<p>Marlgirl, What is PWR?</p>
<p>Program in Writing and Rhetoric. It focuses on essay writing, research skills and rhetorical devices. </p>
<p>Except for SLE students, each Stanfordian has to take one quarter of PWR in freshman year and one in sophomore year.</p>
<p><a href="http://pwr.stanford.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://pwr.stanford.edu/</a></p>
<p>CS is the best in the country at Stanford. And there is also a very pervasive "CS culture" that adds to the experience. </p>
<p>Stanford professors make a point of spending time with undergraduates. All professors have office hours. </p>
<p>For undergraduate studies, I would definitely suggest Stanford. You'll receive a more well-rounded experience, both academically and socially at Stanford than MIT. Berkeley will have huge courses and a cutthroat program that detracts from the academic experience.</p>
<p>sran:
Sense of community: Pretty good, I guess. I don't really know how to judge this.
Collaboration: Excellent! You will always find people to help you with your homework. Within a few weeks of the start of fall quarter this year, my dorm had started at least one math study group and at least one physics study group. By now, I think there are at least two of each (for different classes). In my experience, if you want to work together, you will have no trouble finding people to work with. Working separately is also cool; it's definitely not frowned upon.
Nerd culture: Depends on what kind of nerd. Academic nerd? Heck yeah, celebrated. "Trekkie" nerd? I don't really know, as I'm not one and don't know any.
FroSoCo: Other people can probably explain it better than I can, but it's basically a program that stresses "residential education" way more than any other dorm. You have a lot of dorm seminar courses and a lot of interaction with John Bravman. You also live really, really far away from everything.</p>
<p>LtTop: The professors I have worked with thus far have been extremely welcoming towards undergrads. One agreed (happily!) to meet with a friend and I to talk about life as a physicist and such things, and he's a world-famous researcher. My math prof this winter (for the 50H series) always had several students at his office hours and clearly enjoyed talking to us. In fact, he clearly enjoyed teaching undergrads, period. (The class liked him so much that a number of students described him as a "legit baller" on the course evaluation.) I think it's generally the case, or so I've heard, that Stanford puts its best professors (for teaching) on the introductory courses, like Chem 31, Physics 60s, Math 50/50H, etc.</p>
<p>lol, sly si: yay for prof simon!
just think of all the inside jokes we have now...from "the yellow stuff" to david ayala's panflute to..."U beta alpha" to john le and f(U) :)</p>
<p>What do you know about the SLE program? It seems sooo interesting, but is it too intense? Which is better to take PWR and IHUM or SLE?</p>
<p>How are the premed students and classes at Stanford? Do you find most premed students to be social outcasts? Thanks!</p>
<p>magicgreen, I refer you to the SLE thread on the 2010 sub-board. </p>
<p>You'll find a lot of information there.</p>