<p>What’s the class schedule like? Some classes every two days, some classes twice a week, for different intervals of time? Is it really varied, or is it very structured?</p>
<p>^Really varied. Although techie classes seem to meet more often for a lesser amount of time. Throw in activity classes, seminars, introsems, sections, etc. and you’ll basically have a different schedule every day of the week. </p>
<p>There are general periods of the day. In the morning, classes generally start on the hour and end at the 50 minute mark. In the afternoon/night, classes generally start a quarter past the hour and go until five minutes past an hour. There are exceptions to the rule, especially with the 11:00 classes that can go until 12:15 (which only semi-conflicts with 12:15 start classes, plus those are rare it seems). You can also generally expect a bit less than 4 hours of class+section per legit class per week. How this is distributed varies a ton. </p>
<p>For me at least, scheduling dilemmas have been rare. Mainly just for those cool activity classes. So Stanford seems to do a really good job of making sure classes people generally take together do not conflict.</p>
<p>@Senior0991: Thanks for those thorough responses. That sounds like a truly amazing educational experience, one that I’m definitely familiar with as a high school student. In regards to dormmates or hallmates helping out, do you need to post a bulletin on a bulletin board? Or just wander into a lounge and see who’s free? Or just walk up and down the halls and see if doors are open (as I’ve heard is what tends to be the case)? Of course, I’m sure once you get to know students and become friends, there really isn’t a need for the open-door policy anymore anyway and you can probably just work out times with them occasionally.</p>
<p>As for the noise level, you said that you didn’t live in all-frosh, right? Do you mind saying which you chose? (you may have already in this thread, so my apologies) Is that just because freshman tend to be more “bouncy” so to speak? If I were to get in, would an all-class dorm be better such that there are more mature students who won’t party as often as well as more of those with a greater range of subject experience?</p>
<p>– So in this case, from what you’ve heard/experienced and based on my questions here, would you say that the all frosh-dorm is better or worse than all-class?</p>
<p>Actually, now that I think of it I believe that I was behind the old church. <em>checks video taken from iPod that day</em> – I know that there were two specific intersections that were intense that day. One was the former, and the other was nearer to the clock tower and before the bookstore (which is on the left) - so right before the area opens up. Both were definitely crazy to navigate. There are definitely bikers who will try to avoid you as much as possible from what I saw, and also those who are willing to get as close as possible without detrimental effects haha.</p>
<p>^agree that scheduling issues are varied mostly but there are some types of students that have particular issues. e.g. scheduling is kinda difficult for premed human biology majors (like 150 students lol)</p>
<p>for example, the humbio core is mostly 10AM-12 PM in autumn and 9-11 AM in winter/spring on Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday. Physics 20s (a mostly premed class) is only at 9 am and 10 am. Chem 131 is at 11 in autumn/winter, chem 171 is at 11 in autumn, chem 181 is at 9 am in winter. lol sorry this probably doesn’t apply to most people, but that’s the issue i’m trying to deal with right now :)</p>
<p>^Yeah I was gonna say premed is probably an exception to the scheduling thing. Humbio core was especially inconvenient, so I took bio instead. </p>
<p>For help it’s good to know dormmates in your classes. Then you can send them an email or go see if they’re in their room or schedule something with them during class. I’d say it’s best at the end of class to say “hey you mind if I drop by tonight to go over the pset?” and they’ll probably be like “yeah sure I get back after 9. Come over whenever.” Open door policy? I thought that was just for drinking. But yeah lots of people have their doors open regardless. </p>
<p>yeah all-freshman dorms tend to have a more party and drinking prone atmosphere. The people that choose 4-class tend to need quiet to work/sleep, are an athlete, or aren’t into the dorm party scene. So it’s a pretty diverse bunch, and there are still plenty of partiers which is nice. I didn’t party much in HS, and I need quiet to sleep/study, so I chose 4-class. It was fun and quiet enough. I don’t know if I’d make the same decision again. Not that one is better, but they are different. Having upperclassmen around was, for me, overrated, although with upperclassmen come cars. </p>
<p>I’m the latter type of biker :).</p>
<p>From the little I’ve been at Stanford, I would agree that basically anyone you ask will be willing to help you. Senior is dead on with the difference between 4 class and all freshmen, which really is a preference thing.
Personaly, I have found the upperclassmen to not only be awesome when i needed academic help, but also amazingly friendly people. A lot of them went out of thier way to talk with us at the start of the year. They also know a lot about some of the cooler things/activities on campus that I would never have heard of or thought to do. So, that’s been nice.</p>
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<p>I mean, no one really likes the rain - at least, very few people. I come from a place with barely half as many sunny days per year as NorCal, awful summer and winter max temperatures, and three times as much rain. I recognize it will be rainy after break and we’ll all complain, but honestly it’s only about a third as bad as it is at home - so I don’t really care. It all depends on where you’re from.</p>
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<p>This is definitely true. SLE is for certain people. I live with SLE and most of the SLE people love SLE, but I would shoot myself if I were in the program.</p>
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<p>I agree - I would never do SLE (I did consider it for a few weeks). SLE is nine units, but it also fulfills all three IHUM, both PWR, and the DB-Humanities requirements. SLE is still more units, but SLE units are not normal units. SLE can be five units or it can be 20 units depending on how much you decide to put into it. But the class times are awkward and conflict with a lot of classes.</p>
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<p>I live in FloMo and I definitely do not think it is boring - in fact, my friends all come to visit ME. There aren’t really any parties in FloMo if that’s what you mean by “boring,” but it is nice to party elsewhere and sleep here. That’s a feel thing - I love my dorm. FloMo is definitely offering me the “freshman experience.” FloMo does have notable cons though - we’re a good distance from Wilbur or Stern, our dining hall is closed on Friday and Saturday, we only have continental breakfast, the bathrooms are ancient etc. But you could end up like me and get stuck in FloMo anyway, so don’t necessarily not choose SLE because of FloMo. Besides, we have bigger rooms, floor to ceiling closets, the best dining hall, etc.</p>
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<p>I’ve never had difficulty coming across help for anything. I get help from students, professors, TAs or TFs, tutors… you name it.</p>
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<p>There are quiet hours at various levels of enforcement. My dorm adheres to them pretty well; if it is too noisy, just complain.</p>
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<p>LOL, just walk. Your odds of getting hit are pretty small, and a skinned knee never killed anyone. Most bike accidents, in my limited experience, happen because someone hesitates - JUST GO. I think bike-on-bike or bike-on-pedestrian accidents are a lot less scary after the first one.</p>
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<p>I usually spend 3-4 hours per week in class, with activity classes being 1-3 hours per week. My schedule is different every single day. Classes are usually MW, TTh, or MWF. But sometimes you’ll have classes that only meet once per week, and sometimes you’ll have classes with sections that you have to/want to attend. I only have one class on Friday, and I only have that because beginning languages tend to meet every day. For now, it doesn’t seem that difficult to avoid Friday classes.</p>
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<p>I don’t know why you’d have to post a bulletin… just ask! You can always use your dorm chatlist. Our dorm had a piece of butcher paper with common freshman classes and a list of the students taking them.</p>
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<p>You don’t really get to choose. You just get to rank what time of dorm you want, like all-freshman co-ed, four class, theme dorm, etc.</p>
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<p>I don’t really know what you mean by “subject experience” but dorm choices vary. I wanted an all-frosh dorm because I wanted a more classic freshman community experience, but the four-class dorms are quieter and sometimes they have nice rooms (Roble, I hear).</p>
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<p>That depends on what you want in a dorm. I prefer all-frosh, but that doesn’t make it “better.”</p>
<p>I’m not sure if you guys would know, but do the admissions people have a good sense of humor?</p>
<p>I see. Thanks for the responses guys! And it’s definitely understandable that the type of dorm to pick is ambiguous, so no worries. </p>
<p>What’s the freshman workload like? Would you say that <4 hours are spent a day on work for the standard freshman class schedule? I’ve heard that psets can be long - how much time do you normally spend working on those?</p>
<p>How difficult is it to get a job on campus? I’ve heard that this varies by campus. I would assume that students can work at the bookstore, Dining Halls (pretty sure I saw students working there), etc. What’s this like? Do a majority of students simply do this to cover their work-study payment? Or do some try to find jobs off-campus, like at the Stanford Shopping Center? For those students who are “entrepreneurs” would you say that maybe a few here and there are capable of working out a way to pay by using their skills? For clarification, they may have some sort of business that they run, etc. And from what you know, are the jobs on campus usually pretty lenient? For example if you really need time to catch up on work after being sick for a couple days, are the managers good at managing schedules?</p>
<p>Though this is purely going to be answered by personal opinion, do you find that working outside is more helpful than being stuck in your rooms or the libraries on campus? When I’ve visited, students seem to enjoy sitting on the ledges in the Main Quad or just sitting on the grass at the Oval and/or near the Huang Center.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I know nothing about work study or jobs, so I can’t help there. I’m sure someone else will be able to.
My workload varies by week, but I would say that I spend slightly more than 4 hours a day on my work during the average day. That said, On busy weeks, around midterms, or when I have a paper due, it can be more than that. This kinda sounds like a lot (or at least it might, depending on what you are used to) but as long as you stay focused and work hard during the week, you should be able to enjoy life and not work all the time on the weekends. All this is just my perspective, and I assume other students will have different views on the workload.
I took math 51, so I had problem sets for that class. AS far as I can tell, I spent far less time on my psets than the kids taking chem. did on thier problem sets. Depending on the week, it would only take 4-6 hours usually to do a problem set. Some times less than that. But again, that was just math 51.
I’ve never been the type of person who can work outside, so i stick to quiet, indoor places mostly. That said, there are a number of peaceful, beautiful places on campus where one could work if that type of enviroment helped them.</p>
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<p>Well, they are just people…</p>
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<p>I took 13 units this quarter and probably averaged 4 hours per day but only about 4 hours over the weekend, total (I found it difficult to accomplish stuff). I have 19 units next quarter - IHUM, Arabic, PWR, Earth Systems history, and some 1 unit stuff - and am anticipating five or so hours per day… but keep in mind I usually only have class for three or four hours a day (on Thursday I have like 7, but that’s unusual). I’ll also really have to pick up my working hours on the weekend. Unless it’s a subject I absolutely despise (none of which I am taking), I really enjoy doing my work so it’s not usually a huge drag - honestly, not even for IHUM. Certainly not everyone feels that way.</p>
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<p>I had four job interviews during NSO alone - try cardinalcareers.stanford.edu. I have a friend who just walked into the CDC and got a job, and another friend who got a research assistant position without even really looking for it. I don’t think students can work at the dining hall except as dining ambassadors. Getting a job here is really easy if you have work study, but a little more difficult if you don’t. Working off campus just seems like a huge hassle because in addition to work you have a pretty long commute. Honestly, campus jobs are going to pay better because the student mnimum wage is $11.70. I make $12.50 and my best friend is making over $15 per hour.</p>
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<p>My job is - I am sure most places that regularly hire students are. But keep in mind that it is still a job and you still have responsibilities. None of my friends were asked to work during dead week or finals week (I voluntarily worked both).</p>
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<p>I can’t work outside, but I don’t like places that are too quiet either. I study in the first floor of Green. I usually do language homework or prewriting in my room. I usually just work in Green because everything is at my fingertips, but I might venture elsewhere during the next two quarters. I really loved the Cubberly library (school of education) and felt really inspired there (it isn’t that spectacular, I just loved the books).</p>
<p>i definitely spent more than 4 hours per day. probably about 6-7 per day, but i had 2 sciences and polisci (polisci was pretty heavy on reading) on top of ihum.
a lot of people don’t read textbooks, but i always do, so that does take more time. about 1-2 hours of that was usually working with other people in my room (on problem sets, etc.)</p>
<p>i get paid $14 an hour at my job and it is extremely flexible. most are flexible but not extremely. some students work at cultural centers, student centers, etc.</p>
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<p>Everyone is really helpful. In my dorm, it was very common for people in the same math/chem/CS classes to work together on psets. Colloboration > competitiveness </p>
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<p>There are peer tutors who live in dorms. Mine has a writing tutor and a math/physics/CS tutor. I only ever went to the math tutor, but he was really helpful. They hold open office hours in the dining hall that anyone - even from a different dorm - can go to. </p>
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<p>It really depends. My dorm has a fair amount of partying but it’s usually not on my floor so it’s not really an issue. Personally, I have a hard time studying in the dorm late at night simply because of the proximity of my bed haha, but there are plenty of people who do so without any problems. Otherwise there’s always Green until 1am or Meyer 24hrs. About sleeping, well, I haven’t had any problems but then again I can sleep through anything. However, I know people in my dorm who like to go to bed around midnight, and they can do it. At the beginning of the year your dorm will establish quiet hours for weekdays and weekends. </p>
<p>About the 4 class vs. all frosh - I’m biased because I live in an all frosh dorm. But really, people want all frosh for a reason - they’re a TON of fun and you meet a lot of people (not that you won’t meet people in 4 class! quite the opposite. but, there are more freshmen in all frosh with the exception of Roble). Many upperclassmen whom I know who got 4 class liked it but wish they got all frosh. Honestly, unless you need a super super quiet atmosphere, go for all frosh. Stern and Wilbur are also close to Green so if you want to study there it’s pretty easy to do so. </p>
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<p>The math and chem professor office hours that I’ve been to were really helpful! There were maybe 5-10 other students there, but the wait wasn’t very long and the profs gave great explanations and were really approachable. </p>
<p>The only scheduling dilemma I’m having is with IHUM! Ugh </p>
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<p>You’re also probably going to run into dormmates at lecture, so you can approach them about studying together/reviewing answers then. </p>
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^ this is really true. Take heed, prefrosh! </p>
<p>About my job:
It pays $14 an hour and is really flexible. Finding a job may seem frustrating if you’re not work study - I’m not and was very frustrated by the fact that practically every job that seemed good for me on CDC online was for work study - but keep looking and you’ll find something. Also, a lot of jobs are advertised once you get onto campus. </p>
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<p>Haha, working outdoors would be way too distracting for me. I tend to library hop. There are some really nice areas in Green, including on the 2nd floor and in the basement. Cubberley library is cosy, and so is the Cummings art library and that Math/Stat library.</p>
<p>I did not apply EA, so I don’t know my acceptance fate, but I do have a few questions.</p>
<p>1) I’m a vegan and I tend to eat very healthy food. Do the dining halls provide a lot of those kinds of options?</p>
<p>2) @NJDS, I’m interested in the HumBio pre-med route. Would you still recommend it, or are the scheduling issues too problematic? Have you taken classes in the major yet, or do you wait til sophomore year?</p>
<p>3) All this info on the dorms has been really helpful, and as a person who’s not too into partying/alcohol, which dorm would be best? FroSoCo? FloMo? Basically, I would want to socialize and meet lots of people, but preferably not while drunk lol.</p>
<p>4) I know this is mainly for upperclassmen, but the co-ops sound interesting. What are they like? I’d be interested in the veggie ones for dining purposes, but I’d like to learn more about the lifestyle.</p>
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<p>Yes and no. The dining halls definitely provide a ton of vegetarian food. I notice some vegan options. I am not 100% certain what vegans actually eat, but we have big salad bars and lots of steamed or seasoned vegetables. The only two vegans I know are upperclassmen that don’t eat at the dining halls all that often.</p>
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<p>The dorms change from year to year based on the people in them. It’s not like you can choose a particular dorm anyway, unless you apply for SLE (which will be in FloMo) or FroSoCo. I live in FloMo and there is plenty of drinking going on here - maybe not as much as some of the all-frosh dorms, but more than others. If you are not a drinker, the key is not going to be your dorm but the people you hang out with. I only drank a few times this quarter and that was only with close friends anyway; there are plenty of things for non-drinkers (especially early in the first quarter, when the on-call RAs tend to plan non-drinking fun activities).</p>
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<p>Each one has its own feel, and it can vary some from year to year, so just keep that in mind.</p>
<p>Vegan:
agree with above. I knew a few vegans and they managed. Regular dining hall food isn’t great to begin with, so…</p>
<p>Pre-med:
You should probably hit the ground running freshman year with the intro classes like chem, math, and physics. Most people start taking the bio/humbio classes sophomore year.</p>
<p>3) Any of the 4-class dorms should be fine. You don’t get to choose really (unless frosoco and SLE, to a lesser extent). Just write down what you look for in a dorm and they’ll generally put you in a good place. </p>
<p>4) Co-ops are pretty cool. I’m in one this year. I’m not in a veggie one, but as a semi-vegetarian (only eat chicken) there are always options, plus there’s the open kitchen which is helpful for the vegan who lives with us. You cook and clean for yourselves, and generally this will take up about 2-3 hours a week depending on your co-op. The co-ops are all pretty different social-wise. Unfortunately for you the veggie ones are also the more crazier ones, plus they use the consensus system which no one likes. I doubt you’d like the pot-smoking/drinking/drug ones either, which kind of leaves you with maybe 2-3 co-ops I could see you enjoying.</p>
<p>Also a bored freshman on break! Here to help!</p>
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<p>Not exactly true, considering that I live in a four class dorm and pretty much everyone pre-games starting Thursday nights. Generally though, drinking is hard not to see while living in dorms at Stanford and that pretty much goes for everywhere with the exception of FroSoCo probably. I was honestly really disturbed and caught off guard by how many people I saw get carried to the emergency room this year because of how wasted people get. But it is what it is I guess … college? Not to sound harsh or anything but get used to it.</p>
<p>And Lag Dining is great! But the food gets tiresome. And they always have tofu and veg options.</p>
<p>On the other hand I haven’t seen anyone taken to the hospital and I’ve only heard of one transport so far. I’m not in any way, shape, or form doubting justadream92, I’m just pointing out that your experiences can and will vary. Sometimes they vary a lot. I think the first quarter is generally the worst. Some all-frosh dorms are pretty stone-cold sober, others are really problematic, and most are somewhere in the middle. In my experience drinking is usually Wednesday-Saturday, since there are parties on Wednesday nights.</p>
<p>Is the “security” just really relaxed, or does pretty much everyone drink and no one looks down on it?</p>