We choose how many we interview each year, with 5 being the suggested number. Some do far more if their schedule permits. Refer to the admissions website and your college counselor for your grades question, that is not my area.
2018 anyone?!
Several questions about Stanford life:
-Is the food good?? 
-Is there some general theme to the Stanford class, other than the obvious fact that everyone has a genuine passion?
-I saw on some forum that Stanford was the Duke of the West, and Duke was Stanford of the East. I visited Duke recently, and now am considering it alongside Stanford. Given the (admittedly rare) instance I get into both, why should I pick Duke over Stanford?
Thanks!
@cuteraspberries - You shouldn’t 
Seriously, though - I would say that in addition to genuine passion, there is a certain irreverence and quirkiness that Stanford students have that I haven’t seen as much at other schools (and doubt there would be as much at Duke).
I’d pick Stanford in a heartbeat over Duke. No question (unless, perhaps the AB Duke or Robertson were in play and I had a full ride to Duke vs. full pay at Stanford. Beyond that, I can’t think of any other reason to pick Duke).
The food’s not Stanford’s strong suit, though…
Wow OP and everyone who chimed in to help really show what an amazing community my son will enter.
My Class of 2022 son is a pre-professional contemporary dancer who also wants to pursue pre-med or pre-pt major. I’ve asked @kath00 about this but wanted to hear a bit more input. He wants to take 3 days of classes and go to San Francisco for dance 1-2 days during weekdays. Is that doable while fulfilling the pre-med/pre-pt requirements?
1-2 days during the week may be challenging but possible based on the hours. Several things to consider. First will be class scheduling during the week. This will include classroom time and time for the in-room discussion groups and section meetings associated with each class. Next will be the amount of time needed to complete psets that can take 10 hrs based on the class. Then there are papers (PWR etc) that can consume more time. My son has finished sophomore year and has never had a schedule with 100% open days during the week. Most quarters, however, he usually has 1-2 days with only one class/discussion/section meeting. So in theory, the time may be available, but in practice it may be hard but possible. S is a CS major, so things may be variable based on what’s being studied.
@SCMHAALUM Largely agree with the above post. I’m not aware of any premed who took 2 entire days off consistently every week, but I stop short of saying it’s impossible since I haven’t tried mapping that out. A more flexible dance schedule like 1 day for some but not all weeks, is definitely doable if the specific day of the week is flexible to change each quarter. I’m not sure what your son’s scheduling situation is so I couldn’t say–this will be something to talk to his advisors and upperclassmen about once he starts nailing down his class schedules.
It’s not actually the workload that is the problem, but simply a matter of scheduling since classes are offered on specific days of the week each quarter. You can refer to https://explorecourses.stanford.edu to see what days of the week various courses are offered. Most of the lower-division classes–including the basic premed reqs–are either MWF or TTh, +/- a section that can be on any day of the week. Upper div and smaller elective classes can have other schedule variations.
During frosh year, most people usually have at least one class per weekday for most quarters. During parts of sophomore year, and for many quarters of junior and senior year I would have quarters with an entire day each week free. A few quarters I had two days a week free (TTh), and there was actually one amazing quarter when I had three days per week completely free from classes (MWF). This definitely took a lot of luck and some strategic scheduling, and also was only doable because Stanford lets you count research lab hours as class units to count towards your 12 unit/quarter minimum. Ah good times, I miss the days when I had such free time…
Worth noting that a number of schools including the top ones are no longer explicitly requiring a set number of quarters/semesters of pre-med classes, and have switched to a broadly-defined “competency” requirement instead. IIRC, this includes a number of top CA med schools including Stanford, UCLA, UCSD. See individual school admission sites for more info. But at the moment, this represents only a (sizable) minority of med schools, so it’s still safest for the general applicant to take the traditional # of premed courses.
Best of luck to your son w/Stanford, and w/his decision to do go into medicine or PT. A big decision that deserves a lot of thought.
@Rivet2000 @Era991 Thank you! I understand the challenges better now. Fortunately one of the top choreographers in Bay Area my son loves teaches at Stanford so he can get great classes at school two days a week.
@Era991 The new med school requirement info is really helpful!
How does Stanford University count high school GPA?
- Do they count all of my high school grades 9th-12th grade for the GPA?
- If I repeated the class to improve my grade but did not fail the class originally do they count my new grades, an average of the two scores, or do not count any repeated classes at all?
- I took some online classes outside of my school. If I send a separate transcript of them and as long as it was UC approved, do they count that in my GPA? 4.. I also took some community college classes. Do they also count them in GPA if I send by separate transcript?
I’m wayyyyyyyyyyy too far removed to remember the answer to any of those unfortunately. Should be posted somewhere online.
Would submitting a composition written for a full symphony orchestra as an art supplement increase my chances?
Is it something rare?
Is Roble dorm any better than other freshman dorms? For example, more beautiful, modern, bigger, cleaner, got more amenities etc? I know, they offer singles, doubles and quads but I believe most freshmen are put in quads.
@websensation Roble is a pretty much meh dorm. It’s the biggest on campus but also one of the oldest. Also, most freshmen are put in doubles and a few get placed in triples. Freshmen can’t get singles, and I haven’t heard anyone get placed into a quad either.
@websensation Unless something changed since I graduated, almost all Roble frosh are all put into quads, unless they have demonstrated need for a single (it happens, just very rarely). Asking if it’s better than other frosh dorms is like asking if a Ferrari F12 or a Ford F-150 is better; there’s no one-size-fits-all, it depends on what you’re looking for in a car and what you plan on using it for. For most frosh who want “The College Experience,” the frosh dorms are the best bet. For the sizable minority who prefer to leave their dorm for nightlife but be able to return to a quiet place to sleep/study, the 4-class dorms are more suitable. The personality of each 4-class dorm can vary significantly from year to year depending on who ends up in it and what the staff cultivates, so it is a bit more of a gamble than the frosh dorms which tend to be fairly consistent cultures each year.
As far as new dorms go, the only brand-new dorms are those two new ones by Lag whose names I forget. The only significantly older dorms with noticeably worse facilities were GovCo during my time…hopefully they renovated those because the restrooms were quite frankly unacceptable by many people’s standards.
Understood. But there seems to be a discrepancy in the type of rooms freshmen at Robles are assigned. One poster says most freshmen are put in doubles and a few in triples, but another poster says almost all Roble freshmen are put into quads. The reason why this matters is the bed size in Robles differs depending on whether in quads or others.
How interesting. It’s certainly possible that things have changed since I graduated, so I’d go with whatever a current student says the living situation is.
Having gone to Stanford, why didn’t you go for Stanford Medicine?
I hear a lot of stories of Stanford undergrads that pursue medical school outside of Stanford, what’s the deal behind that? I would think that they would want to stay at Stanford.
@keroce The answer to that is a very long and personal one. I thought for my first 3.5 yr on the Farm that I would want to stay there for the next 4+ yr. But during that last half of senior year, when I sat down to seriously consider the different offers I got from different med schools, I really struggled with my decision. I have several friends who went Stanford med now who are very happy with their experience there. I won’t go into all the details, but speaking briefly and in general terms:
- Cost of attendance can differ by >$100,000 (no scholarships) to >$400,000 (with scholarships), and the debt can easily double depending on loan repayment plans.
- The clinical years differ significantly between med schools, in terms of the types and locations of clerkship rotation sites.
- Med schools can have very different focuses, ranging from research to helping the underserved.
- Geographics matters to a lot some people, regarding weather/lifestyle/surrounding things to do.
- Being close to family matters a lot to some people.
Of course, there’s also the issue of being accepted. I’m not sure what kind of stories you’re alluding to, and whether you mean Stanford students in general going elsewhere for med school, or students accepted at Stanford going elsewhere for med school.
If it’s the former, there’s also simply the issue of getting into the med school. Stanford students do very, very well with med school admissions, but there are simply a limited number of slots at SMS (90 last I heard). While Stanford graduates are historically over-represented in each class, it’s simple numbers that explains why of course “lots of Stanford undergrads pursue med school outside of Stanford.” You know, we always laugh when we hear people say/see people write that “Oh Stanford has a <5% acceptance rate there’s no point in applying you’ll never get in.” Because for med school admissions, 5% is pretty standard, with selective institutions including SMS having far lower (~2%). It’s a silly mentality, because if everyone adopted it, then not only would nobody ever apply to Stanford but nobody would ever apply to med school and the country would be out of doctors.
If it’s the latter, almost every student accepted at Stanford med is also holding onto acceptances at other equally desirable institutions (UCSF, Mayo, Harvard, Cleveland Clinic, etc.) as well as likely holding onto merit scholarships from other med schools that reduces their debt by hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the most extreme example a full ride would reduce total lifetime repayments from as high as ~$1,000,000 to $0, which is something one would have to seriously think about before turning down.
@Era991 - your faithfulness to this thread is admirable!
@Hoggirl Call it procrastination haha. Teaching and mentorship have always been my favorite part of medical culture…and it sure beats getting notes done!