<p>A few questions:</p>
<p>1) How competitive are applications for IntroSems? (If anyone has any tips, please share!) </p>
<p>2) Does doing study abroad have any impact on financial aid?</p>
<p>3) Is it a good idea to take more than one Thinking Matters course per year, in terms of it not getting in the way of fulfilling your requirements? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Bump! Any help is appreciated. Also, to anyone who has lived in Roble Hall, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share your experience.</p>
<p>I’ll do my best to answer:</p>
<ol>
<li>It depends on the class itself. The classes that fill GERs, especially multiple GERs, can be super competitive. Each introsem accepts around 18 people, and sometimes there can be over 50 people that apply. But in general people usually get into an introsem that they want to take. Before each quarter starts, there’s always a list of introsems that have spots open.</li>
</ol>
<p>In terms of tips for applying, just be honest with why you are interested in the topic. Don’t try to guess the right answer. Just speak to your passion on the topic and how you came to be interested in the topic. I’ve found that it helps to tell a brief anecdote or story, if there’s enough room. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>I’m not sure about this one.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t know too much about Thinking Matters since it’s new, but I’m under the impression that you take one each quarter your freshman year and then you are done with them.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>What is NSO like? Fun, awkward, or both? How are the planned events, like Real World: Stanford? Are dorm events mandatory?</p>
<p>Hi There - We are very excited that our S will be attending Stanford in the fall. We are trying to figure out how best to compliment the recommendations from his advisors with the practical feedback from current students. Any advice you can offer for a potential engineering student this year would be appreciated:</p>
<p>For fall, he’s currently looking at:
PWR1
Math 41 or 42
Chem 31A or Phys41
TBD (what would you recommend?)</p>
<p>Secondly, when we look at the 4 year plans outlined in the handbook site most of them start off with 18 credit quarters in the first year which I thought was not recommended. Thoughts on the relevant usefulness of these plans?</p>
<p>
Fun and awkward. I’ve been through NSO twice, and I’ve enjoyed the planned events. FACES is generally a hit, Real World is changing this year but in past years I enjoyed it, Three Books I think is dumb this year but maybe the discussion will be interesting, First Lecture you’ll probably forget (if you stay awake, my years it was early), the social events are diverting, and the smaller programming can be hit or miss. </p>
<p>Things change from year to year, so don’t let some upperclassman discourage you from going to an event. </p>
<p>Some events will be labelled mandatory, but I’ve never heard of anyone being punished for skipping them. That said, I’d say most freshman go to the events and the discussions afterwards. And although you may not explicitly remember some of the takeaways from NSO, going through it again I was able to see how the events are tailored to initiate you into the Stanford culture and community.</p>
<p>What is FACES? And just out of curiosity, how is Real World changing? I heard it was a funny play but that it covered some of the important issues at Stanford, and I was kind of looking forward to it. Does every dorm go on a scavenger hunt? </p>
<p>Thanks so much for your response!</p>
<p>Thanks for the response to my previous question!</p>
<p>I feel so overwhelmed with just everything…living thousands of miles away from home in a part of the country I’m barely familiar with, a strange quarter system at odds with my procrastination, trying figure all these courses and abbreviations. I definitely did not expect all of this anxiety.</p>
<p>On a non-related note, I got a mailing from ASSU/SSE that featured internship positions for freshman (ex: Special Products intern, Marketing intern, etc.). How competitive are those positions, and are they worth pursuing? Basically, anyone has any experience/opinions on ASSU/SSE, feel free to share!</p>
<p>I have negative opinions of SSE, it seems to be a good place for people who think very highly of themselves. ASSU as well, but in a different way. </p>
<p>FACES is an event where 10 or so students each take the stage at MemAud to share their stories. It’s pretty inspiring and it sets a good tone for what is hopefully a thoughtful dorm discussion afterwards. </p>
<p>Yeah I don’t know why they’re changing Real World- I quite enjoyed it. My guess, though, is that it is an overzealous recent graduate trying to leave a lasting legacy on theatre at Stanford that, up to this point, she has not been able to create. But maybe I’m just being cynical.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of a freshman dorm not go on a scavenger hunt.</p>
<p>Senior0991, can you go into more detail about why ASSU turns you off? From my surface understanding, it seems like any other college student govt.</p>
<p>Mainly the SSE branch turns me off. I’ve known a few people who have done it, I’ve read some internal emails they send out, and the claim that their revenues go back to the students is misleading. Much of the money goes back to the students within SSE, who receive what I view as unnecessarily high compensation. They claim to operate for students, yet their reimbursement process is notoriously slow and they threaten students who produce goods that compete with the Student Store products. </p>
<p>The ASSU Senates and Exec team I’m fine with for the most part. There are still some egos there, but at least they’re driven more by a sense of wanting to improve the school rather than maximizing profits for the Student Store or what have you.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Are the people generally laid back and not ****<strong><em>s (high school has MANY *</em></strong>***s). Pardon my language…</p></li>
<li><p>Do you have to be with a roommate? Can you live by yourself in your own dorm room?</p></li>
<li><p>Do you get free food for the first year? (Freshman 15 or something?)</p></li>
<li><p>How long does it take you to get to your next class?</p></li>
<li><p>How difficult (in your opinion) is Freshman year?</p></li>
<li><p>Difficulty compared to a High School student taking ALL AP Courses? (Plus sports and clubs)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I can’t answer all the questions but here’s my understanding as a mom of a rising sophomore;</p>
<p>1) The kids on the campus are fantastic. The immaturity of high school is long gone. Kids are very helpful towards one another, accepting and laid back.<br>
2) I think you do have to have a roommate, but you are probably better off asking Stanford housing about that. My S only knew of two kids who didn’t have roommates and that because they were no shows at the beginning of the year.
3) My S was always hungry. So I don’t think there was an abundance of free food give aways. We spent tons of cash on late night snacks.<br>
4) Getting to classes is easy. Everyone bikes so my S would wake up 10 mins before class started, brush his teeth, wash his face and apparently was never late to class.
5) Freshman year was very rigious. There were definitely times that he stressed. Its a very different environment. Not that its competitive. Quite the contrary, the kids are extremely collaborative but everyone is so smart that now its just that much harder to get good grades. In essence everyone is a curve buster.
6) Stanford makes AP classes look like preschool work. No comparison at all. They are good to have because they give you great background in the subject area but the level of difficulty is tremendously harder.</p>
<p>@Dungaree
Thanks, you helped a lot. Albeit “Freshman year was very rigorous.” & “Stanford makes AP classes look like preschool work,” made me scared…
I’ll be back with more questions later. Thanks again. ^.^</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I still don’t have my finger on the Stanford profile. But they aren’t scum, they generally mean well, and remnants of immaturity are still natural at 18-22. Laid back? Most students are laid back some of the time. Compared to peer schools, I imagine our student body is more laid back. </p></li>
<li><p>Freshman year, unless you have a really really good reason, you’ll be with a roommate. Other years it’s really your choice- you can always get a shared apartment (your own bedroom) at Oak Creek, after all. </p></li>
<li><p>Free, once your room and board is accounted for. Some people eat a lot of late-night food (which isn’t “free”, although you can defer part of your meal plan to pay for some of it), but really if you eat enough in the dining halls and take some food back to your dorm, you should never go hungry. There’s always free food somewhere is what I like to say- work for the Daily, they cater every school night for their staff. </p></li>
<li><p>Anywhere from 2-7 minutes for me. I longboard, walking will take longer. </p></li>
<li><p>I’m going to be a senior. Freshman year had difficult moments. Sophomore year had its moments. Junior year too. Overall I wouldn’t have rated junior year as more difficult than freshman year, but then again compared to most of the freshman I was living with I had a lot more work. A 5 page IHUM essay freshman year seems like a bother, after freshman year you wish you could go back to 5 page essays. But you adapt. </p></li>
<li><p>Similar difficulty, at least for me. Then again my high school was rigorous. Was the work easier in high school? Yeah probably, but I would never want to go back to high school- there just wasn’t enough time to focus sufficiently on each of my 5-6 classes. The great thing about college is you have so much more free time, generally 3-4 classes to concentrate on, and instead of nightly assignments it’s more weekly or twice-weekly assignments. Most students offset tough quarters with easier ones, which you can’t do in high school when you’re committed to the same classes for a year. College is a much less taxing academic environment, I feel.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Stanfordmexican: I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean to make it sound so scary, I just didn’t want to make it sound like a cake walk. (Obviously I didn’t do a good job. 
My S is one of those kids in life who never gets the easy teacher, or class. Last year for two quarters of IHUM he had the same teacher and she was one of the toughest graders. On one of his papers she wrote “Great paper, well thought out, Nicely written” and then gave him a “B”. There were no other negative comments, nor any corrections grammatically. Meantime, some of his friends were writing their papers the night before and winging the class discussion. He read all the books, researched all the symbolic meanings etc., but it just didn’t seem to matter. Then he took his PWR class. He got the teacher that was stickler for every detail. I think the class was 2hours or 1 1/2 hours. His friends taking it at the same time with a different teacher, were always dismissed early and texting him that they were leaving, while his teacher was still going. I’m not saying its a bad thing, just that he tends to not be lucky when it comes to things like that. He took some CS clasess, also hard and ridiculously time consuming. Again, depending on your background they can be easier or hard. He had zero background, meantime a good portion of the kids in the class were well versus in the subject matter. Thus he was working against a very tough curve. </p>
<p>S took AP Calc BC in high school. He did very well. But he decided to ‘not’ accept the credit and retook it at Stanford. He did very well but it was much harder than the AP exam or anything he did in highschool. In addition, he did attend a very rigorous/competitive HS, so I don’t think that had anything to do with it. Stanford is a great school. My S loves it. He wouldn’t change it for the world. Does he wish he could coast through a class? Yes! But he isn’t a freakishly smart kid and therefore he knows he will have to work hard, but he says it worth every single second!!! You will love it. Just be prepared to work and balance free time with work.</p>
<p>It depends on who you are. IHUM classes are always grade deflated, and they were my son’s biggest headache of all classes in 4 years. Math 51 and Math 53 are relatively easier, but Math 52 is more difficult. I believe those are one level beyond AP Calc BC.</p>
<p>Math 51 is linear algebra and 53 is differential equations- calculus.</p>
<p>They cut IHUM for this incoming year, so you shouldn’t have to worry about IHUM probably. Thinking matters is the replacement and the courses sound really interesting.</p>
<p>No, Math 51 is equal parts linear algebra and multivariable calculus, with an emphasis on vector calculus. A strong background in calculus of a single variable is necessary to do well in 51.</p>