<p>The Early Action deadline is finally here, so hopefully some of you will finish stressing about the application and start thinking about what life might actually be like here at Stanford. I'm here to help! Ask me about classes, social life, ECs, ANYTHING Stanford related. </p>
<p>As far as admissions advice, please keep it to a minimum. I'm just a student here, so I don't know the intricate workings of the admissions office. Plus there are a lot of other threads here on CC to help you out with that. </p>
<p>P.S. Not sure if this type of thread is supposed to be started by an admin or something, so please let me know if I'm overstepping any boundaries.</p>
<p>I live in East-coast Canada (so applying int’l for RA), but I’m just wondering - completely honest, is the quality of education and innovation here at Stanford worth the distance? Or would I be better off applying to US-East coast universities even though Stanford is my #1?
Are there people who get in and just know that they want to start a tech company? That’s what I’m feeling right now.
I heard something about little drinking at Stanford, is that true? Not that it matters, just curious.
How many internationals requiring aid do you know? I would love to come here, and will apply no matter what for RA, just curious about my chances. </p>
<p>Congratulations! Youve successfully submitted the Common Application for First Year Students to the following:</p>
<pre><code>Stanford University(¹²)
¹ Indicates a college requires you submit a supplemental form.
² Indicates a college requires you submit an application fee or request a fee waiver.
</code></pre>
<p>Do you know if I’m supposed to submit anything else besides my fee waiver?
Also, does this mean that Stanford got my application?</p>
<p>Smoothie-Obivously a Stanford education is extremely valuable, and yes the Ivies in the east are comparable in quality, but what differentiates top institutions is the type of education you’re trying to pursue. For example, not too many people go to Harvard for engineering because their department isn’t quite as extensive as some of the others. From what it sounds like, you’re interested in tech startups, and Stanford is THE PERFECT place for that. Entrepreneurship is pretty big on campus and the proximity to Silicon Valley really helps the school out a lot. If anything, the connections and the network here are more important than education when it comes to this since a lot of big name tech industry people come to Stanford since it’s so close-by so it’s easy to get into the industry that way. </p>
<p>As far as drinking, you have to remember that even though it’s Stanford, it’s still a college campus. Quite a few people here drink, not everyone, but a sizable portion of the student body. Even though some nights people drink too much and get a little belligerent, it doesn’t impede too much on their schoolwork somehow. Everyone still gets things done. You might have heard people say this before and it’s true: Stanford students study hard, and party hard. </p>
<p>I know quite a few internationals, but I have no clue about what kind of aid they’re receiving. Stanford is need-aware for internationals, which it sounds like you already know, so it’s good to know that they do take it into consideration even if you’re only across the border to the north. Sorry I can’t answer your question firmly…</p>
<p>Rush10 and Princess-As far as when they let you know they received your app, Stanford will email you directly when they receive it. When Common App receives it, it doesn’t quite mean that Stanford has yet, so wait for the email. I got my app in during RD last year, one night before the deadline, and I received an email on January 6th (just checked back in my email, I never delete anything, lol) so it was roughly a week after it was submitted. That email had axess info and all that good stuff, so you should be getting that sometime next week I assume. </p>
<p>What year are you in? Where are you from? Why did you choose Stanford? What expectations did you have that Stanford has met and which hasn’t it met?</p>
<p>As far as classes, right now I’m taking IHUM (Intro to the Humanities), MATH 41 (calculus), DRAMA 103 (Beginning Improv) and a freshman Intro Seminar called American Transportation Politics. I really like my schedule this quarter, and I’d say my favorite class is a tie between Drama and my IntroSem. Drama 103 is known as one of the best classes at Stanford because it’s a really easy fun class that teaches you a lot of things about life as well as improv. My IntroSem is super small, only 6 of us, and our teacher is new to Stanford, fresh out of grad school at Harvard. Even though it’s his first year teaching, he’s really knowledgable in the subject and everyone in the class is really interested, so overall the discussions we have are really valuable and interesting. </p>
<p>The best thing overall about my whole education here is the fact that the teachers don’t give us very much work! Math has weekly problem sets, but my other three classes have about 2 or 3 papers and a final and that’s it! Obviously there’s weekly reading, but there’s not a lot of busy work here. As far as comparisons to my local community college back home, my best friend goes to one and while I can’t quite comment on the quality, he is always complaining about all of the busy work in his classes. From how it sounds, he’s working harder than I am!! Hahaha. What I like though is the fact that when we do get assigned work here, the teachers really want us to focus on it and do a good job, so they don’t load us down with other random work. </p>
<p>About me? I’m a freshman, so I’m still catching onto things myself, but after 7 weeks I think I’ve got a decent feel for what your first year here will be like. I’m from Maryland, right outside of Washington D.C., and I’m planning on majoring in either Civil Engineering or Urban Studies. I chose Stanford mainly because of my visit during Admit Weekend. I was a bit wary because I thought the people here would be a bit nerdy/weird/anti-social etc. since it’s perceived as such an prestigious academic institution. After the first night of AW I committed, because the people here are REALLY cool. Everyone seems really normal and not like the super brainiac stereotype that you’d expect to get in here. Sure there are a few of those around, but there are VERY few. So far, there’s nothing I can complain about here. Sure this place isn’t perfect, and I’ll probably find some flaws soon, but the entire Stanford package of the weather, academics, sports and people is almost surreal.</p>
<p>realize this thread is pretty old, but i do have a question (i’m an REA admit)
what do you know about sle? do non-sle kids really not want to hang out with you or look down on you if you did sle??? because that’s what some posters have made it sound like. to what extent is the “sle kids are social pariahs” stereotype true?</p>
<p>I’ll jump in with a quick response to amaninakupenda. My DD had the same questions as you did last year at this time. She is a Freshman at Stanford this year. She decided to give SLE a try and absolutely loves it. It’s a lot of reading and paper writing but she’s enjoying it. Socially she is having a ball! Her Dorm just got back from a ski trip to Lake Tahoe this weekend. The SLE kids attend frat parties if they are so inclined, get involved in many other camput activities and generally seem to enjoy each others company as well as the company of “non-SLE” students. If the program interests you, I recommend that you give it a try. It’s been a great fit for my DD.</p>
<p>just20706, I’m not going to hijack your thread, and I’m glad you’re having a good first year, but I have to observe that you are taking a very low-intensity selection of classes, and that’s why your workload is so light. Nothing wrong with that at all, especially as you get used to college life, but it’s totally non-representative of many people’s freshman workloads if they are starting out with natural sciences, CS, engineering classes, more advanced math, or other advanced coursework, as many students here do. I’m just mentioning this so people reading this thread get a more realistic view of the range of workloads undertaken even from the beginning. It does seem to be true that IntroSems are pretty light on workload compared to other classes with the same number of units.</p>
<p>You seem a tad biased towards STEM subjects. The two philosophy classes I took freshman year (not “advanced”) were a lot of work too, as was my winter-spring IHUM. Those classes probably had more work per week than physics 45, CME102, and ENGR25, all of which I also took my freshman year. My IHUM in particular was awful how much work they expected us to do. 8-12 hours a week, not including time spent on the papers and studying for the final. </p>
<p>In short, unless you are committed to taking the easiest classes available, you will have a considerable workload at some point. If you’re a liberal arts single major, the only difference is you can spread the classes moreso than if you’re a STEM major. That advantage is pretty much negated with a double major, which a lot of liberal arts students do.</p>
<p>Hi Senior–I didn’t mean to come off as biased toward STEM, and I agree that some humanities courses are definitely very work-intensive. I think that the amount of time required in any class (other than the few designed not to require much outside-of-class time) depends a lot on a student’s background in the subject, the level of his paper-writing skills/written expression, reading speed, and organizational ability, among other variables. My main point was the same as yours–there’s a considerable workload for just about everyone. It tends to increase over the course of the academic career, which makes sense.</p>
<p>I was admitted REA to Stanford and have already confirmed my enrollment and all that. I’ve heard that you can take classes from Stanford grad schools, but that it’s difficult to get into classes as a freshman. Is there anything that can be done to up your chances? Id really like to take some classes at the law school freshman year…</p>
<p>Also, housing situation? It sounds like all freshmen is more popular and better social scene… Which dorms are the “best”?</p>
<p>I was lucky enough to be admitted in through EA this year and I was just wondering how difficult it would be to do a double major in Human Bio and PoliSci…</p>
<p>I know that HumBio requires 87 units, and PoliSci 70, but with Gen Eds and other factors, how difficult would this be?</p>
<p>zenkoan-My IntroSem was much more work than the others my friends were in, but I do agree I had a bit of a light courseload last quarter. However, it seems like a lot of my frosh friends who had/have heavy courseloads made it a bit harder for themselves. I’ve never heard of anyone that’s taking 17 or more units of all req’d courses that they absolutely have to take now, usually its a combo of classes they have to take and really want to take, so they sacrifice some free time for a class they enjoy. (And there’s nothing wrong with that obviously.)</p>
<p>Laeven-I’m not too sure about grad school classes. Maybe Senior or zenkoan can answer those since they’ve had more time on the Farm? </p>
<p>Freshman housing is broken into all-frosh and four-class. The all-frosh dorms are Wilbur and Stern and both are all one-room doubles. The four-class dorms are Roble, West Lagunita, and Florence Moore and from what I’ve seen and heard, rooms there are a bit more varied and spacious. Like you’ve heard, all-frosh is definitely more social when compared to four-class. Generally most frosh are really happy with the dorms they end up in since there’s not really any “bad” frosh housing. The only group of frosh that are unhappy with their housing are those who wanted all-frosh and ended up in four-class.</p>
<p>I was also admitted REA and have confirmed my intent to enroll:</p>
<p>Around what date are incoming frosh allowed to sign up for classes? Did you find that you had trouble getting any classes you wanted? I’m thinking of taking CS 106X, IHUM 1, some other class (ENGR 40?), and an intro seminar. How does this sign up date change with your time at Stanford?</p>
<p>from what i gather, in most colleges, ur group of friends will usually begin with the people in ur dorms and then as u become more involved with ECs you make more friends there as well. since housing changes for stanford students every year (or did i get this part wrong?), how does that affect your social life? the campus is huge[!!] too so are you able to build and maintain strong relationships throughout your 4 years? (this question is geared towards a more introverted person.) thanks :)</p>
<p>mrcool: I could be wrong, but I believe it wasn’t until we arrived on campus for orientation that we could sign up for classes. Nothing I’ve wanted was ever closed, nor was it for any of my friends. The only exceptions are IntroSeminars, for which you have to apply for limited spaces – but ordinarily if you go to the first class the prof will let you in anyway – and some popular activities / PE-type classes. Everyone, no matter what grade/year s/he is, can sign up at the same time. It’s really not an issue.</p>
<p>I’d also say that that schedule looks pretty heavy. CS 106X in and of itself will be a ton of work. Why do you need to load yourself down like that so much for first quarter? Remember, socializing and making friends truly is like another class. Would you rather spend a given two hour chunk of time hanging out with new friends, getting to know people, and having fun, or slaving away at a PSET? If first quarter is too easy, you can always load up second quarter! Congrats on getting in! The Farm is an awesome place to be.</p>
<p>amaninakupenda: I’m in SLE and I absolutely love it. You either take SLE or IHUM and PWR as requirements. EVERYONE hates their IHUM, and no one hates SLE. There might be a very slight stigma about SLE, but it’s more of a joke than it is people actually refusing to hang out with you because you do it. No one even has to know if you don’t tell them… But anyway you will make most of your friends in your dorm, and if you’re in SLE a lot of those kids will also be in SLE. We’re totally not social pariahs, I’ve never felt bullied or anything for being SLE. I consider myself reasonably socially adept – my best friend in high school was class president. There are some super cool people in SLE. And if you’re worried about partying, there are definitely people in SLE who go hard. A lot. And there are people in SLE who don’t like to party at all. And people in the middle. Really, it’s just like any other dorm at Stanford. The one thing I’d say is SLE kids maybe tend to be less superficial. Everyone here is SOOOO nice and I love all the friends I’ve made in SLE, you totally won’t regret it if you do it. Haha sorry for the intense rave.</p>
<p>Laeven: I’m not too sure about the grad school thing, but I do know this freshman girl who is taking a class at the Law School. She just sort of asked the prof, and the prof was like sure, we’ll just keep it on the DL, and now she’s in the class. So it seems like the sort of thing where it might not technically be allowed but you can get it if you’re persistent / crafty.
A lot of people think all-frosh is most social, but when they say “most social” they mean parties the hardest / has the most sex / etc. I actually wanted all-frosh and was put in 4-class and am really happy with it. I do party once or twice a week – sometimes with some of the upperclassmen in our dorm, who are really cool – but it’s not as extreme a party culture in 4-class as in all-frosh. That doesn’t mean people in 4-class don’t socialize or have as much fun as people in all-frosh. It’s really cool to have upperclass friends who can give you more of a perspective. Honestly you can’t really go wrong though.</p>
The Farm is an awesome place to be.</p>