Ask a Student - Anything

<p>How’s Asian doing in Stanford?</p>

<p>Did you find it troublesome not to know you’re roommate before you got on campus? Doesn’t that make things difficult to coordinate?</p>

<p>Also, what do you think of the quarter system? I would think leaving home weeks later than everyone else would not be ideal.</p>

<p>Thanks for your input!</p>

<p>Asian are doing well at Stanford</p>

<p>@bsmdncechick23- It is a little weird not knowing who your roommate is but it really is a good policy. Stanford is very good at matching up compatible people in rooms (My roommate has been nothing short of awesome). Coordinating can be difficult so I’d recommend not buying big stuff like refrigerators and microwaves until after you meet your roommate (then you can coordinate stuff like that once you guys meet–which is what me and my roommate did). This way you guys don’t end up with two fridges or microwaves.</p>

<p>im also up for answering questions. helping people is an awesome way of procrastinating. </p>

<p>i remember CC being quite helpful when i was applying and a profo. im now a senior, studying abroad, and got into (and quit, with only 15 units left to go!) a coterm, and super happy because i just got a single in crothers for my last quarter!!! yay!!!</p>

<p>Asking questions is also an awesome way of procrastinating. </p>

<p>Where are you studying abroad?
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>Does anyone have any experience with riding at Stanford, or bringing a horse with them? How competitive is the IHSA H/J team? What other opportunities are available for riding besides riding on a team? Any other horse related info would be wonderful.</p>

<p>So I’m most likely going to major in chemical engineering. I was wondering if any of your were familiar with the major or knew someone in the major and had any laptop suggestions. I know there’s already a thread for this but I wanted some info specific to my major.</p>

<p>-Do students tend to carry their laptops around to classes or just leave them in their rooms?
both. Depends on what kind of class you’re going to. So small light laptops are a plus. </p>

<p>-Also, what do you think of the quarter system?
I dig it. There are a lot of positives; more classes, classes you don’t like end quicker, your vacations are right after finals, you have less classes per day/week, you don’t have much time to fall behind, etc. I don’t think I’d like a semester system. Those are so, like, high school ;).</p>

<p>Is there any advantage for Mac vs. PC? I hope to stay with PC for cost reason.
Do people use desktops?
What kind of discount for laptops do students get at the bookstore?
TIA for your time.</p>

<p>I use a PC, and honestly I don’t know of anything specific to Stanford that would make one better than the other. As far as pricing you can see what you’re looking for here: [Stanford</a> Bookstore - Computer Department](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/group/bookstore/hardware.html]Stanford”>http://www.stanford.edu/group/bookstore/hardware.html)</p>

<p>I know of one person with a desktop (that doesn’t also have a laptop) and if you don’t like taking notes on a computer it’s probably managable… although I know that most PWR (writing) professors like you to bring a computer for easy revisions and stuff. Laptops are definitely more popular and more conducive to the lifestyle.</p>

<p>Mac is the most popular here.</p>

<p>Thanks, bmoylan and asian75. I’ll check out the link.</p>

<p>Does anyone know anything about what it takes to walk on to the track and field team for polevault?</p>

<p>I’ll contact the coach later, but before I do that…</p>

<p>I’ve heard a lot about biking (and I saw a lot of biking when I visited). Do any people use longboards? What would be possible problems with longboarding that you can think of? (i.e. too crowed, bumpy surfaces, etc.)
Would it be practical?</p>

<p>Also, how hard is it to get on Frosh Council? I do a lot in StuCo at my high school and would like to continue it. If I wanted to do it, would I just have to make a lot of friends in the first few weeks? (I would love doing that anyway :P)
Also, do the Frosh Council kids get to meet a lot of people in general after being elected/ how big a prescience are they?</p>

<p>Hey just wondering how popular IR and PoliSci majors are? Are they in the minority against all the science students, and ever at a disadvantage?</p>

<p>@learner12 I know a few people who have long boards and bikes. They alternate according to what they feel like using for the day. Long boards can be annoying to use sometimes because there are a lot of small hills. During changeover times, x:55 - y:00 it gets very crowded in the main areas of the quad. Long boarding then would also be a pain.</p>

<p>Getting into frosh council is not that hard. Each dorm votes for their representatives, so you’ll just have to campaign against your dorm mates. </p>

<p>@college.curious They aren’t a minority by any stretch. A lot of the science majors make fun of them, but there make up a significant part of the graduating class. I’m sure you can get the stats on the Stanford website.</p>

<p>I got into Stanford, and I couldn’t be more excited. It always has been my dream school. However I have some questions regarding the level of accessibility of professors. I’m interested in economics by the way and computer science.</p>

<p>Are professors more interested in doing research than teaching undergrads?
How easy is it to double major in economics and computer science?
How large are intro classes, and how intimate is the classroom setting after the first year (is the Princeton Review’s ranking of 4th best classroom experience justified)?
How happy are students with their choice - is there a general love and enthusiasm for the school?
Are there a lot of choices in courses, given the General Requirements, and do you feel like they get in the way of what you really want to study?</p>

<p>I’d say that in general the profs enjoy teaching… you’ll get some who kinda dgaf but for the most part it’s pretty good.</p>

<p>CS is a pretty intense major (though well worth it… my roommate is CS.) so I don’t know about trying do a double major. It’s doable, you’ll get out in 4 years, but it’s gonna be tough. The econ minor in incredibly popular though. </p>

<p>The biggest intro classes are probably around 150, but any class that size also has discussion section of 15 or less students with a TA (normally a PhD student) so it’s still easy to ask questions and stuff. Even in huge lectures like that profs are normally very open to any questions you may have. Office hours are another great resource. I’m still a freshman, so I can’t really say much about how classes are later on, but I do know that class size drops significantly. Also if you’re studying something you really enjoy higher level, more specialized classes will be much more enjoyable.</p>

<p>I know this sounds like the propaganda that admissions spits out, but it really is kind of tough to find someone that is genuinely unhappy with Stanford. It’s a great place to live and study.</p>

<p>As far as GER’s, one thing my advisor told me which I’m finding to be pretty true is to not worry about them till much later. If you have somewhat varied interests (which with the double major it seems like you do) you will fulfill a lot of them just by taking classes you would anyway, especially since there are a ton of classes that fulfill each req. If senior year rolls around and you have one left, so be it. IHUM and PWR, on the other hand, are kind of a pain. If you haven’t heard yet, IHUM (intro to humanities) is this series that everyone takes all three quarters of freshman year thats not too much work but pretty lame. PWR is writing.</p>

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<p>Definitely not mine! 8+ hours of work per week. ugh. Anyways yeah IHUM generally isn’t good, and I’d much rather take a normal class in the same field, but I really enjoyed my fall one. I didn’t think PWR was too bad. It really depends on which class you get. </p>

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The frosh council people seem to know a ton of people across the campus (the other frosh council people and their close friends mainly); it’s a great social networking tool.</p>