<p>that's definitely not true - Stanford students aren't stanford students because they think studying is uncool. I know a fair few students that attend the university, and I live very close to it. From what I have seen, Stanford students are like ducks in a pond. On the outside they look really cool and relaxed, but on the inside they're peddling like mad.</p>
<p>You might be right about Stanford's professors, but I don't think you can generalize all professors like that. It's a very different culture to MIT, but I've visited both and they're completely unique.</p>
<p>But that's not what Darwin said. How about a discussion on evolution! I think evolution has too many gaps at this point to be regarded as a true science; there are far too many assumptions and far too many inferences to even call the theory a theory. What do you think?</p>
<p>P.S. People really took my previous post quite seriously. Frankly, I was just making a lighthearted joke and I hope no one took offense to it. I regard intellectuals of the sciences and humanities simply as that, intellectuals, and I hold the utmost respect for all of them. Not to mention, I'm quite involved in the mathematics and sciences myself. In any case, I apologize for any shortcomings on my part!</p>
<p>They weren't meant to be taken as insults. At the very least it's a clarification of the statement, not a dissolution of it. Furthermore, how am I to respond to people getting insulted by my joke? The proper thing to do is to apologize and accept it as your mistake. Anyhow, this is quite petty and I will make one last apology (or in your perspective -- disclaimer) for ever posting on this thread. I'm sorry.</p>
<p>so.. I think I conceded valedictorianship today .. cause I dropped AP Spanish Lit and replaced it with Performance Theater... which isn't weighted ... :-(<br>
so I think (assuming my closest competition and I pull out straight A's through this and next year) I am now seated firmly in the salutatorian chair</p>
<p>I will, however, have class rank: 1 of 603 listed on the transcripts that go out for college, cause I'm gonna be ahead coming out of junior year .. but by graduation she'll have a 4.8392 to my 4.7808 (had I taken AP Spanish Lit or AP Psych I'd still fall second with a 4.8052) </p>
<p>its the most utterly retarded thing in the world .. </p>
<p>every grade runs like standard A=4 B=3 C=2 D=1 E=0 (we have E rather than F)</p>
<p>those all get averaged... that established your "base"</p>
<p>then you get bonus weight for each weighted class .. .0122/semester for an A .. its lower further down (B = .00915, C = .00606) .. this all gets added to your final GPA .. so mine is currently a 4.244 ... a base of 4.0 (all A's .. I don't even know how many ..) + 20 semesters of weighted credit (20 * .0122 = .244) .. .</p>
<p>Wow donaldGuy ... your school's GPA system is so complex. My school doesn't do pluses or minuses, nor is GPA weighed. That's why every year there are around 20 valedictorians and 30 salutatorians, so class rank has no meaning for me. I'd probably be valecdictorian if GPAs were weighed, but because they aren't I'll have to settle for salutatorian ... not that class rank matters too much for me (hopefully).</p>
<p>alohasam: As to what the negative aspects of Stanford are, I think that the university relies too much on alumnus donations, to the point that sometimes those who are better qualified and deserve admission are rejected in favor of a lesser qualified student who simply had legacy connections. Of course all universities do that, but to what I know Stanford does it a bit too much.</p>
<p>Additionally, one of my friends who was admitted into Stanford 2011 early action got to know some of his newfound comrades, and he told me that many of them simply seemed not very ... intellectually robust. In his opinion (and probably mine), too many people get in on the basis of sports and alumnus donations.</p>
<p>Of course, I know that my opinion is biased because I am most definitely an academic type of person who doesn't place in high regard those who get into Stanford on the basis of sports, only to major in a not-so-athletic discipline such as medicine or engineering or law, since that just seems to be a "cheap shot" of sorts because you're not relying on your [presumably relatively inferior] academic skills.</p>
<p>I'm not trying to troll or flame; this is simply my impression of those Bay Area kids who believe that Stanford is overrated. I know I haven't done research on this subject matter [as a good scientist would ><] but relied more or less on anecdotal evidence. </p>
<p>Of course, that's not to say Stanford isn't excellent or intense ... SLAC for the win. :D However, at least for me, MIT's culture just seems so much more legit, so most likely I'd choose MIT over Stanford come next year [if I can get into both of them ... and also for a taste of the east coast]. </p>
<p>I'd have to agree with slashdot, but you can't deny that Stanford's top 10-20 in almost every academic subject. Half the students in a high school in CA that's very close to Stanford have parents that went to Stanford. That's why they usually have 10-15 students every year going to the university.</p>
<p>When comparing the science programs of Berkeley and Stanford, it would be safe to say that Berkeley is a bit better. The only problem is that Berkeley has too many students...so chances of doing great research with a professor would be hard. Of course that's just my opinion; I really love the Stanford campus though. That's probably the best part of attending the university...haha. MIT is definitely the real stuff though. My brother goes there, and I've seen the work that miters do - it's hard core science.</p>
<p>I just wish MIT was on the Stanford campus .. or really just in CA at all ... did I mention I love CA (and yes.. I know I've only been there for 3 weeks) </p>
<p>... and no .. Caltech doesn't even begin to count</p>
<p>wow there are so many different grading systems.. ours is for honors/AP classes, H (94+)=5, A(87-94)=4, B(80-87)=3, etc and for regular A (92+)=4, B (84-92)=3, C (75-83)= 2, etc...</p>
<p>Oh yeah, that friend of mine [mentioned in my previous post] who got into Stanford 2011 early action ... also got into MIT 2011 this past weekend. It's not a difficult task to predict which school he's going to attend. :P</p>
<p>Most likely, the nerd and hacker culture is what lures me to MIT. None of that humanities stuff - it's respectable, but definitely not my style. :)</p>
<p>So no one applied to CCIS as RSI backup? :(</p>
<p>My school doesn't rank, thank god, even though I could place first with my unweighted 3.95/4.00. (I got a B once.) However, the school is refusing to take my transfer grades into account, so my average would be considerably lowered then...probably to 3.75 or something. I don't know how I'd rank in reality, probably 5/50 or something. SO yeah...it's a good thing that they don't rank. Hehe.</p>
<p>my schools seems unique in how it calculates weighted grades</p>
<p>IB/AP max = 6 points (2 quality points)
Honors/Pre-IB max = 5 points
Regular = 4 max points</p>
<p>our valedictorians are full-IB girls (at least 5 years running and will be the same next year--this year was the best chance for our boys)</p>
<p>but on the flip side, we work under the 8-pt grading scale </p>
<p>93-100 = A
85-92 = B
77-84 = C
70-76 = D
<70 = F</p>
<p>so all those 92.4's end up as B's unless you have a really really generous teacher
however, in most cases, you would just regret not having turned in that one progress report, which was counted as a grade in first quarter or something like that</p>
<p>93-100 = A
85-92 = B
77-84 = C
70-76 = D
<70 = F</p>