<p>We were not able to attend Parents Weekend last weekend. Any good reports from parents who attended? Stanford really knows how to roll out the red carpet so I'm guessing it was a grea time?!</p>
<p>My husband went. He said it was nice. The Extravanganza dance show was amazing. He took a tour of Hoover Tower too. Other than that he just spent time with S. Nothing super great. Just great to spend time with out S. Not sure you missed anything. Most of the events that had were similiar to what they did for admit weekend and orientation drop off.</p>
<p>The best part was the weather and seeing our D.</p>
<p>Glad to hear that you could attend and spend time with your children. My wife is going out with my S over Easter weekend to visit D on campus. It is such a beautiful campus. I’m sure they’ll spend most of their time simply visiting with D and enjoying the Stanford bubble.</p>
<p>Easter weekend should be beautiful. My S sent us a pic yesterday of all the kids laying out and getting tans. Apparently, it was 80 degrees outside. Enjoy your trip…</p>
<p>Took a very interesting tour of the Jasper Ridge Biological Center (a tour organized for parents) and hiked Russian Ridge with D (our favorite activity when in the area). More interesting Q&A than expected with Provost John Etchemendy, especially on the topic of the free on-line courses Stanford offered last year as a pilot project. But as others said, it was mostly about spending time with our kid, which you can do any weekend.</p>
<p>Can you share any of Provost John Etchemendy’s views on the free on-line courses and the recent developments on this front, including the creation of two organizations by current Stanford professors to continue and expand this activity?</p>
<p>Stanford is clearly piloting the concept of ‘on-line courses,’ as are several other schools with ‘brand names’ that could potentially command dollars for this. Apparently they had 150,000 students world-wide who registered for the three classes (all tech, as I recall). Of that number, 30,000 actually completed the courses, which were free at this time. The courses consisted of lectures, with self-administered quizzes and tests, and the use of a social network (forgot which one) for Q&A after the lectures. Etchemendy compared it to selling textbooks - anyone can buy a prof’s textbook and use it in their course, so why not the lecture, tests and quizzes? He made a point of observing that this also meant that the prof who was teaching the course to actual, paying Stanford students could spend class time discussing the material in more detail, answering questions and working through examples - teaching, instead of lecturing. The three course pilot is apparently sufficiently successful for them to expand to 10 free on-line courses this year. </p>
<p>I’m interested to see if they eventually offer students course credit for completing the courses (including pass the tests) for a fee. On-line testing in a controlled environment is certainly feasible, as it’s already being done for other exams. Its possible too that if someone completed a series of on-line courses, they could actually receive a Stanford degree - although Etchemendy didn’t say that was where they were going. But, it’s an interesting business model to think about…</p>
<p>Etchemendy didn’t explicitly talk about the organizations created by current Stanford profs to continue and expand this activity, so I don’t know if the pilot he discussed was in partnership, or affiliated with one of these organizations.</p>
<p>Wow! Thats interesting. Do you know where I can find out which courses are available on line?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>[Free</a> computer science classes online](<a href=“You've requested a page that no longer exists | Stanford News”>You've requested a page that no longer exists | Stanford News)</p>
<p>The three courses are Machine Learning, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Databases</p>
<p>^^^
Those are the courses for last semester. The current courses can be found at [url=<a href=“https://www.coursera.org%5DCoursera%5B/url”>https://www.coursera.org]Coursera[/url</a>] and [url=<a href=“http://www.udacity.com%5DUdacity%5B/url”>http://www.udacity.com]Udacity[/url</a>].</p>
<p>Did any of your children have the Yale vs. Stanford decision? We’re struggling with this one. I am leaning towards Stanford (we’re from southern CA); D is leaning the other way.</p>
<p>We are from NY and originally I wanted S to apply to Yale. He wouldn’t even consider it. So we weren’t in your situation but I can say this, S thinks the West Coast is the Best Coast. I have to laugh when he says that being a NYer my whole life but I think it comes down to your kids personality. We have been to Yale many times, and its certainly beautiful but the atmosphere is very different. Its definitely more of an East coast place. Not as laid back as Stanford. I think its a bit more competitve and perhaps not as collaborative. But then again that depends who your D’s circle of friends. One thing is sure Yale is not the best neighborhood. If crime is a factor then I would think about that. Its not to say that bad things don’t happen in Palo Alto but as a whole Yale’s neighborhood is not as nice.</p>
<p>Talezl, yes, My D was accepted to both Stanford and Yale last year. She chose Stanford. We visited both campuses. Yale is indeed beautiful and I could have easily seen D attending there. But after visiting Stanford, the decision was easy for her. She has absolutely loved her first two terms, met a bunch of great friends, getting great grades, gotten involved in several clubs and intramurals. It’s been everything she’d hoped for. This summer she is attending a 7 week Stanford funded research project oversees. The opportunties are almost endless at Stanford. Now with all of that said, maybe your D simply wants to get our of CA for four years? These college years are a time to explore new things so Yale might be a good option for her if she just wants to experience something other than the west coast. Good luck and congratulations. You can’t go wrong with either option!!</p>
<p>PS My wife and S are flying out to Stanford tomorrow for an Easter weekend visit. We live in the midwest. They love the campus too!!</p>