<p>As evinced in the many stats posts on this forum, it seems every applicant is an overachieving genius, and ergo every Stanford student seems to be one as well. I'm a bit nervous as to the academic rigor of the coursework. I think everyone to an extent is intimidated, but I have special concern as I'm pretty sure I got in by virtue of other non-academic measures (only scored a decent mid 2100's sat and two 700-ish subjects).</p>
<p>Now I know each top-10 school is hard in its own respects, but I wanted to know if any current student can shed some light on the issue. Is Stanford a school in which some students bury themselves in coursework and not get tangible results? Grade inflation does sound a bit reassuring, but it goes by majors. I'm thinking of something in the natural sciences or social sciences, btw. How pervasive is grade inflation?</p>
<p>I'm no lazy guy. I believe in hard work but would like to see some promising results as well. Any comments?</p>
<p>I heard somewhere that doing well at Stanford (for some majors) is easier than doing well in public schools like Berkeley or UCLA because the classes are conducive to learning.</p>
<p>Doing well in social sciences is probably easier than in natural sciences, but if you are "no lazy guy" and "believe in hard work" you'll make it either way. There are a lot or resources and support - make sure to seek help if you need it. Stanford would not have accepted you if they had any doubt that you can do the academic work.</p>
<p>The average GPA in science and engineering is roughly a 3.3. I believe it's slightly higher (3.4-3.5) in the humanities. Of course, there are notable exceptions like premed classes which like to give out average grades of B or B- to weed out students.</p>
<p>I am the mom of a freshman. I think it does come down to time management. My son has sought out help when he needed it especially with papers. The help has been available. An A is do-able. I wouldn't stay away from Stanford because I was worried about grade point average. Many classes are curved.</p>
<p>First off, mid 2100s SAT and 700s on subject tests aren't low scores- they're not perfect but they're very good, so from that you have little reason to believe that you are academically unprepared for Stanford. You probably have other great talents too, but why would Stanford accept you if they thought you would fail academically? If you believe in hard work, you will probably do fine. It is definitely more difficult than high school, for me at least, but everyone I know who works hard does well. Granted my fuzzy friends do tend to get higher GPAs for less work.</p>
<p>Yes, curving seems to be different in different classes. For example, in Econ 1A 90% of the class will get As or Bs and only 10% Cs (and Ds?), but someone on courserank said that in a certain chem class around 40% would get Cs. That's not to say econ isn't tough or anything, just an example of how curving works differently depending on the class. </p>
<p>I don't know personally about other schools but my friends at UCLA seem to having a lot of difficulty in their science classes, and they're all very smart people. I would guess this has something to do with the overcrowded classes. Our science classes aren't known for being easy either (at least not chem x_X), but if you work hard and ask for help when you need it, you almost certainly will end up with good results. There are a bunch of resources available to get help, so take advantage of them! Good luck!</p>
<p>really? what do you mean by resourses? are their people who would help you with like editing writing papers before handing it in if you are willing to ask for help? In HS my son had very hard time finding help. thanks</p>
<p>Thanks, bluefish. You've really relieved some of my worries. I'm still intimidated, but less so. I guess it's a good thing though, as one can always use a dose of humility.</p>
<p>glad to help. I was totally afraid before I came to Stanford too. I'm afraid before each quarter too, but it's not too bad :p. It's mixed very much with excitement! a dose of humility is always good too. </p>
<p>Yes, by resources I mean places to get help. In classes like IHUM, the TFs and I think the professors have office hours where you can talk over ideas and many TFs will even be willing to read over your paper draft and give you feedback. Mine always held extra office hours and encouraged us to make appointments before a paper was due and he would read the entire paper draft and discuss it with us; he'd tell me what he liked, what he thought needed work, what I could try to do. For PWR, we had mandatory conferences with the teacher before a paper was due where they would go over it and give feedback.
There is also the Writing Center. Hume</a> Writing Center - Stanford University. You can make appointments with writing tutors who have been trained to help you improve your papers. These appointments are free of charge and there are times open I think pretty much every day at many times of day. Some dorms, including mine, also have residential writing tutors who have office hours as well. My friend has used the tutors at the writing center a lot and although she's had better experiences with some tutors than with others, she never stops going, so it must be overall good! Also, some of your friends will probably turn out to be great writers and they might be willing to look at your papers too even if they aren't trained.
As for other subjects, there are usually sections with TAs and TA and professor office hours. There are also subject tutors available for free from the center for teaching and learning. CTL</a> Student Resources. You can make appointments with them and sometimes walk in. Some dorms also have residential tutors who have walk-in hours. People from other dorms can come to these too.
etc!</p>
<p>According to these websites, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton also have writing centers. The</a> Writing Center - Welcome The</a> Writing Center | Yale College About</a> the Writing Center
I would assume other schools do as well. Just search in Google for "<strong><em>fill in name of school here</em></strong> writing tutoring" or "...writing center." As for other subjects, I'd suggest trying the same thing but replacing "writing tutoring" with "<strong>some other subject</strong> tutoring" or asking around on the forums for those schools. I doubt there are many schools out there who don't offer help to students ^_^b.</p>