<p>What AP courses does Stanford give you credit for? Also, I’ve heard from friends at top universities such as Harvard, Yale, and Umich, that AP courses are pretty much useless, is that true?</p>
<p>^ just google “Stanford AP credit.”</p>
<p>[Office</a> of the University Registrar - AP Credit Chart | Student Affairs](<a href=“http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/registrar/students/ap-charts]Office”>http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/registrar/students/ap-charts)</p>
<p>here you go.</p>
<p>Thanks. But are AP courses pretty much useless, outside of admissions?</p>
<p>Dude, look at the link.</p>
<p>^ The website is having technical difficulties.</p>
<p>I just happened to look at the Stanford course catalog for a couple of courses in the area that I was interested in (Specifically EE 102A and EE 102B). Searching for the names of the instructors, I found that those instructors are graduate students instead of professors. Honestly, my excitement about Stanford decreased quite a bit upon seeing that! Is it common at Stanford for undergraduate courses to be taught by graduate students instead of professors?</p>
<p>^ almost always there is a professor who is teaching the course also, and if there’s a grad student, he/she co-teaches it. I have never come across a course that’s taught only by grad students, and most courses are taught solely by a professor, with grad students as TAs (if ExploreCourses doesn’t show a prof, know that the database is frequently not accurate or updated; for example, sometimes they’ll list confirmed TAs before they have a confirmed prof to teach it, and then won’t update it when they do confirm a prof). 102A, for example, has John Pauly listed as an instructor as well, and he’s a professor. 102B lists only the grad students on ExploreCourses, but the course website also has Joseph Kahn, who’s a professor. When there are grad students who co-teach, by the way, they’re PhD students in the advanced stage of their program and are typically about to graduate and become professors soon anyway. Believe me, there’s no discernible difference regardless, since the grad students that Stanford recruits are among the best in the world (given how selective it is), and they will usually be great TAs or lecturers.</p>
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No. It happens, although I’ve never seen it happen for a required class.</p>
<p>Is there a physical education requirement at Stanford? I could have sworn I saw info about one at some point, but now I can’t find anything! Did I just imagine it?</p>
<p>At MIT, one can get credit for some courses without actually taking the course but by doing well in the corresponding “Advanced Standing Exam”. Is there something similar at Stanford?</p>
<p>fairlights, </p>
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</p>
<p>There’s no PE requirement - maybe you’re thinking of another school, like Cornell.</p>
<p>GandalfTheGreat,</p>
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</p>
<p>The closest thing I can think of is the foreign language placement exams, but I don’t think you can get credit for those.</p>
<p>What type of bike should I get for my first year at Stanford? A cruiser, mountain bike, road bike, hybrid, etc? I’m not much of a biker so I really don’t know the differences.</p>
<p>Would this be too much for an autumn schedule? It’s 18 units…</p>
<p>Psych 1
Cs 106a
Chem 31a
Ihum</p>
<p>??? Should I drop psych?</p>
<p>^Probably not too much. Not the easiest transition though. I’d start out with that and see how it goes, what the workload looks like, which you like the most/least, and then maybe drop one.</p>
<p>@Clowiebear - I’d suggest replacing one of those courses (probably Psych or CS since Chem 31A is only offered in the fall) with an Introsem instead. Those tend to have fewer units and are less work, but are often fabulous classes.
Also, you (and any other '15ers) should keep in mind that you’re going to have a lot of things to get used to fall quarter of freshman year. Stanford suggests that you take a slightly lesser load that first quarter for a reason - so that you can have some extra time to acclimate to your new environment, get to know your dormmates, explore campus, etc. First quarter is the time when people are most “open” to meeting others before cliques form and routines set in. Make the most of it.</p>
<p>Clowiebear, normally I’d say that’s a decent load, slightly heavy but very manageable. But if that’s your first quarter, I’d say definitely take 3. I didn’t listen to upperclassmen who told me to take it light first quarter, and took 4 classes, one of which was an introsem, another 106A. Not only was the quarter hard, but I really wished that I listened to them and just took a light load. The first quarter of freshman year is hard because you’re adjusting to college life, to being away from home, etc. and having that much less stress goes a really long way. Trust me, I’m the sort of person who doesn’t ever listen to the “take it easy” advice, but in this case, I really wished that I had.</p>
<p>Also, don’t be fooled by the “introductory” part of introsems - some of the profs take their introsems very seriously and pile lots of work on you, including papers and projects. You also aren’t able to get away with not reading, since you have to discuss in class. Among profs, introsems are considered the “fun kind of class” to teach because there are fewer students, the curriculum is easy to make (some do it on the fly), and they get to explore whatever topics they want, like pet projects. So some profs make the class easy because they see it as all fun, others make the class harder because they’re passionate about the topic at hand (which is usually related to their research).</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d stick with ihum, 106A, and 31A. Or if you like psych, cut one of the other classes. I took 18 units first quarter and regretted it (I did well, but was more stressed and did have to make some sacrifices). Taking less also allows you to “test the waters” with the quarter system, which is likely different from anything you’ve experienced. An analogy you can appreciate if you plan to take chem: the quarter system is like titration - don’t put too much too fast, or you won’t be able to figure out where the breaking point is (and in your case, how much you can handle). Less is more.</p>
<p>Where do we find the course catalogue? When do we actually get our schedules and what do we need to submit?</p>
<p>^you can see what courses are offered here ([Stanford</a> University Explore Courses](<a href=“http://explorecourses.stanford.edu/CourseSearch/]Stanford”>Stanford University Explore Courses)). Not sure if they put up the new year’s schedule yet though… </p>
<p>As for selecting courses-don’t worry you don’t need to until NSO. Then you can add courses on axess and that’s it! We also don’t usually have any issues with enrollment except if they’re small seminar like classes (like the intro sems which you have to apply for) so there’s really no rush to enroll the moment you can.</p>
<p>(1) How easy is it to get undergraduate research opportunity in EE department at the end of freshman year?
(2) If one co-terms and does a Masters, what are the chances of getting funded (research assistantship) for the Masters portion of the study?</p>