50k at best and while that is great for a first job, keep in mind that the number of applications that Stanford receives is close to 40k now and during the regular decision cycle you'll be working everyday including weekends. Expect to have 0 life from November all the way through April when we have admit weekend. That means expect no sick days or emergency time off because you're treated like you don't value your work. You're made to feel dispensable and you'd think that considering the level of turnover they'd care a little about keeping people around. The name of admission counselors is listed and if you keep track I guarantee you that every other year at least 80% of the staff is gone. And you don't think that affects the quality of the work? Get into admission as a starting job, but keep in mind that you'll learn everything in about a year and the rest is doing repetitive tasks from year to year to year. Unless you really care about admission the management, being overworked, and overall unfulfilled sense will take over. The longer you stay the worse you'll be treated. I think they'd rather get rid of people and pay the new employees even lower salaries, starting salary of older employees, than retain them. There's little in-office mobility (not new to Stanford) in admission.
