<p>Do you meet many east coast students/Florida? Just curious. Haven’t seen the campus, etc. How far are you from San Francisco or any large city.</p>
<p>Okay, reverse order answers!</p>
<p>@ collegesgirl- there are quite a number of east coast people here (but you’ll find out that the proportion of students that are Californians is quite large). By car, San Francisco is about an hour away (around forty five minutes by Caltrain). So yes, it isn’t as near as one might think, though a lot of people do go to San Francisco for the day during the weekend.</p>
<p>@ applicannot- I can’t answer the gym question b/c I don’t go to the gym (probably should do something about this). But not having AC is really not as bad as you think. It gets pretty cold, especially in the winter. And the weather in the autumn is usually pretty nice but not very hot. Most people do eat in their own dining halls (just because it’s so nearby). My dining hall is Florence Moore, which means that we don’t have food on Fridays and Saturdays, so I have tried several other dining halls (I have eaten at Lag, Wilbur, and Stern). I’ve heard Ricker Dining is the best and well worth the bike trip to get there.</p>
<p>Hooray! Great questions you guys!</p>
<p>I don’t really understand Stanford’s dorm system. Is it just a bunch of fairly small dorms? there aren’t any huge towers, like at big state schools, are there?
Also, do you guys ever get snow? How warm was it today at Stanford? I’m thinking it has to be better than northern Illinois. (I hope)</p>
<p>I’m not a student there, but my husband is an alum and I’ve been on the campus several times. I’ve never seen any huge, tower dorms, but I’m not certain if there are any. We took a tour summer before last and the one we went through didn’t have more than a few stories, I think. My husband was there in the '70s and I think he lived in Lagunita and back then they had trailers at Manzanita for upper classmen. Those are long gone.</p>
<p>Believe me, the weather around Stanford is nothing like Northern Illinois! 
It’s a much milder climate, although it can be chilly in the winter. It also rains seasonally. We don’t have the humidity that many of the mid-atlantic states have. I live on the coast about 45 minutes south, so we have a bit more “marine layer” (fancy words for FOG) Snow is VERY rare for those of us who live at or close to sea level. And, even then, it could be an inch or so. Again, we mostly get rain in the winter. Some frost, too. You don’t need an A/C except for the very rare HOT days. It does get warmer over in Palo Alto than it does where I live on the coast. So, they may have the need for air conditioning more often. We did our tour in the summer and it WAS an exceptionally hot day.</p>
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<p>SKE4892 wrote:</p>
<p>I don’t really understand Stanford’s dorm system. Is it just a bunch of fairly small dorms? there aren’t any huge towers, like at big state schools, are there?
Also, do you guys ever get snow? How warm was it today at Stanford? I’m thinking it has to be better than northern Illinois. (I hope)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Nope, there aren’t huge towers. We have several “high rises” (like, 14 stories or so) in Escondido Village, but those are exclusively for grad students to live in apartment-style housing. The closest thing for undergrads is Mirrielees, which is a four-story apartment style building.</p>
<p>Most undergrads live in dorms or small houses. Dorms can be as big as ~120 people or so (except Roble, which is the huge one, I think it’s around 300). Houses are mostly upperclassmen and are about 30-60 people. You can check out housing.stanford.edu for more info.</p>
<p>Does Stanford offer speed-dating services?</p>
<p>^ yes for valentine’s day.</p>
<p>Just thought I’d add my 2 cents on some of these:
-As far as the gym goes, there aren’t locker rooms! Why? No one knows!
-Hiking/jogging trails: the trail around lake lag is nice and scenic, but the terrain is highly variable. I did the Dish Loop once, which is a paved road (a few miles long) through the hills. Very scenic and beautiful, with great views of the south bay and campus. And deer (and a coyote)!
-Legacies: it’s hard to tell if someone’s a legacy, but there definitely are more than I expected (including me yay).<br>
-Being from northern Illinois, I can tell you this weather is a lot better. Today was only like 55-60 or something (and it rained). Winter quarter it rains a few days, but the past few weeks it’s been really nice. If you miss the snow, you can get your fix up at Lake Tahoe. People (generally from the north) may say they like seasons. I like seasons too. That’s why I want to live in a place that skips the crappy ones.<br>
-In our room this year, we haven’t needed (or wanted) a fan yet, and we’ve only turned the heaters on once.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh. Well THAT sucks…</p>
<p>Is there a hang out place on campus? I hear the student union stinks.
What do they serve for breakfast during the week? (Are all my questions food questions? Crap.)
What are the bathrooms like in your building?</p>
<p>Thanks guys for all the info!</p>
<p>Is there a hang out place on campus? I hear the student union stinks.
I think Old Union is nice. That and Tresidder seem like the only “hang-out” places. </p>
<p>What do they serve for breakfast during the week? (Are all my questions food questions? Crap.)
I don’t eat breakfast. The few times I did, there was normal breakfast food. Stuff you’d find at like an average breakfast buffet. </p>
<p>What are the bathrooms like in your building?
Very clean and fairly modern.</p>
<p>Do students tend to carry their laptops around to classes or just leave them in their rooms?
How do the culture houses compare to the more typical dorms?</p>
<p>My son is trying to decide which AP tests to take this spring. Does Stanford give you credit for a 4 or 5 on AP tests other than foreign language?</p>
<p><a href=“http://registrar.stanford.edu/pdf/AP_Chart_2009-10.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.stanford.edu/pdf/AP_Chart_2009-10.pdf</a></p>
<p>-List of AP credits that can be applied.</p>
<p>Is it possible to go into a science related only field if you only took College prep Math and Science coruses? Do you have to be in like Advanced and AP Science and Math courses?</p>
<p>is their an international relations department?
is this a popular major?
what about comparitive ethnic studies?</p>
<p>@lilacbutterfly: there are no classes that you need to have had before coming to stanford… they have intro courses for everything. Math starts with basic calc and in teh sciences there is intro chem, physics, etc. Even the hardest techie majors (i.e. engineering stuff) have very doable 4 year plans that include no AP credit or prior knowledge. </p>
<p>@L121293C: IR is an interdisciplinary major, meaning that it draws from a couple of other departments. Yes, it is pretty popular (in fact my RA is an IR major) and from what I hear pretty interesting. The dept site is [Program</a> in International Relations | Program in International Relations](<a href=“http://internationalrelations.stanford.edu/]Program”>http://internationalrelations.stanford.edu/)
I dont know much about comparative ethnic studies but a quick google search sent me here [Center</a> for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity](<a href=“http://ccsre.stanford.edu/]Center”>http://ccsre.stanford.edu/) check it out.</p>
<p>does stanford have a good english department???</p>
<p>Thank you very much! That was very helpful! :)</p>
<p>How is Stanford’s Management Science program versus Economics?</p>