Ask a Stanford student anything

<p>@Tony1337… first of all, I think it’s great that you are doing this. Gives those interested in Stanford a great idea of what to expect. I do, however, have a question as to how you came up with the distribution of grades in the CS department. My son is also a CS major and seems to believe from talking to others that is a about a 30 to 70 A to B ratio. Just wondering. I have also read that the CS major is the most difficult at Stanford as far as GPA. I read on CC that the average GPA of a CS major is a 3.2 which is a B average. Just wondering if there are any concrete facts out there??? Thanks for the help.</p>

<p>Just saw these new questions now. Obviously it won’t do any good for Class of 2017 ProFros, but for the benefit of future lurkers (see [xkcd:</a> Wisdom of the Ancients](<a href=“http://xkcd.com/979/]xkcd:”>http://xkcd.com/979/)), I will answer them:</p>

<p>@journeyinwards: I am not very familiar with econ, but as for CS, some of the AI classes such as CS 229 will use statistical techniques like MLE, gradient descent, etc. that involve calculus. For your second question, it depends on what you want to do. Do you want to be a professor or an engineer? Obviously physics majors can go into industry or you can become an professor in electrical engineering, but as a general trend pure sciences tend to be more academia-oriented. I’d say CS is probably the closest to being a hybrid of the two.</p>

<p>@Tripletime: Check out <a href=“https://www.courserank.com/stanford/main[/url]”>https://www.courserank.com/stanford/main&lt;/a&gt;, which has data on the grade distributions of different courses based on student survey. It is slightly biased in favor of more A’s due to self-selection bias, but not especially so. For example, a class that shows up as 70% A’s and 30% B’s might actually have 60% A’s and 40% B’s.</p>

<p>@beachgirlny: That’s a spot I never had to be in. Perhaps find a family friend in the Bay Area, or store it in a college friend’s apartment.</p>

<p>How rigourous would you say the international relations major is? How about the communications major?</p>

<p>Also, do stanford undergrads get into stanford law easily?</p>

<p>“How rigourous would you say the international relations major is? How about the communications major?”</p>

<p>IR is very well-regarded and is one of the most popular majors. It’s an interdisciplinary major consisting of Political Science, Economics, and a foreign language. Condoleezza Rice is a professor. </p>

<p>“Also, do stanford undergrads get into stanford law easily?”</p>

<p>In Stanford Law admission, Stanford undergrads are treated just like undergrads from other institutions. Going to Stanford undergrad doesn’t make it easier to get into Stanford Law.</p>

<p>^ Are you sure about that? Medical school seems to work differently where 25% of students were Stanford undergrads at some point.</p>

<p>Are there any suite-style dorms for Freshman? I don’t want a communal bathroom. Is there anyway I can pay more for a suite dorm. What dorms do you suggest for Freshmen?</p>

<p>What is your impression of the “theme” style dorms(Ujamma particularly)?</p>

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<p>I’m not entirely sure if there are suite-style dorms for Freshman, but as far as I know there is no option to pay or change the dorm you are assigned with. How you rank dorm options for Freshman year should be based entirely off of your preferences.</p>

<p>The general consensus is that All Frosh dorms will foster a tighter community and help you make more friends faster–its easier to meet and befriend people all in the same situation as you, whereas in four class dorms non-freshman probably have made their friends and won’t be actively seeking out more. Conversely, the consensus is also that you will be able to get better advice from the sophomores, juniors, and seniors you live with in regards to courses, professors, extracurriculars, etc. (personally, I found that the RA’s in my freshman dorm were more than adequate as a source of information, but I can understand why some might prefer having more varied sources).</p>

<p>As far as specific dorms, you don’t really have a choice (the exceptions being if you apply for Freshman Sophomore College, SLE, or a themed dorm such as Casa Zapata in which case you will know where your housing will be). If you were to select all Frosh as your first choice and get it, you could be in Stern or Wilbur, for example.</p>

<p>As far as communal bathrooms go, they are nice and cleaned daily during the week.</p>

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