<p>I have been admitted to Stanford's class of 2008 in December and I'm leaning towards taking up their offer of admission. One of my criteria for making this choice is the difficulty of Stanford's chemical engineering (my prospective major) versus my next best choice Cornell Engineering. Are Stanford's courses really difficult, like how hard do engineering students typically work? Also, and this is really important, how interesting are the classes? Are they challenging, but stimulating or are they just dry and require lots of memorization? How much time do engineering students typically have for free time? I came for from a very challenging public high school well known around NJ for math/science (won Siemen's award for science AP exam scores) and although I didn't struggle in my classes obviously, I found them time consuming and earned quite a few "B's". I'm a little afraid I will be overwhelmed with Stanford's engineering courses, where kids came in not only with the 800's in Math I and Math IIc I had, but also virtually all straight A's in math and science. Furthermore, although academics are paramount, I'm also considering the atmosphere of Stanford. What do Stanford students do for fun? If you had to describe the student body in a few words which would you use? Also, how are the dorms/food? These are really important to me because I'll be living there for the next four years. I haven't gotten to visit, I'm visiting for admit weekend and I'll draw my own conclusions then but I also want other's opinions. Also, for kids from the east coast, do you guys feel in/ assimilated at Stanford? I don't think financial aid will be a consideration, Stanford gave me only loans and Cornell gave me a $600 John McMullen "scholarship" to entice me to attend. I know this was a long post, but I appreciate all replies, not just engineering students! Thank you!</p>
<p>Edit: I think it should be '12 not '08 lol.</p>