<p>Thanks, marlgirl. :) </p>
<p>I think 8 PE classes in 4 years is just about acceptable. :p</p>
<p>PE classes are really popular simply because they're easy (many of them grade solely on attendance-grading is credit/no credit). My roomate took a dance class this quarter and loved it and so did many other students!
Frosh seminars are great-I took one this quarter (as mentioned a few posts up) and I loved it. If I could I would take another one but unfortunately my schedule is full with required classes and those I desperately want to take so I can't take any more. In general people rarely take more than one frosh seminar a quarter (and rarely more than two a year). You can also take them your sophmore year btw.</p>
<p>For any of you thinking about a PE class, I highly recommend considering a dance class in addition to the PE class or instead of the PE class. Social Dance 1 is easily one of the best classes I've taken at Stanford. The prof is amazing and it's a lot of fun.</p>
<p>Hey celestial, since you're pre-med, I just wanted to know about how the pre-med track works.</p>
<p>What classes did you take/are you taking?
How is your workload?
Is Physics really important?
Do you have tips for Physics? (Sorry, I had to stick that one in there...).</p>
<p>I didn't really pay very much attention when you were talking to others about it a few months ago, but I'll look that thread up too. Hopefully there aren't too many repeats. :) Thanks!!! I'm just really worried about Physics more than anything else right now. I'm in AP, and if I find that hard, well...I'm just trying to work on it right now...</p>
<p>Hi pyleela! Great to see you in this thread. Check out premed.stanford.edu which was made by me =p There is important information about being premed at Stanford. Also look at this thread <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=231800%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=231800</a> Post #14 has the list of classes I've taken, and this past quarter I took:</p>
<p>BIOSCI 154 Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology
BIOSCI 188 Biochemistry I
BIOSCI 291 Teaching of Bio Labs (training to be a TA)
NSUR 199 Undergraduate Research (in a neurosurgery lab)
PSYCH 281 Teaching Practicum
PSYCH 282 Teaching Psych 1 (the previous class and this class are both teaching Psych 1)</p>
<p>Feel free to ask me about any of the courses I've taken.</p>
<p>I gave my opinion about physics somewhere... Check out post #27 in the same thread. I took it at UCI instead of at Stanford, which worked out great because I'm pretty bad at physics and wanted to spend my time at Stanford doing what I enjoy. Is physics really important? I'm not quite sure how to answer that... it's always good to get good grades, and there is physics (non-calc based) on the MCAT... but it's not the most important premed requirement. My tips: do lots of practice problems, and don't be afraid to ask for help! Ask your friends, TAs, even the professor... I used to try to be all independent and do stuff on my own, but my grades have gone up a lot since I've started reaching out for help.</p>
<p>My workload is... doable? I tend to take a lot of units, around 19 a quarter. 4 academic classes: very possible. I hear that things like CS really eat up your time, but there isn't a ton of homework for most classes. Unless you're in IHUM and supposed to be doing lots of reading... =] I also had time to do volunteering and research. This quarter, I only took 2 academic classes, research, TA'd one class, and took a training class to be a TA for another. I did that because I'm studying for the MCAT. I actually turned out to be really busy because of some extracurriculars... but it worked out just fine.</p>
<p>I think I will start a premed thread in this subforum. Please don't worry about asking too many questions, or about asking for clarification!</p>
<p>Well, my community farm and Earth Systems Program questions are still awaiting answers... but here I am with a couple more. </p>
<p>(1: Community farm?
2: Earth Systems major?
3: answered/addressed
4: answered/addressed)</p>
<p>5: Tell me about SLE. I read an article talking about the program's unpopularity and--it appears--impending demise (<a href="http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2006/5/18/sleRagesAgainstTheDyingOfTheLight)%5B/url%5D">http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2006/5/18/sleRagesAgainstTheDyingOfTheLight)</a>, and I was told my friend and his sister, who both attend Stanford (the sister did SLE) that I should definitely get involved--unless the program has kicked the bucket between now and when I matriculate. Are rumors of SLE's death greatly exaggerated? Would it be an appropriate program for someone anticipating a science major? (I am something of a humanities type anyway--but I don't know if I could stand majoring in a humanities-type subject. Although I know very well that what I think I'll major in now, as a high school senior, is likely different from what I'll actually end up getting my degree in!) Is it worth tying up much of your freshman year in a single program? (... I guess these questions are best directed toward a SLE student/alum... if there are any here.)</p>
<p>6: Also tell me about FroSoCo. The other half of aforementioned pair of Stanford siblings recommended FroSoCo as an alternative to SLE. Any thoughts on it?</p>
<p>Well you're in luck because I have a very close friend in sle and another in FroSoCo. I'll start off with sle. It's true that most Stanford students like to make fun of sle (hehehe me for example) but they're not really serious. The thing is sle takes up 9-10 units a quarter and so sle students end up only taking only one or two classes other than sle. Add to that the fact that most sle kids eat in their dining hall and you've got this small little community that rarely reaches out to the rest of the Stanford community. Now I actually have several friends who take sle (mostly because I've hung around there quite a few times with my good friend and his friends) and they're really just normal Stanford kids who happen to openly like to discuss what I call 'fuzziness' (side note: sle kids are usually the quiet type). Really if you are of that type I highly encourage you to go to sle. If you're taking sle you could probably fit one or two science classes each quarter so I see no reason why that should hinder you. Oh and the sle house (I pretty much mean Faison) isn't exactly your party house. My close friend seems to like sle and says that it really isn't a 9 unit class (meaning he thinks its not that demanding-trust me a good thing) so really it comes down to whether or not you like reading roman ethics, Plato and the bible (to give examples of things they take) or prefer to study other things.</p>
<p>FroSoCo on the other hand is really just a housing option. If you go to FroSoCo you get 2 years guaranteed there which is particularly useful because you get two 'preferred' draws and one 'unpreferred' one. If you don't know what the draw is check the unofficial guide to Stanford which explains it. FroSoCo is pretty far from every where else but not exactly disastrously far (not really more than a minute or two's bike from lagunita) so that pretty much is the cost of getting those two years of housing. Their dining hall is good (eaten there several times) but it's peanut-free so you're not even allowed to bring in peanuts into the dining hall! </p>
<p>Also if you’re looking for a unique dorm at Stanford may I suggest one of the ethnic themed dorms? I live in Ujamaa and I can honestly say that I love it! True you should probably not expect to get any work done there (I go to the library for almost all my work) but it’s really a great place to live. Oh and don’t think that you have to be black to go. Roughly half the freshmen are not black and they all (including me) love it there. Ujamaa students are admittedly louder than others and we do stay up later so if you’re that kind of person (sleep late likes to talk) Ujamaa is definitely for you! Also we get lots of activities that go on there as well as lots of c wingers (students who don’t really live in Ujamaa but come all the time). In addition every week someone has some presentation in the lounge during dining hours where you can go and find out more about things especially the african american culture.</p>
<p>Hey, thanks for all the great information!:)</p>
<p>When I read Annuishka and Superwizard's posts, I had absolutely no idea what SLE was, so I checked it up on Stanford Daily and read some interesting and contradicting articles on SLE. Whether the writer loved or despised SLE, they all seemed to agree that SLE people are quite antisocial and are interested in stuff that the majority of Stanford students aren't interested in. Well, I seem to be pretty interested in the books and writers they read! Will participating in SLE greatly or negatively affect my social life? And do most people really look down on humanities majors? I'm thinking about majoring in literature, but enjoy science a lot as well. Will the culture at Stanford encourage me to go more for science?</p>
<p>Thanks for any reply! :)</p>
<p>Does anyone know if it's unheard of for SLE kids to do the Physics 60 sequence freshman year as well? </p>
<p>Also, would it be possible to delay, say, Phys 65/67 and Math 53 to the Fall Quarter of Sophomore year, or is it best/necessary to do the whole sequence in one year?</p>
<p>ROCKao, I would sincerely say that Stanford students do not look down on humanities majors. I will always stress that the diversity is awesome and that students are respectful of each others' choices. That's what I think is so great about Stanford; you can succeed in whatever you like, and you will be supported. And hey, you can double major, major/minor, something else... really!</p>
<p>By the way, when I went to Admit Weekend, they put me in the half SLE/half regular house. The SLE people loved it; they admitted that they were closer to other SLE kids, but they seemed very happy. If you really like what SLE's about, you have other classes PLUS another three years to meet other people (although I think it does get a little harder after freshman year).</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your reply, Celestial!:) I am very much relieved and even more excited about going to Stanford now!</p>
<p>I have a few more minor questions:</p>
<p>Do most students take AP Calculus for credit? Will I lag behind if I haven't learned calculus beforehand? I live in Taiwan and there are no AP courses available, and calculus isn't part of our math curriculum. I plan to self-study cal anyway, but am interested in knowing just how seriously I should study it, and if I should take the AP exam next may.</p>
<p>So SLE is a housing arrangement as well as an academic program for freshmen? Sorry, but I'm not all that familiar with this...</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies! :)</p>
<p>So definitely not all Stanford students take AP calc before coming to stanford. I know quite a few people that are taking the Math 40 series. However if you are plannng to major in engineering taking the AP Calc would definitely be to your advantage. If it isn't too much trouble I suggest doing it but if its really hard then starting with the 40 series isn' too bad.
As for sle, sle is a 9 unit class but all of its students live in FloMo (one of the dorms). In FloMo there's one dorm only for sle kids and one or two others that are mixed.</p>
<p>Thanks, superwizard! :)</p>
<p>I don't think it's unheard of for SLE kids to take Physics 60. I don't know anyone who does, but I know of one SLE kid who takes Math 51H, which is probably harder.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your info/thoughts on SLE and FroSoCo, superwizard and celestial605. Well, I have a seventh question:</p>
<p>7: About the General Education Requirements. I understand the IHUM part, but I'm not 100% clear on the Education for Citizenship and Disciplinary Breadth requirements. Specifically: can you take just any ol' natural sciences/humanities/math/etc. class, or are there certain ones that are designed to satisfy the Disciplinary Breadth requirement? (It'd be nice if I could satisfy the GERs while taking classes for my major(s)/minor(s), so I hope there aren't specific classes that are required.) And same for the Education for Citizenship--are there designated Ethical Reasoning or Gender Studies (or whichever two of the four subcategories) courses? </p>
<hr>
<p>Gosh, you guys--thank you so much for answering our questions! That is so kind of you, and so helpful! :D</p>
<p>wait, Superwizard - do I know you? I'm in Faisan all the time! I also have a "close friend" who lives there. I would agree that it isn't a huge party dorm, but it's connected to some dorms that are. The people there are social, but in their own way. They hang out and watch movies, talk, or do DDR :) It's a different kind of partying. I wouldn't say their anti-social, in fact many of them are much more extroverted then I am. I think how social your dorm is really depends on the people that live their each year, so you have to keep an open mind. As for SLE, all the people in it seem to love it. I haven't heard any complaints.</p>
<p>7: When you look up a class in the Bulliten it says whether or not it meets the Disciplinary Breadth requirements. There are not specific classes you have to take, besides IHUM and PWR or SLE. You pretty much get to choose the rest. I'm not sure about the other requirements.</p>
<p>Thanks, calikent! I just went and checked it out, and I understand now! </p>
<p>Oh my gosh, I am so excited to go to Stanford! </p>
<p>I'm already starting to plan things out (that's what I like to do a lot of the time--it's a lot more fun than doing my high school homework ;))... maybe I'll double-major with Earth Systems and Cultural and Social Anthropology... :D</p>
<p>^feel free to make as many plans as you want as long as you keep an open mind and realise that you will likely change your mind about what you're planning to major in!</p>
<p>^agreed. I just can't wait for AW, and then, well, for college to start. :D</p>
<p>I'm going to apply for SLE, but I'm not "quiet." I tend to make friends easily, so is it wrong to think that I can do SLE but still meet people through clubs, etc? And is it possible to do SLE and LSJUMB?</p>
<p>Thanks so much celestial!!! The premed website is awesome!!! :D</p>