<p>54% of Stanford’s international students come from Asia, 17% from the Americas, 9% from Africa, 14% from Europe, 5% from Middle East and North Africa and 1% from the Pacific Basin. Some of my Stanford material states that they have students from 90 countries.</p>
<p>From a different Stanford source: "Among the many measures of diversity, more than half of our freshmen are students of color:
Asian American 20%, Latino/a 17%, African American 11%, International 8% and American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian 4%</p>
<p>Sompornburin, you are welcome. In response to your question #2, I believe that EC’s are extremely important to Stanford. While good SAT/ACT scores get you into the “possible admission” pile, I believe that it is your EC’s and the strength of your essays that ultimately get you into the “accepted” pile. They receive so many strong candidates that they simply can’t use test scores alone to build each unique Stanford class. Work hard to get that excellent test score and then start working on a theme for your application/essays that will highlight the non-academic side of your personality. Good luck!</p>
<p>As far as the IHUM question, up until yesterday, all freshman had to take the course every quarter of their first year. They’ve been in the process of changing it all this year and yesterday they finally decided to get rid of the IHUM requirement in place of a new “Thinking Matters” course that you only have to take for 1 quarter during your first year. None of us really know what the class is like or is about since they’ve literally just introduced it, but I guarantee that once everyone is accepted there will be lots of information provided about it in the “Approaching Stanford” booklet you get in like May/June.</p>
<p>I was wondering whether freshmen can apply for theme housing. Also, I am a bit of a clueless high schooler when it comes to course selection so could you possibly provide a bit more insight on course requirements, when to sign up, and about how much coursework I should take for the first quarter/freshman year?</p>
<p>Theme Housing: Freshmen can live in one of four ethnic theme houses: Okada (Asian American), Ujumaa (African American), Muwekmah-ta-ruk (Native American), or Casa Zapata (Hispanic). All of these houses are four-class and 50% of the students in the house identify with the theme, while the other 50% are students of other races/ethnicities. So, for example, you don’t have to be black to live in the African American house. If you want to live in one of these houses you just rank it on the housing form that you’ll fill out over the Summer. </p>
<p>Classes: Stanford pretty much leaves you in the dark about signing up for classes until you get on campus for NSO. In the Approaching Stanford handbook you get, it’ll outline basic General Education Requirements and go in-depth on freshmen classes, but as far as majors you’re on your own to figure out the requirements until you declare. To find out what you’ll need to take, just go to the major’s website. I know for engineering there’s a full handbook with all of the engineering requirements in one place available online, but I don’t know if any other departments have handbooks like that with a lot of majors in one place. Best thing to do is just google the major, like “political science stanford” and the first link is usually the department’s page with links to major requirements. </p>
<p>But don’t worry too much about classes. You can’t sign up until the one of the last days of NSO. (Yes, you sign up for classes like two days before they start.) And during NSO there will be all kinds of information out there about it, plus people will be talking about it a lot. </p>
<p>As far as how many classes to take, the average courseload is 15 units per quarter. (180 units needed to graduate divided by 12 quarters equals exactly 15 per quarter.) During your first quarter definitely stick to 15 or less since you’re adjusting to college life. Most classes are between 3-5 units. Heavy techie classes like Calculus, Intro to Computer Science, Intro Chemistry etc. are 5 units. The freshmen requirements i.e. PWR, and IHUM (next year it’s supposed to be something different than IHUM) are 4 units. Intro Seminars and other smaller classes with less work are 3 units. Athletic classes are 1 or 2 units. So a standard first quarter load is three or four classes.</p>
<p>Pretty much. You’re required to take 180 units to graduate. There are a certain number of electives that you are required to take within your major. For example, for CS, there are core required classes, but also other “elective” CS courses you can choose from pretty much any CS course. There are also required engineering, math, science, etc. electives. Anything after you finish your major is up to you.</p>
<p>There is also a foreign lang requirement (You can test out), and basic elective required (1 math class, 1 humanities, 1 sci, 1 social sci, etc.)</p>
<p>So yes, there are required electives, but you have a large range to choose from.</p>
<p>Just wondering what the average GPA was after freshman year at Stanford??? Anyone have the stats? I hear the IHUM and PWR courses tend to keep it pretty low.</p>
<p>Right now after my first two quarters I’m sitting at around a 3.3GPA and I’m really happy with that. It’s good to remember that you’re not going to get the same grades in college that you got in high school since classes are tougher. I’d say that the average frosh GPA is around 3.0 since most people tend to get B’s with an A or a C here and there. (I could be wrong, I don’t walk around asking everyone their GPAs.)</p>
<p>You might have heard that IHUM is frequently called BHUM because of the insane amount of B’s given out in the class, but you might not have to deal with that because they’re changing the whole system up next year. PWR isn’t quite the same, students generally like their PWR class (I loved mine) and as far as I know, no one really complains about the grading.</p>
<p>Post freshman, I was sitting around a 3.6, but it really depends on your choice in IHUM and your major. Some IHUMs and PWR classes are easier than others. For example, I got an A-, B+, A- in my 3 qtrs of ihum respectively and an A in my PWR. Your mileage may vary. Some classes (Econ 1a, 1b, some introsems) are easier than others (Chem 33, Math 51, etc.). In general Engineering school kids will have much lower GPAs than “fuzzy” majors.</p>
<p>Thanks for making yourself available to answer questions :-)</p>
<p>What can you tell us about the quality of the teaching in math and the sciences? I’m not asking about award-winning faculty or word-class facilities. How inspiring are the teachers, and how clearly do they communicate concepts in their field?</p>
<p>^^^My S is a freshman and has had a great experience. For the most part the teachers have all been very good. Some were better than others but as a whole all were very good. I think if my S had to complain, and he really doesn’t have anything bad to ever say about Stanford, it would be that some of the TA’s aren’t so exciting. He had one for math that he really couldn’t understand and another for CS that was extremely akward and uncomfortable speaking in front of the class (although on a one to one basis the guy was super nice.)</p>
<p>As a parent, and perhaps people will disagree. I don’t find that professors are overly inviting. For example, when we were going through the college search, we would visit schools, like Colgate, Richmond, Wake Forest, Lehigh, Notre Dame and they all boasted that the Professors go out of their way to get to know their students. Some profs will even have the kids over for dinner, call if your not in class, or spend hours with your kids to explain and review material that your kid might be having problems with. My S hasn’t encountered that type of behavior in Stanford. Not to say that it doesn’t exist. He just hasn’t seen it and the few times he has approached his professors they are available but not ‘overly’ accomodating. Again, it could just be the luck of the draw and if that’s not something important to you then its not a big deal. It was just something as a parent that i was a bit surprised to ‘not’ see and it was important to me.</p>
<p>Let me just add one more thing. I think Stanford takes pride in this feeling of independence. I don’t want you to think that the professors don’t care. I just think that the feeling is that the kids shouldn’t be spoon fed. I agree with that but there are times when the kids may need some cuddling/spoon feeding and they won’t do that. They will try to help you find your answers but they won’t feed you the answers. I just thought it was worth mentioning because it was different than what I had encountered at most other schools. </p>
<p>So it just depends on which kind of an environment your child will thrive in.</p>
<p>I’ve had a very different experience with profs at Stanford–I received emails from two of them (in different departments) telling me about research opportunities even before I arrived on campus freshman year. In the two IntroSems I’ve taken, the profs took us out to dinner in one case, and had us over to her home in the other. Obviously this is really only feasible in small classes. As you progress through undergrad and take upper-level courses, they are usually quite small and you have lots of contact with the faculty. Even in the larger classes, I’ve always found that professors are more than happy to get to know me and assist during office hours, and also to just talk after class, walking across campus, etc. You just need to take some initiative in the larger classes.</p>
<p>Zenkoan, thats great to hear. I’ve heard that the Introsems are good for things like this but S didn’t take any. Instead he has taken the typical large freshmen classes.</p>
<p>I have a question about the social life: What do people usually do on weekends? I understand that there are frat parties and such, but what else? And are these activities well-attended? Lastly, I’ve heard Palo Alto is rather expensive and thus unsuited for a college student’s wallet; if I wanted to escape the “Stanford bubble”, where else could I go? (And do people venture outside of campus often?)</p>
<p>Honestly, my S never minds living in the Stanford bubble. Keep in mind how large it is. There’s really no reason to leave the campus. Many of the kids in his dorms are athletes so they go to their games and support them. In addition, S has a lot of friends that partake in the acapella groups and dance groups so they go and watch them. He is also very athletic so he plays tennis or basketball, again with friends from the dorm. At night he does enjoy the frat parties, and many times they do go into Palo Alto by bike. There’s also something called “wheelz”. Its kinda like a zip car but less expensive. So sometimes they will rent a car and go to a place like “in and out burgers” for dinner. I know over the spring break he also bought tickets for a concert that he is going to in San Francisco. He is never bored. Not to mention homework keeps him very busy. You don’t really have as much down time as you may think. But if you do, I am fairly sure you will not be wanting for much to do. Now that the weather is warming up theres always fountain hopping:)</p>
<p>Oh and in case you like the outdoors like S, there’s a fishing lake and windsurfing lake on campus. S went fishing a few weeks ago, was a bit freaked out by all the “beware of mountain lion” signs (lol) but still had fun, and this semester he is gonna be windsurfing on fridays. Again all this in on campus. So is here any reason to leave?</p>
<p>Stanford is the best!!! You will love it!!!</p>