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You're really paying for a degree from Stanford. You can get a similar course for much cheaper at a state school. Or now, online for free!

I think there's no doubt that you'll have much more resources at your disposal (like proper office hours) if you are actually enrolled at Stanford.

if nothing else, part of your 50 grand is also paying for the fact that our career fairs are always super crowded :)

You better make sure to get your money's worth by picking Norvig and Thrun's brains at office hours :P. And if you get an A in the course, you can probably do undergraduate research with them through CURIS, something that online attendees won't be able to do.

http://curis.stanford.edu/

If you're taking a CS degree in Stanford, earning the 50 grand back is trivial after you graduated.