Current Student...ask Away

<p>By "communal" do you mean open showers or individual stalls?</p>

<p>I have a question about the SUNet ID. I want to get one so I can get onto admit.stanford.edu site but I'm a bit intimidated by the "permanent... stays with you at stanford," etc. etc. warnings about choosing it. Are you supposed to put a serious ID like "JohnDoe" or something like names here on CC?</p>

<p>And about the BAS/double major discussed earlier in this thread... How common or easy/difficult is it to do the BAS? I'm looking at ChemEngr. and Econ especially and definitely do not want to spend more than the normal 4 years.</p>

<p>lol, current_student, frosoco doesn't suck as badly as you think. :) and i think i personally know the girl you're talking about--she didn't change dorms cuz it sucked</p>

<p>eh, sunet ids...you can put whatever you want, really (barring obvious things like obsceneties). it's like a tattoo, i guess -- if you do pick your CC id or something as your sunet id, make sure you're going to like it for the rest of your life ;)</p>

<p>remember that you can always create full-name email aliases and be good that way for resumes etc.</p>

<p>as far as i know, all bathrooms are individual stalls -- haven't seen any really communal bathrooms at all. </p>

<p>BAS/double major -- i know a few people who are planning to double major (incl. me); i'm not sure about BAS</p>

<p>mountain biking -- not serious, but there are a few fun places to go. so don't go for an all-out mountain bike, cuz there's a lot of normal road driving, but don't get a road racer thingie either imho</p>

<p>mlee: It's probably a good idea to choose something serious for your sunet ID. If your name is John Doe, I'd suggest johndoe, jdoe, johnd, john09, stuff like that.</p>

<p>That's an odd change - last year, they just gave us a proprietary username and password for the admit website.</p>

<p>I have two questions:</p>

<p>1) Will my not taking the AP Bio exam (I'm still in the class, but I said I would on my app) affect my admission at all? (As in, should I be scurrying to my counselor's office right now to shell out more money for a test that I don't want to take, am not prepared for, and Stanford doesn't accept for credit?)</p>

<p>2) Are the fees for study abroad covered under tuition? I mean, if I want to do the Stanford in Oxford program, will I pay the same tuition or will I have to pay an additional amount of money to take classes at Oxford, etc.? (Not talking about airfare, but just enrolling in classes and such.)</p>

<p>Thanks! :)</p>

<p>ebonytear:
1. In my opinion, no, as long as you do well in the class. (B or higher). But call the office and make sure.
2. Fees are covered by tuition, although as you said, airfare and things like that are not covered.</p>

<p>Heck, for study abroad there are probably far cheaper non-Stanford options if you're not on aid, and many (particularly those with other U.S. schools) might transfer over...</p>

<p>Are there any teachers that are just outright terrible and we should avoid at all cost?</p>

<p>lol, ebonytear, you're jumping ahead of yourself :) ... courseguide.stanford.edu is relatively good with teachers and stuff</p>

<p>Does Stanford let you transfer classes you took at community colleges? Thanks!</p>

<p>1)does anyone know the admissions rate to medical school from stanford undergrad is? </p>

<p>2)How hard would someone here say it is to get a gpa of around 3.7-3.8?</p>

<p>3)Does stanford allow everyone to apply to med school, or do they have restrictions?</p>

<p>arpdav, I don't know. Chances are not.</p>

<p>chanski,
1) the admission rate is probably in the high 90's.
2) not that hard, to be honest.
3) anyone can apply as long as you fulfill the requirements.</p>

<p>Quick Question: I just got back from a Harvard admit party today, and while I was able to brush beyond most of the comments people said about why Harvard was best (mainly Cambridge), I could not get past one thing one person told me. One of his roommates transfered from Stanford to Harvard because they thought that at Stanford that the people were "working real hard to make it seem like they were not working, when they really are. They were trying to live the California lifestyle just a bit too much" How true is that?</p>

<p>Yeah, that's pretty much true. That's one of few things I don't really like about Stanford. It's especially annoying as a freshman when you don't realize that they really are working and think that you're the only one who is struggling.</p>

<p>That definitely happens; it's referred to as the "duck effect", or something like that: it looks like you're just swimming along, but below the water, you're paddling like crazy. I don't think it's as bad as some people think; we're not like the stereotypical picture of an MIT or Caltech student below the surface. But it's true that outward appearances here tend to mask how hard people are working.</p>

<p>However, there's a key thing that I have to say. You make reference to <em>intentionally</em> concealing how much work we do, and thus expending even more effort to do so. As far as I know, this doesn't happen much. The difference between apparent stress and actual stress just comes naturally.</p>

<p>is a bike absolutely essential to get around campus? I heard it's popular, but is there any other way? I'm not a big fan of bikes, and haven't gone biking since like...6th grade. :(</p>

<p>EDIT: and just for fun, what kind of laptop would you recommend? my grandparents are getting me one for graduation, and i am definitely not a tech person...i do love macs tho i don't really know the diff between an ibook and a powerbook...</p>

<p>In theory, you don't need a bike, but you'll be very, very, very glad you have one.</p>

<p>i hadn't biked since 6th grade either, and when i visited last year my host had me bike with her and i ran into a bush...</p>

<p>but um when i started stanford i got a cheap bike at target and in about a day i figured out how not to run into bushes, and by the end of orientation i was in love with my bike (dorm to class in 3 minutes can only be a good thing). my friend didn't get one until this quarter, though, and she did ok...but since the meal plan requires at least 10 dining hall meals a week, a lot of people have lunch in their dorm dining hall and it's annoying to walk all the way back.</p>

<p>i got my first apple for school this year and it's pretty awesome. well actually the disk drive is screwy and eats cds, but the other stuff is good...i would def. recommend them now that you can use windows on the new intel chip apples for free, so you can choose between operating systems. for most people the ibook should be fine, it's what i have, what my roommate has, and what a lot of other people have. the small size is good for taking to class (which i def. do daily). the only reason i would like a powerbook is so i can hook it up to an external monitor; i have a wireless keyboard and mouse as well as a monitor so i can use my laptop like a desktop when i'm in my room, but the ibook has video output and not digital so the picture is blurry if i try to expand it to fill the entire monitor screen. with a powerbook, the picture could be as big as i want it. you can get a student discount on computers if you go to store.apple.com then click on education under more stores, so you might wanna let your gparents know about that.</p>

<p>and about the transferring to harvard b/c of the working hard to seem like they aren't working thing, i think that stanford students are trying really hard to live balanced lifestyles and not stress. doing this requires not flipping out even when there is a lot of work, and so there is an active effort not to let stress keep us from smiling. i think this is a good thing, at least people are TRYING not to create a hyper-competitive atmosphere, i can't say the same for other schools. i really like this article about people who have transferred to stanford from east-coast schools, i think it shows the flipside to this issue:
<a href="http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2005/marapr/features/transfers.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2005/marapr/features/transfers.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>ugh i hate how long my posts always are...sorry...</p>