<p>I hope that former SLE students, especially zephyr151 whose posts have been extremely helpful to me, could provide answers to my questions and concerns.</p>
<p>I'm an international student seriously considering SLE. From what I have researched so far, I believe I fit the description of a typical SLE student--a serious student who relishes intense intellectual environment. I love reading and would like to improve my writing. However, my main concern is that English is not my first language, and my freshman year at Stanford will only be the 2nd year of my education in the United States. I feel comfortable with writing long, analytical English papers, though it definitely takes longer for me than native speakers to write. Yet I do not feel entirely comfortable expressing myself in English yet, mainly because of my accent. After all, it boils down to my concern about my GPA. Since class discussion constitutes a significant portion of the grade, I'm concerned that my freshman's grade will suffer.</p>
<p>So my question is: compared to IHUM and PWR, is it harder to get a good grade in SLE? Who is going to grade us? The writing tutor or the professor, who is the section leader? How do they grade? Is the grading based on my improvement or my performace relative to my classmates?</p>
<p>And how hard is it to get into SLE? What do we do to express our interest? What happened to the additional essay some people said we had to fill out to apply for SLE? Do we just check 1st for housing and 1st for IHUM and be done with it?</p>
<p>If you can write the papers, you will be fine. You will find in SLE that a lot of students rarely talk, so if you contribute only a few times per section, you will have more than adequately contributed. "Section grade"'s tend to be very high anyway--almost all A-'s and B+'s, so that should not be a problem. </p>
<p>You will have a SLE tutor who will help you write essays. </p>
<p>It is probably a little easier to get a good grade in SLE than in IHUM. The average grade in SLE is probably a high B+ to a low A-. Grading is based mostly on improvement over the course of the quarter. </p>
<p>It is not hard to get into SLE--90% or so are admitted. Express your interest to Mark Mancall, Director of SLE <a href="mailto:mmancall@stanford.edu">mmancall@stanford.edu</a>. </p>
<p>There are no additional essays. Check it first and you should be fine.</p>
<p>more SLE/PWR questions:
1. is SLE more interesting than PWRs, in terms of the style of writing? (lots of bad talk about pwrs being dull).
2. are there any PWRs that even halfway include some creative writing, or is everything 8000-paged analytical essays every week? and for someone interested in CW, what would you guys recommend? are the SLE essay coaches only there to help you sound like a PHD?
3. how tolerant is the SLE community (like, the profs) to nonbelievers of the text. the biggest thing barring me from enrolling in SLE is that i'm not exactly gonna enjoy reading the bible/koran. would i survive if I didn't "feel jebus' words?" are there outraged/athiest people in SLE?</p>
<ol>
<li>Yes, definitely. People at Stanford tend to despise PWR. </li>
<li>The intent of power is analytical writing. Stanford has a strong and popular creative writing program. SLE and PWR essays are both analytical; CW will happen outside of both of those programs. SLE essays tend to be at a higher level; you will learn better writing skills in SLE, although you won't be doing any creative writing in SLE. Nothing is stopping you from taking "Beginning Fiction Writing" or "Reading and Writing Poetry" in your first year. </li>
<li>The point of SLE is relentless interrogation of the texts, to a point where some Christians were annoyed at the historical analysis of the Bible (performed by one lecturer). SLE definitely swings heavily areligious. I'm not religious at all and I have no problem with how we did Bible; in fact, they made a very clear effort to leave religion out of it entirely.</li>
</ol>
<p>So academically, SLE seems like something I'd be really interested in. However, I am still somewhat worried about the stereotypes that SLE has. A big part of me wants to believe that they are largely overhyped, but it still worries me since almost everyone I met at Admit Weekend (all non-SLE people) warned against doing it and seemed to think everyone there was "weird." I really want to start off in my first year with a healthy social scene that allows me to make a diverse group of friends. Is SLE really so isolated as to preclude this, or is it really nothing to worry about?</p>
<p>I suspect many of the SLE stereotypes are wrong. However, most people (half jokingly I think) buy into the stereotypes. So even if they are 100% wrong if people think they are true, that could alienate you a bit from the rest of Stanford. </p>
<p>Some PWR classes might allow for a hint of creative writing. My final paper assignment for PWR was to write a majority and dissenting opinion about some supreme court case (I chose Rumsfeld v FAIR) and then an editorial about our opinion.</p>
<p>In answer to your concerns about SLE and sociality, you will get to know your fellow SLE kids pretty well. Some kids have an active, if not dominant, social life outside of SLE. Some don't have one at all, and are fine with that. It's not really isolated in reality, although some kids simply don't make the effort and buy into the supposed isolation. </p>
<p>With any dorm, most of the people you meet will be in that dorm. That's not any different for SLE. </p>
<p>The new ASSU President is a SLE alum. It can't be that "weird."</p>
<p>"My final paper assignment for PWR was to write a majority and dissenting opinion about some supreme court case (I chose Rumsfeld v FAIR) and then an editorial about our opinion."</p>
<p>Only the rough draft was due on a Friday. The next Monday the case was decided so I got to rewrite my paper in light of the actual court decision. The following Sunday the final draft of the paper was due. It was... fun.</p>
<p>As far as SLE stereotypes go: people will occasionally crack jokes about SLE (although the FroSoCo jokes are worse), but nobody ACTUALLY cares. I have a large social circle outside of SLE, and nobody ever made more than an obligatory joke, because frankly - people care about you as a person, not that particular label.
I've also had countless people tell me they wish they had done SLE...</p>
<p>I really enjoyed my PWR class, and many others I know did too. I had the Rhetoric of Satire, and it was....pretty freaking awesome.</p>
<p>As for the claim that "some PWR classes might allow for a hint of creative writing," this is definitely true: I did my final paper on The Boondocks animated series, while other people did theirs on Da Ali G Show and The Simpsons...</p>
<p>But yeah, there was a lot of freedom in choosing topics.</p>
<p>I have chosen SLE as my number one choice for IHUM and already submitted the approaching stanford form. So, given that I do not get rejected from the program, there is no return. </p>
<p>Could you please give me the reading list for the first quater? </p>
<p>In vague form, you'll read Plato--Republic, the Last Days of Socrates, the Symposium, Aristotle--the Politics, Nicomachean Ethics, the Oresteia (Aeschylus), The Old Testament, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Odyssey, Trojan Women (Euripides), Buddhist selections.</p>
<p>That's all I can think of off the top of my head.</p>
<p>Send an email to Mark Mancall at mmancall [at] stanford.edu expressing your strong desire to do SLE, why you want to do the program, etc. </p>
<p>SLE has a 75% admit rate, but that should more or less assure your place. </p>
<p>For SLE reading, bear in mind that it changes a fair amount each year. That said, you can be darn sure the Odyssey and Bible will be on the syllabus, along with Plato and Aristotle (probably the Republic and at least the ethics or politics). You'll have some form of Greek drama. Whether you do Indian epic or something Arab or East Asian is a tossup.</p>