<p>I know i read this somewhere, but it was said Stanford doesn't have cut throat-arrogant people, right? I hope so b/c i spent 6 hours with some math geniuses and i feel frustrated...</p>
<p>Stanford has a wonderfully friendly and supportive atmosphere that I appreciate so much. I'm not saying that everyone is angelic, but I do mean that competition is not cut-throat - even among premeds - and people seem to genuinely hope that others do well.</p>
<p>Students at Stanford are very bright so there is competition in the sense that getting an A requires that you get higher exam and homework scores than your classmates. But that's really the only kind of competition that I've ever run into. I've always found people to study with for classes who have always been really patient with me when I needed help. There were several people in my dorm last year in the advanced freshman physics series with me (SlySi is one of them) who I worked on problem sets with. If any of us didn't understand a given problem, there would always be someone in the group who would be willing to explain it to them. Last quarter one of the guys in my dorm who was also in my math class was very, very helpful. Even in IHUM last year a bunch of my friends got together to study for the final. Students are generally very happy to help each other out. Even though they want to get an A in the class, they also want to help their friends have a chance at an A.</p>
<p>Yea, they're friendly, from what I hear. In fact, that's what made me choose Stanford over MIT or another Ivy League or whatever (assuming I even could've gotten in). I really value the comraderie and friendship that everyone says is at Stanford. That, and the weather.</p>
<p>^That's what I'm looking forward to the most-a nice community environment that I can't find anywhere else (or in very few places).</p>
<p>Eh. The weather's FREEZING right now...</p>
<p>
[quote]
I know i read this somewhere, but it was said Stanford doesn't have cut throat-arrogant people, right? I hope so b/c i spent 6 hours with some math geniuses and i feel frustrated...
[/quote]
Admittedly, I have cut the throats of several of my classmates during my first quarter here.</p>
<p>Yes, but they cut you back, lol.</p>
<p>On a more serious note: yes, you're going to find geniuses here. Some of them are going to be really weird socially. But as a general whole, people are really chill, and are more than happy to give you their advice/thoughts/help. Like those of us who post in this forum. :-)</p>
<p>No one thinks in terms of "I need to do better than X, Y, and Z to get an A". We think like "X, Y, and Z need help. I should help them so they have a better chance at getting good grades." Basically, people don't care about the fact that helping someone else may decrease their own chance of getting a good grade marginally. And that eliminates all the competition.</p>
<p>on a separate note, how's the honor code? like, I know exams are unproctored, do people cheat? (i hope not, I've taken two summer stanford classes adn didn't witness any)</p>
<p>Here it is... <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/dept/vpsa/judicialaffairs/guiding/honorcode.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.stanford.edu/dept/vpsa/judicialaffairs/guiding/honorcode.htm</a></p>
<p>As far as I know, cheating is quite rare. I don't have any statistics on that.</p>
<p>what do they mean by "unpermitted aid"? Does that include working together on p-sets and stuff?</p>
<p>It’s up to you. As nothing is strictly enforced on campus, you are expected to behave honestly in accordance with the freedom and respect that you have been given, and have to define for yourself what the “personal honor” and “morality” as described in the Stanford Fundamental Standard really means. Normally, I would say that it’s generally fine, as long as you have a good personal understanding of how to do the problems in the set (in other words, it definitely won’t help you on a midterm if you just copied your friends’ answers on a particular problem set). It’s more than okay, however, to seek out (in fact, it’s encouraged) a friend’s help for subjects that you don’t have a clear grasp of. For CS, however, it’s a somewhat different story.</p>
<p>Don't worry about it too much. Most know what's right and what's not.</p>
<p>Hey magerie,</p>
<p>yeah as an incoming freshman I was admitted to both Harvard and Stanford and trust me when I tell you the environment is more lax at Stanford; given everyplace has "arrogant" people, but at Stanford the majority of the people are more than willing to help out. Don’t worry about it...</p>
<p>p.s. I am guessing u were at a math tournament for 6 hours??
if so, haha, i know the feeling</p>
<p>coke0, yeah it was a math tourney / UIL/AMC prep thing</p>
<p>and i look forward to stanford's campus and the people!</p>
<p>Cheating is pretty rare. As for problem sets, you're almost always encouraged to work together (in fact, I can think of no exception to this), and people pretty much always do. "Unpermitted aid" generally means any kind of collaboration on tests, doing someone's work for them, or collaboration on other assignments that you're specifically told is not OK. In CS classes, for example, you're never allowed to show another student your code, although you can talk about the general ideas of the program.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the CS departement regularly accounts for over half of reported honor code violations.</p>
<p>In Bio 44X, which is a lab course, students are allowed to work together on problem sets, protocols (experimental "recipes"), and lab reports. However, while they can talk about concepts (like in CS), the actual writing cannot be copied. Think together, write alone :)</p>
<p>Aaah...that all sounds good. Thanks mucho guys! :D</p>