<p>Senior: Just curious, which freshmen door have the reputation for a good exciting environment, lame environment and chill?</p>
<p>John Corbally was my TF two years ago for my IHUM: Human History - A Global Perspective. He was easily the best TF out of all the other ones in my class. I highly recommend him.</p>
<p>Roble’s best benefit is that it is right beside White Plaza, and classes are literally a 5-minute bike ride (it’s especially nice going to the Science buildings).</p>
<p>As far as freshmen dorm culture goes, it changes radically from year to year. My dorm became pretty notorious for excessive partying but this wasn’t the case last year. It really depends on the students. That said, SLE and FroSoCo have a reputation of being a little tamer than the rest.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what is the lastest that a student can waive the health insurance plan option. I just realized we never did waive the option and placed all the medical insurance info into the portal but I just want to make sure that we did it within the time limit. Last thing I need is an unnecessary bill of $1200ish.</p>
<p>@Dungareedoll: The dorm culture changes every year because the students that live there change every year.</p>
<p>But overall for frosh: Wilbur & Stern are where most of the parties happen.</p>
<p>Thanks Cardinal2014. Good to know.</p>
<p>Also, just a few things that I wanted to mention:</p>
<ul>
<li>if you’re thinking about Econ, any type of engineering or math, public policy, IR: take math 51 your freshman year in either winter or fall. Assuming you’ve taken calc AB or BC in high school, your somewhat fresh knowledge will help you a little bit towards the end of the quarter in linear algebra. And you’ll want to get math 51 over with since it’s a requirement for these majors/minors. You’ll probably be taking it with a lot of your frosh dormmates so you can do psets together!<br></li>
</ul>
<p>I’m planning out my soph year right now and I am SO GLAD that I took 51 last year, since so many classes require it. And honestly, it’s not that painful as long as you don’t take it in fall.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Take introsems. Do it. They’re chill, they’re interesting, you get to meet some really great professors, you can make some new friends, and they’re usually a GPA boost. </p></li>
<li><p>Don’t buy books from the bookstore. Buy them used now from amazon, and haul them to school with you. Used books can sometimes take 3 weeks to deliver. But, they’re usually at least half of the bookstore’s price. And if you get them now, you won’t have to wait in the amazingly long lines during the first week of classes… Go to the stanford bookstore online to find what books your classes require.</p></li>
<li><p>Be careful during the first weekend ( ;</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I third the John Corbally suggestion. I went out of my way to make sure I had him spring quarter freshman year, and that was a good decision. I got a worse grade, but it was worth it.</p>
<p>What wrong with taking math 51 in the fall. Thats what my S is doing, along with Econ 1A, Ihum and Physics 59</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with taking Math 51 in the fall, Dungareedoll, but sometimes the grading curve is a little bit harsher in the fall because stronger math students typically take 51 in the Fall (plus, there are the very strong math students who decide to switch from 51H to regular 51, once they find out how many hours/week those 51H psets take!).</p>
<p>I wasn’t a stellar math student in high school. I only got a 4 on calc BC.</p>
<p>My friends who were great math students ended up with flat B’s fall quarter. A lot of people came away from the class bitterly saying, “I thought I was good at math, until I took math 51.” </p>
<p>Anyway, I took it in winter and I got an A. Much better grading curve. Spring is generous too. Taking the 50 series off track is a recommended for people who aren’t the best at math. Check courserank for more in-depth class recommendations. But if you really are that good at math, it doesn’t matter when you take it.</p>
<p>shayonsaleh: S will be in FroSoCo and is very pleased. After reading some advice to hold off on math 51H, I’m wondering when most of the FroSoCo students take this class. S will want to work on psets with and enjoy the company of other students. S took Calc BC junior year (stats and linear equations senior year). </p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Tspwt5, note that Math 51H, the honors version of the course, is different from regular 51. 51H is only offered Fall quarter, and is a proof-based, intensive math course intended for prospective math majors and other very strong math students. Regular Math 51 is offered every quarter, as far as I know, and the advice upthread was about the different grading tendencies for that course in different terms. (Some students do hold off and wait until sophomore year to take 51H though, since it is especially time-consuming, so for some may not be a great choice for their freshman fall quarter.)</p>
<p>Math 51H is very difficult unless you live and breathe math and, as Zenkoan said, a very strong math student. I used to think very strong math student meant something along the lines of 5’s on AP Calculus BC exam or 97-100% final grade in high school math courses. This is not the case. By very strong in math, I mean USAMO qualifiers and students who went past calculus in high school. And, as Zenkoan said also, 51H is only offered Fall.</p>
<p>On that note, I do recommend that most people at Stanford should take 51 their freshman year. I recommend Winter and Spring quarters. A lot of people that are strong in math, but not strong enough for 51H, drop down a week or two into the quarter. This does make the curve harder. </p>
<p>I also want people considering anything along the lines of engineering to look at the CME 100 series. The material is exactly the same as the Math 50 series, but (from what I’ve heard) the courses are taught much better. CME 100 series fills the exact same requirements as Math 50 series (with a few exceptions), and I regret not taking it when I had the chance. From what I hear, this is mainly because Math 50 series has some focus behind proofing whereas CME 100 series is a lot more application-based and also teaches MatLab, a so-called “numerical computing environment and fourth-generation programming language”.</p>
<p>If CME 100 can substitute for M51 as you mentioned what are the exceptions? I’m interested because my S is thinking of M51 for the fall but if he could take CME100 than that would be great. He is thinking of majoring (still undecided) in Physics, Material Science or Econ. So we are trying to come up with a courseload that could make all those majors happy and not overburden him during his first quarter.</p>
<p>Any suggestions? Would love some… Thanks</p>
<p>@Dungareedoll: I would actually recommend Math 51 for your case. Physics and MatSci require it, while Econ puts it as a prerequisite, so it might be easy to get out of the way. As for an alternative, I might suggest Physics 45. It’s required for Physics and can be used for Material Science as part of the 11 science units needed. It would also quickly give a better idea of whether he wants to lean toward Physics, MatSci, or neither.</p>
<p>shayonsaleh, it says in the course description for Physics 45 (Heat and Light) that Physics 41 (Mechanics) is a prerequisite. But it looks like Physics 41 isn’t offered fall quarter. Do you know if 41 is really a prereq for 45, and if so, why? Thanks.</p>
<p>Thank you Shayonsaleh. I’m glad to think that we are on the right track. I thought about Physics 45 too but like Zenkoan stated its not offered and appears to be a prerequisite. Also my S took Physics in high school he thought he wasn’t going to like it. He had a terrible teacher for Chem and he just naturally grouped the two courses. However, he had a fantastic teacher for Physics, did very well and now is seriously contemplating it as a major. The problem is that he only took honors Physics, not AP. So we want to becareful as to which coarse he needs to start off with. I, personally, don’t want to set him up to fail, with a coarse thats too above his past classroom experience.</p>
<p>Physics 45 is offered in the fall, but Physics 41 isn’t, which is what I’m wondering about, since 41 (or its equivalent) is listed as a prerequisite for 45. I’m curious whether someone with an AP Physics background could do well in 45 without having taken 41 first.</p>
<p>Well, I just want to say that Physics 60 series is probably going to be too difficult for anyone other than those that went above and beyond AP Physics. Physics Olympiad people and the like.</p>
<p>However, the Physics 40 series has a pretty poor reputation in terms of teaching. But it’s inescapable. Physics 41 for me especially. The curve was nice, but I also had only honors physics experience, and all the material felt almost new. Stuff which is gone over for weeks in high school physics is covered in two or three lectures. </p>
<p>A lot of people ignore the 41 prerequisite for 45. I know a handful of people that did 45, 41, 43 in that order. Quote from one person: “The only material from 41 and 43 is some basic mechanics that someone could explain to you in a few minutes.” I do recommend if you take 45 is to take the 46 1-unit lab course which goes along with it. Just nice to get out of the way if you should need it in the future.</p>
<p>All right, so I have a really important question (it might have been asked already, so sorry if I’m repeating, but): How hot are the girls at Stanford? Specifically, what is the approximate distribution of hot girls? That is,</p>
<p>Very attractive: ?%
Attractive: ?%
Meh: ?%
Unattractive: ?%
Blargh: ?%</p>
<p>How do you think the distribution compares with those at Yale, Harvard, and Princeton?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your insights.</p>