<p>What's your opinion on the Structured Liberal Education program at Stanford? If you didn't participate in it, do you wish you had? </p>
<p>If I am more interested in the intellectual side of learning, should I consider the program? </p>
<p>Does the program make the freshman schedule more difficult? (I've heard that, since it's nine units, adding on other classes makes the schedule more intense; or something like that, I am not completely clear on what they were talking about.)</p>
<p>Does the program isolate the students, creating another bubble within the Stanford bubble?</p>
<p>SLE carries a certain stigma among non-SLE students. It is perceived (somewhat unfairly) as the domain of the socially inept eggheads. It definitely is a bubble within a bubble - since you eat, sleep, study, and attend class all under the same roof, it creates a somewhat isolated environment.</p>
<p>That being said, I feel that SLE is a much stronger educational program than IHUM and all of the SLE alumni I know are extremely intelligent, engaging, and interesting. If you’re going to Stanford but would also like to experience a small, liberal-arts environment, SLE is definitely something you should check out.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that SLE makes the freshman year more difficult in terms of scheduling, but it does eat up more units than the conventional track (27 as opposed to the 20 used by IHUM and PWR 1/2). My personal impression is that SLE is more for the students who aren’t quite sure what they want to study yet and are open to taking more time to explore during their freshman year.</p>
<p>I actually haven’t noticed any stigma about SLE from non-SLE people. People usually joke about the stigma but it doesn’t really exist; if it does, I’m not sure where, but those ideally aren’t going to be the people you’re hanging out with.</p>
<p>As for isolation, if that’s what you want, it can be isolating. That said, I see SLE people at almost every event I’ve been to, and they are always buzzing about events I’ve never heard of. This may just be the class of 2014, but SLE has some of the most involved freshman - sure, it probably has a few of the least involved, but don’t try to pretend that’s not true of any freshman dorm.</p>
<p>Some SLE students definitely know what they want to study, and there are others. SLE can be a huge scheduling problem, though. It’s definitely not a program for everyone. But if you come for Admit Weekend, swing by.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I’m not in SLE and I would not want to be a part of the program (I did for a little while before getting here, but it is DEFINITELY not for me), but I do live in the SLE dorm.</p>
<p>I took SLE, did very well in it, and enjoyed it. Some of my peers from SLE have said they wouldn’t have traded SLE for any IHUM course. I share that sentiment to some degree, but I also recognize there are practical opportunity costs. </p>
<p>In a nutshell, if you care more about both the depth and breadth of your core humanities knowledge and improving your writing/argumentative skills, then go for SLE. If you care more about developing connections with professors and peers in more varied departments, focusing on two or three specific fields, and participating in more ECs, go with IHUM/PWR.
Some intangibles: SLEers tend to have a better grasp of existential questions, the meaning of life, and finding contentment post freshman year. SLEers tend to be better writers imho because they wind up with a flexible, all-encompassing framework to express their thoughts. Sounds like pretty good logic prep for law school.
“My personal impression is that SLE is more for the students who aren’t quite sure what they want to study yet and are open to taking more time to explore during their freshman year.” - to this I agree, though the exploration has more to do with existential questions than a practical course of study outside of philosophy, comparative literature, and, to some extent, history.</p>
<p>I was an intellectual nut going into Stanford but felt some of the SLE content was an in-depth rehash of what I had read on my free time in high school. I felt much more intellectually engaged in a 3 unit philosophy course I took with Richard Rorty freshman year than some of the broad SLE lectures on philosophy (yes, it’s an unfair comparison since I didn’t take IHUM but it does illustrate what you can do with IHUM + more spare time freshman year). I transformed into a startup entrepreneur type post-junior year so in hindsight, I would have traded the extra time dedicated towards reading and writing for SLE for time working on my own tech startup (check out bases.stanford.edu and sselabs.stanford.edu btw), but oh the benefit of hindsight!</p>
<p>The SLE bubble is hardly noticeable but it does exist because you are taking the same core program with the same (albeit large and diverse) group of students the whole year. You’ll still be taking courses outside of SLE, which mitigates the effect of this bubble. I am proud to be a SLE alum but I’m pretty sure I would have been happy with IHUM too.</p>
<p>I totally concur with NeoTycoon’s analysis. I deliberated the SLE v. IHUM issue in my mind for a long time, and eventually decided to go with IHUM, and have no regrets, even though there are many appealing aspects of the SLE program (and even though I don’t think there is much, if any, actual stigma against SLE people at Stanford. That’s more of a tongue-in-cheek thing). I have a few upperclassmen friends who did SLE and enjoyed it very much but, like NeoTycoon, for me it would have been primarily a rehash of a canon I’d already digested before arriving at Stanford. The profs and section postdocs I’ve had in IHUM and PWR have been excellent, and I’ve appreciated the deeper topical focus in those courses.</p>
<p>It was probably careless of me to use the word “stigma” in reference to the perception of SLE students. I absolutely agree with applicannot and zenkoan that the relationship between SLE and non-SLE students is lighthearted and not adversarial or demeaning in any way. In fact, I’ve only ever heard the term “SLE kid” during playful banter among friends.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input 
I am heading to Admit Weekend at the end of April, so I’ll probably be able to get some more information about the program then, and hopefully wrap my mind around what I want to do. Both options seem excellent, and, from what I have heard, I probably won’t regret whichever road I choose. Nonetheless, I appreciate your comments; now I just need to get a firsthand look at both options.</p>