<p>Any incoming freshman for the class of 2014 considering doing SLE (Structured Liberal Education)? I stayed in a SLE dorm during admit weekend and everyone there seemed to love it, but I'm a prospective engineering major and I heard it's harder for engineering majors to do SLE. So I'm trying to decide whether to sign up for it by the time Approaching Stanford forms are due.</p>
<p>So anyone else know if they're going to do SLE or not? Also, anyone who participated in SLE already have any advice/suggestions/helpful knowledge? Thanks :)</p>
<p>I was literally about to get onto CC to ask the same question, but then I saw yours.</p>
<p>I want to major in economics or public policy, but I really love philosophy and history too. SLE sounds like something I’d be really interested in doing. What concerns me is the fact that it’s both a residential and an educational program. I’m a pretty social kid, and I don’t mean this offensively, but I’m concerned that the people who are in SLE are all kinda nerdy-- or at least not as social as the people in the all-freshman dorms. I think I want a more “social” dorm than what SLE offers. That said, the educational aspect of it sounds really intriguing! Also, nothing “jumped out” at me in the IHUM catalogue-- there weren’t any classes which I feel really excited me. I’m pretty sure I’d prefer SLE from the educational aspect but not a residential aspect. What I really wish is that you could live in an all-frosh dorm and still do SLE-- but sadly you can’t.</p>
<p>Anyhow, I’m deliberating on this one too. I think I’m leaning away from SLE at the moment, but who knows. I’d really like some people to comment on this who have already been in SLE (or not) and give us some feedback. Good luck with your decision…see you in the fall!</p>
<p>I think there was some recent discussion about SLE in the Class of 2014–Ask a Student Anything thread. IIRC, a current student said that some engineering students do elect SLE, as well as people in lots of other majors.</p>
<p>minderbender, I think some of the dorms in FloMo are all-frosh, and I think they group the SLE people together (about 100 freshmen?) so that may be sort of an equivalent critical mass of freshmen, anyway.</p>
<p>I hear that prospective engineering majors aren’t unseen at SLE. I was also concerned about that, but I was able to talk to an engineering major who was doing SLE when I visited during Admit Weekend, and it seems your prospective major shouldn’t really be a problem.</p>
<p>What I’m more concerned about is the social aspect of it. I stayed at an all-frosh dorm during AW, and I had an awesome time. I loved how energetic it was. There’s also the possibility of getting placed in an all-frosh dorm within SLE, but is it going to be more quiet than a regular all-frosh dorm?</p>
<p>it really depends on the year/group of students who you get placed with. apparently last year, alondra (the all frosh dorm) was a crazy party dorm (I heard this from several sophomores who lived in alondra at the time). this year, it’s relatively quiet compared to the other all-frosh dorms, whereas Cardenal and Faisan are a lot crazier. I talked to a couple upperclassmen about housing, and it’s the same with other types of housing --it really boils down to the students. For example, everybody thought that Toyon, the all soph dorm, was going to be a crazy party dorm, while it’s actually pretty quiet this year. Who knows what it’ll be like next year with an entire new group of students.</p>
<p>darling, I’m sure you’re right that these things vary from year to year. That makes it even harder to make a choice! Can you please give your impressions of Roble? I know it is a pretty huge dorm and that it isn’t all frosh but that they group all the frosh together, and that there’s like 150+ frosh in there?</p>
<p>I don’t know too much about Roble, though they have a small theater inside the dorm which is pretty cool and it’s really pretty on the outside. My friends in Roble really like it, but they do say that you tend to just associate with people you see often (aka your hall, etc), but this is pretty much true for every dorm. I am pretty sure that they changed it to all frosh this year, though my friend who is a transfer student also lives in Roble. It’s now the largest freshmen dorm, as Branner has been changed into a public service dorm, so the other freshmen like to hate on Roble ;)</p>
<p>I don’t buy at all that SLE / Engineering major is impractical, especially since IHUM/PWR cover 5 classes that are more likely to conflict with major reqs. SLE is prohibitive if you want to do certain lab classes freshman year, but that’s not very common.</p>
<p>There are drinking-type and pot-addict people in SLE, if that’s what you want.</p>
<p>Current SLE Challenge (for the quarter):*
Write an exchange of tweets between Sigmund Freud and T.S. Eliot on a subject related to current events or culture.
No single tweet can be more than 140 characters.
Any other author or character from the quarter may chime in, at your discretion.
There is no minimum length requirement.
The format for submission is up to you, including web-based entries.
Collaboration is welcome!*</p>
<p>darling, when you say other freshmen like to hate on Roble, does that mean just (good-natured) talking smack and that kind of regular dorm-rivalry stuff? Or is it something else with Roble, or with SLE kids? It sounds so highschool-ish and clique-ish for students to stereotype or marginalize other students based on their dorm, so I hope I’m reading your comment right.</p>
<p>Oh, definitely it’s just dorm rivalry. No one really stereotypes people based on which dorm they are from. You’ll find out more about dorm rivalry during NSO, where it will become very clear in which ways dorm rivalry manifests itself ;)</p>