Ask a Student - Anything

<p>oh and also, is there a club or intramural diving group?</p>

<p>Gaha! Roughly, HumBio : Bio ~ Anthro : Chem.
The Bio program has a reputation for a year of bio, taken necessarily after a year of chem, that feels like pre-med attrition. I’m planning on both the bio and chem cores, and I have been counseled that neither HumBio nor Bio is objectively easier than the other.

HumBio does not require a Chem background comparable to that of Bio. The HumBio core consists of an ‘A’ series and a ‘B;’ one is more technical and the other more qualitative, so while HumBio is indeed multidisciplinary, it would be misleading to call it ‘fuzzy’ like my Anthro analogy might have implied.</p>

<p>You take HumBio classes classified into the following:</p>

<p>Area 1: Environment and Environmental Policy
Area 2: Health and Health Policy
Area 3: Human Performance
Area 4: Human Development
Biological Development
Psychological Development
Education</p>

<p>Area 5: Biomedical Science
Area 6: Brain and Behavior
Area 7: Ethics and Medical Humanities
Area 8: Evolution</p>

<p>Bio categories below.</p>

<ol>
<li>Molecular</li>
<li>Cell/Developmental</li>
<li>Organismal</li>
<li>Ecology or Evolution</li>
</ol>

<p>So they prepare you for substantially different things although you can pre-med in either.</p>

<p>[Substantial copy/paste from the bulletin]</p>

<p>There’san apparently unaffiliated club that conducts diving business on school property; divers get reported on the official Cardenal sports site; and [the university endorses an intramural system that doesn’t having a diving program](<a href=“https://www.stanford.edu/dept/pe/cgi-bin/services/intramural-sports/”>https://www.stanford.edu/dept/pe/cgi-bin/services/intramural-sports/&lt;/a&gt;). Unfortunately I don’t see an intersection between the three.</p>

<p>yeah there’s a varsity team but I haven’t heard of club or IM. Athletic 33 is a springboard class, also.</p>

<p>So of those who actually enjoy their IHUM classes, which ones are they?</p>

<p>I was really excited about Humans & Machines until I read your post L.</p>

<p>I’m a mom crashing the party! My son was one of the many who did not like Humans and Machines. He did, however, like Ancient Empires very much. I’m not sure if they are offering it next year. He took it Winter 08 and Spring 09. And it’s not quite true that everyone gets B’s in IHUM. My son got two A-'s and an A+.</p>

<p>Current Stanford students, I have a question. I noticed that in a recent opinion piece in the Stanford Daily, a student described the freshman dorm programming as stifling individualism and promoting ideological conformity. I realize that this is just one student’s opinion, but would anyone like to comment about this, elaborate upon it, refute it, or otherwise shed some light on what the student may have been referring to? I’d appreciate your feedback as soon as possible, since freshman housing preferences are due in a couple of days. Mainly I’m trying to weigh the benefits of all-freshman housing (everyone is new and sharing many of the same experiences, most people eager to make friends) vs. the possible downsides (lots of potentially immature people, too much noise all the time, no upperclassmen to give perspective and advice, etc.). TIA.</p>

<p>Do you mean “The GAO Report: Res Ed Indoctrination?” I don’t feel compelled to conform to anything. For a few minutes, I would feel uncomfortable if there were people around themselves uncomfortable with hearing controversial or construably polemic things. After a week with me, they’d get accustomed to it, and argue with me. Or just walk off if they were some jerk or pathetic little… you get the point; people articulate their minds and engage present company. </p>

<p>A particular all-frosh dorm had a reputation in 2008-2009 for rowdiness and vomiting. In 2009-2010, it has a reputation for nonconfrontationism and meekness, and I wouldn’t hesitate to tell that to the residents properly described as such. A dear RA of mine, a junior, said that all-frosh dorms tend to change character completely each year, since the return rate is zero.</p>

<p>An all-frosh dorm has many people wanting to be friends, but is less of a Tönniesian Gemeinschaft than a four-class because the freshman community is too big. Among, say, 30 frosh in a four-class, you truly do feel Marx’s ideal absence of distinct social classes. Among 60+ in an all-frosh, they splinter to the point where you might know anything intimate about the Frosh on the third floor. Consider how many close friendships you can form in a year.</p>

<p>According to the beloved English Professor (and I’m not even a humanities person, like, at allll) Terry Castle, the worst thing one Stanford undergrad can possibly say to another is, “I disagree with you.” That quote is in this post to sire some faint resemblance to a balanced argument, but I disagree with her.</p>

<p>in response to zenkoan:</p>

<p>all frosh is the way to go! Pick all frosh! Yes, it’ll be noisy at times and yea you’ll come across some immature people, but the benefits outweigh the negatives in ways you won’t understand until you’ve experienced the freshman year at Stanford.
I’m in an all-frosh dorm here and all I feel right now is incredible love for this dorm and this place.
In a 4 class dorm, you’ll have seniors and juniors who don’t really care about you and are just absorbed in their own thing. There is no sense of community. I have friends in the 4 class dorms that really don’t like it because they don’t have that bond with their dorm or some kind of sense of belonging that comes hand in hand with freshman dorms.</p>

<p>I read that article in The Daily too. I haven’t really experienced what the writer was talking about. Maybe she was talking about how cliquey the dorm can get. Or maybe she was talking about how the freshman dorm is like a camp. We love each other, we are obsessed with each other, we have dorm cheers, dorm meetings, dorm events, all kinds of dorm LOVE. I’m not saying you’re going to feel 100% in love with everything the dorm does and there are definitely going to be people you would rather never come into contact with. But, you will also find the people you can’t get enough of, the memories that you will have forever, etc etc etc lovey dovey happy stuff. The cliques kinda suck though, not gonna lie. But it’s up to you to bridge the gaps between the cliques rather than accept that they exit. </p>

<p>Plus, you will have upperclassmen who can give you advice in an all frosh dorm. In fact, you will have 6. Three RAs, 1 PHE (peer health educator, 1 RT or WT (resident tutor or writing tutor), and 1 RCC (Resident computer consultant). Stanford RAs are unlike the RAs at any other school that I know of. They are your friends. They encourage you to leave your door open when you drink so they know you’re safe. They won’t write you up for anything because they don’t have that power. They will talk to you about anything, all your problems, all your achievements, ANYTHING. They are also the coolest people on campus - it’s super competitive to be a freshman dorm RA because it’s such a well paying and desirable job. </p>

<p>The freshman dorms are also located on East Campus which is so much better than West Campus (which has the 4 class dorms). East campus is closer to the libraries. Plus, all of the all-frosh dorms are on East Campus so you’ll be in close proximity with most of yo’ friends and even upperclassmen who live on the many residences in East Campus. And East campus is really close to The Row where the parties are on weekends. </p>

<p>I love the freshman dorm. It’s so much easier to make friends in the freshman dorm than the 4 class dorm just because everyone’s looking for them. And everyone gets really into the events like ski trip, boat dance, screw your roommate, secret snowflake, etc. 4 class dorm - not really. </p>

<p>I hope you choose all frosh. There will be hard times but even more great times. Let me know if you have any more questions. </p>

<p>Congrats on Stanford. Get ready for the greatest year of your life… thus far. I’m jealous.</p>

<p>GeekNerd, thanks for your reply–I was especially hoping to receive one from you. So: do I understand you to be saying that, for a person with a reasonably well-developed sense of himself, it matters not a whit which type of dorm he finds himself in freshman year? (And yes, I was referencing “The Gao Report”, and still wonder what kind of activities the author was alluding to, if you can elaborate.)</p>

<p>Also: what in the world was Ms. Castle getting at in suggesting that "the worst thing one Stanford undergrad can possibly say to another is, ‘I disagree with you.’ ’ ?? I’m having trouble parsing that even from an ironic/facetious point of view–it just seems vacuous. Thanks for more insights.</p>

<p>ps–you may be a techie, but you can invoke references to political philosophy as well as any fuzzy. : )</p>

<p>Oh, I wanted to add one more thing:</p>

<p>Even if there are immature people and weird “What’s wrong with you?” people in all-frosh dorms, that adds to your college experience and your growth as a person. You will be exposed to all different kinds of people, some you don’t agree with. For me, at least, I learned how to embrace people’s differences and love a person despite their quirks.</p>

<p>Thank you for taking the time to reply, anthology. I appreciate your feedback very much. Would you say there are any significant differences between the Wilbur dorms and the Stern dorms? (I’m not sure we are allowed to specify a preference, but just in case.) Also, what if a person isn’t by nature a rah-rah type that would get into things like dorm cheers–would he be ostracized for not joining in all the time, or be considered anti-social? Thanks for your comments.</p>

<p>Stern dorms have narrower hallways and less people (but not significantly less). Their dorms are connected to the dining hall and LATE NITE is at Stern makin fatties out of em all because it’s so easy to walk from your lounge to the dining hall. People have told me the narrower hallways aren’t really friendly or conducive to hanging out in the hallway, compared to Wilbur.
I like Wilbur’s food better than Stern. One thing is that Wilbur has Chinese food every day for lunch. Stern has like, chips. Stern has soft serve ice cream and froyo, but Wilbur only has froyo. I like Wilbur’s set-up better too. They have long-ass tables where the entire dorm can sit. Stern has smaller circular tables that are nice for small groups but get really annoying when the entire dorm is at dinner and you suddenly find yourself excluded from the table or unable to interact with other people in the dorm because of the table situation. Not a big deal, but definitely makes a difference the first few weeks of school, and then at the end of the school year when everyone has their friend groups established.
Wilbur dorms are prettier. I like the set-up so much more. There’s courtyard and stuff that connect to all the other dorms much more easily than Stern dorms which are closed off.</p>

<p>You will be fine if you aren’t a rally type of person. I’m not, and half of my dorm wasn’t either. NSO will probably annoy you a little if you aren’t into that kind of thing because it it involves running around and being super pumped and yelling. But that’ll settle down once classes start. And you won’t be ostracized at all. Some people just prefer different things. For example, there are people in my dorm who don’t interact with anyone at all. They sit in their rooms by themselves, then sit at the dining hall by themselves, and prefer to keep to themselves at all times. Ain’t nothin wrong with it, even though people do wonder about them. You’ll find your friends regardless if you’re the center of attention or just hanging out in the back.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Anything taught by Chris Bobonich is bound to be good. If he’s still teaching IHUM, that is.</p>

<p>Re: IHUM - Davy Walter is a hilarious, piercing educator who both lectured IHUM and sectioned SLE this quarter.
Here’s a hint for picking IHUMs, that applies to lots of classes if you’re unsure about attraction to the material:

<p>What bike should I get?
What computer should I get? Are there any advantages to getting a Mac?</p>

<p>it really does not matter what type of bike you get. some people choose fancier bikes, but those might get stolen faster. What is important that you get a good bike lock (Kryptonite is pretty much the standard at Stanford from what I’ve seen) and actually lock up your bike all the time. My friend left his unlocked in front of a building for two minutes and it was swiped. </p>

<p>Lots of people have Macs and the computer labs etc will have Macs as well. But they also run PC software as well. There really isn’t any advantage to getting a Mac for academic purposes (at least none that I know of. There might be in the techie courses…)</p>

<p>Thanks man</p>

<p>Do most students have a cheap bike similar to this one or better bikes?
[Walmart.com:</a> NEXT Avalon 26" Men’s Cruiser Bike: Bikes, Scooters & Skates](<a href=“http://www.walmart.com/ip/NEXT-Avalon-26-Men-s-Cruiser-Bike/14272884]Walmart.com:”>http://www.walmart.com/ip/NEXT-Avalon-26-Men-s-Cruiser-Bike/14272884)</p>

<p>Would this be a good enough laptop?
[The</a> Dell Online Store: Build Your System](<a href=“Computers, Monitors & Technology Solutions | Dell USA”>Computers, Monitors & Technology Solutions | Dell USA)</p>

<p>sorry about the specific questions, just getting ready for the farm, thanks again for the help!</p>

<p>Hi! Would anyone happen to know when and how we can decide what courses to take? I understand that the UC’s have orientations early in the summer to help students plan out their four year coursework. I’m lost and have no idea how to start planning out courses for this approaching fall, let alone for the next four years, and if someone were willing to offer their expertise on the matter, I would be truly grateful. Thanks!</p>

<p>PC in Dorm Room?
From what I can remember, the desk in the room is kind of small. If I bring my home PC, is there a cutout hole on the desk that would allow me to park the PC on the floor and run the cables up to the monitor?
TIA.</p>