Ask a current Freshman

<p>So I just finished up my first quarter at the Farm and I can't say enough good things about the school. Like most students, I love it there. This place was pretty helpful to me when I was decided on colleges, so I figured I should see if I could give a little back. Ask anything you want and I will try to answer....I feel that my experience has been pretty diverse. The only questions I won't address are those regarding admissions, since I can't really can't help there. So if you want to learn more about the school, I and hopefully other current students on here can help answer some questions.</p>

<p>How does the housing system work and what are the rooms/facilities like?</p>

<p>And not to jump in to the sketchier side of campus, but where are the best places for parties and how available are they? </p>

<p>How prominent is weed?</p>

<p>What are the most popular clubs and groups?</p>

<p>And of course: What is the best bike to get for campus?</p>

<p>Thank you for your time Bescraze</p>

<p>

For incoming Freshman you get to chose from a series of options–all frosh (coed floors, coed dorms with separate floors and single sex), all class, Freshman-Sophmore house where you write an essay, ethnic housing for different groups, and finally SLE. Most Freshman end up in an all-frosh dorm in either Stern, Wilbur or Lag. The rooms are spacious enough with more than enough room socializing, tvs, fridges, ect and the facilities are generally nice. The dorms are not amazing, but they are definitely functional with a computer cluster, a spacious lounge and in many cases nice renovated bath rooms. As you get passed freshman year the options get much more diverse from row houses to suites ect.

On the Row. There are parties almost every Wednesday, thursday, friday and Saturday night. With Friday and Saturday being the largest. They are almost always in Frats with the occasional coop throwing one as well. The parties are fun and include everything you assume, but most people preparty in dorms before hand. The alcohol policy at Stanford is very lax. </p>

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Its as prominent as you want it to be depending on your friend group. There are definitely kids who use it and its not hard at all to find and take part in. There is no pressure to try weed, but its there if you want it and is a small part of the social scene. </p>

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<p>There are sooooo many clubs and groups…that I could not begin to say what is the most popular. People love club sports like ultimate and singing groups and the Stanford DAily is big and so are some political groups. Whatever you want they have. </p>

<p>FOr Bikes any decent comfortable bike is good.</p>

<p>^+1. Great responses.</p>

<p>How many classes did you take the first quarter? The second?</p>

<p>Do you recommend a bike with street tires or something sturdier?</p>

<p>How did you, or others from far away, store your/their stuff in the summer?</p>

<p>How is life for all four years without a car? I don’t have a license, and I know freshman can’t have cars, but upon reading reviews it sounds helpful as an upperclassman.</p>

<p>Is there a lot of self-segregation on campus?</p>

<p>

So you need 15 credits on average a quarter to graduate on time and most classes are between 3 and 5 credits. I took 4 classes for 17 in my first quarter, which was on the high end. It was a pretty easy load since I took an intro sem as part of it, but I didn’t take any real science which are the most intensive. For the first quarter of freshman year most people take around 14 or 15 for an easier course load—so 3 classes or 4. I did know a girl who took the max of 20, but thats insane. Almost everyone then takes more the next quarter…I am planning on 4 classes for 18 credits. The thing is as a freshman there are some required classes like ihum/pwr/languages (if you didn’t place out) so if you don’t take 4 classes sometimes you might miss out on something you like</p>

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Street tires are totally fine…you really only bike around campus or to palo alto. </p>

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Not sure about that…will have to find out. I am sure they have storage facilities you can rent.</p>

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Most people do get cars at some point and its definitely nice to be able to go places for dinner or pick up supplies. As a freshman its not such a big deal though and there are definitely people who never get a car. Since most of the social life is on campus and palo alto is a short bike ride there is no real NEED for a car (other than alcohol runs)…its just a perk.</p>

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Yes and no. There are organizations like the Black student union and certain asian clubs, which exclusively bring certain ethnic groups together as well as ethnic housing like Ujama which is for instance 50% black and 50% other. Yet it really depends, as a white kid I am definitely friends with a wide diversity of people. In my dorm self-segregation is non existent pretty much. Everyone hangs out. I would say the Hispanic and balck communities are the most self-segregated due to how small they are (relatively), but thats a generalization which is not true in many cases. It really depends on the type of kid and where they feel comfortable. So like anywhere else self-segregation exists, but its not really a big issue.</p>

<p>So, I’m told introsems are pretty light courses, as you even mentioned. What’s different about an introsem than, say, a regular class? I’m thinking of taking IHUM, PWR or another serious social science or humanities course, a language, and an introsem. That sounds like a pretty normal course load, do you think?</p>

<p>Did you do any shopping prior to move-in? If so, how mobbed were the stores (especially Target and Walmart)? It’s a little early to worry, but I’m on an extremely tight budget. Planning is always good.</p>

<p>Something extremely bizarre happened. I just posted #6 but it says that it was posted at 9:49 am! It’s 4:52 pm EST. Really strange.</p>

<p>EDIT: What the heck? It happened again. Time is moving backward now.</p>

<p>applicannot: That happened to me like four times in a row today on Google Chrome on a Mac. I switched to Safari and it seems to be working but CC is definitely being weird right now.</p>

<p>^Just to add to what Bescraze said, there’s not a whole lot of self segregation, even within “self-segregating groups.” For example, I am white but I’m a member of the Black Student Union. Stanford is SUPER diverse and everyone is really chill about differences.</p>

<p>I love all the amazing people I’ve met here! EVERYBODY is really accepting and welcoming and even ethnic groups are extremely welcoming to those outside their ethnic groups. No one really cares about your sexual orientation/race/etc.</p>