@Era991 - can’t like post #s 178 and 179 enough!
My ds reports nothing like what @websensation has inquired about.
@Era991 Loved your responses. Good to hear. Tx.
Not sure if I should ask you or start another thread, but could you tell me anything about opportunities for undergraduate research at Stanford? Thanks.
@nw2this Research is very easy to find. I worked in a med school lab, and had friends who worked in engineering, life sciences, and social sciences labs, as well as others doing research in philosophy, history, and literature. You can either find PIs you like and cold-email them asking to meet, speak to any professors in person after class, ask to be introduced by a connection (such as a PMA or major advisor), look at their website to see if they have a system to apply online, or keep an eye out on the listservs for the lab recruitment emails.
Are the research positions generally paid?
Depends, and varies from dept to dept. Some labs offer for credit only. Some labs offer paid positions. Some offer either or. If you’re looking at going onto a graduate or professional school, you would want to take the credit option, since these are free A’s and A+'s.
I have a kind of random question- I have a pretty good bike at home which I am considering bringing to Stanford in the fall (I live nearby), but I don’t want to bring it if there’s a high chance it’s going to get stolen! Is bike theft really as common as it seems? Can I bring my bike inside the dorms at night or something?
@giraffes11 You will want to buy a bike lock, and also register it with the campus PD during NSO. Everyone who has a bike on campus has a U-lock. They really don’t get stolen when locked.
I told my kid to make his bike the ugliest thing anyone has seen so no one will steal it.
@Era991 Which bank is most convenient for Stanford students? If my future Stanford freshman kid wants to get a credit card from the same bank, is it easy, as long as my kid opens a checking account with them? Thanks.
I don’t live too far away and find myself on campus some. I know there’s a Wells Fargo on campus. Off campus, there’s the usual suspects like BofA and Chase.
Stanford Credit Union is the only bank on campus https://www.sfcu.org/ Yes he can get a credit card. He will need to have a credit history or a job, just having checking account will not be sufficient.
@websensation I stayed with my original bank, which did not have an office anywhere near Stanford, which wasn’t any inconvenience for me. But I would go with what the two above me said if you do want to work with a bank that your son can physically walk into during college.
@Era991 and others, Since we are getting slowly ready to attend the Admit Weekend event for incoming freshmen, can you give me two restaurants on campus that we should try out? I figure at most we can try out two (2) places. Don’t care about types of food but that they be pretty good. Thanks.
@websensation We don’t have any true sit-down restaurants on campus itself, but here are some of the student favorites just a few blocks from Stanford on University Ave:
–Pampas–Palo Alto’s Brazilian steakhouse, has an almost legendary reputation on campus; (non-vegetarian) people will gasp and whisper in awe when they hear one of their friends got to go here for a hall dinner/student org dinner/lab dinner/special occasion etc.
-Tamarine–Vietnamese fusion, expensive, so it’s another almost legendary favorite for special occasions, business meetings, and when parents in town and paying for dinner. Show up early or make a reservation. I recommend the shaking beef and empress rice.
-Evvia Estiatorio–Greek, one of the best known, fanciest, and most expensive restaurants in Palo Alto. For very special occasions, and you should make a reservation. IMO I found it overpriced for what you’re getting, but I thought I should list it here since it’s something everyone at Stanford will talk about.
-La Strada–More affordable for college students, offers many great dishes in addition to the traditional wood-fired brick oven pizzas. Nice for small group meals or one-on-ones.
-Rangoon Ruby–More affordable for college students, Burmese food. Everyone loves the tea leaf salad here.
Hello! Is there anything you can tell me about what it might take to get into Stanford Medical School or a graduate program (I am going to be a college freshman this fall and would like to get a good start on meeting the criteria for such goals)? Thank you so much!
Impossibly broad question.
how serious is the arts scene on campus? are there competitive auditions to join ensemble groups? i know they just renovated their arts center and have been investing heavily in the arts scene. do you think there’s a push to admit more students with demonstrated interest in the performing arts?
(a more cynical question regarding this: is stanford trying to become a leader in the arts for admissions/rankings purposes? is their dream to one day have alumni winning grammy’s and academy awards and all of that? are they trying to eat into the artistic segment of prestigious schools? (UCLA, Julliard, Berklee, ect.))
are the students into any tv shows? what are they “into”? what’s popular to watch/read/do? (for example… anime, manga, comics, certain shows that everyone seems to watch and talk about)
i would imagine they watch HBO’s silicon valley lol
or are they too busy/serious to be into pop culture things?
A capella is the big thing on campus, and the best groups are very competitive to get into, unsurprisingly. A few of the big annual performing arts shows are also competitive when it comes to casting.
Once again, I’m not involved in admissions so I can’t speak to whether there are shifting priorities regarding arts. I’m also not in administration so I haven’t the foggiest if they are putting in a large effort into the expanding the arts. I can tell you that we as an institution really couldn’t care less about rankings; we do what we think is best for the University and everyone there, and if the rankings happen to follow and reflect that then that’s nice too. I am not aware of any administrator who stays up late at night wondering how to “climb the rankings,” considering how little they mean.
Game of Thrones was the big one I’d say during my time, which spanned all demographics across campus. There were other big ones, but none were so universal.
If you’ve ever visited campus, you’d know how amusing it would be for Stanford students to hear that you think they’re “too busy/serious to be into pop culture things” :))
I can add a bit about the classical music scene. Stanford attracts really bright kids, many of whom are great classical musicians who typically plan to pursue a major outside of music. So you have very strong classical music ensembles which are open to non-music majors, with competitive auditions; unlike, for example, Northwestern where the conservatory is for majors only. It may not be the best place to go if you want a career in music, but it’s fantastic for the serious musician who wants to make a career in another field while still doing music. You’ve got the Bing, the St Lawrence Quartet, and classmates who turned down Juilliard.
Regarding visual arts, yes, Stanford is serious. Just check out the Anderson Collection.