<p>Hey, congrats to all you profros for c/o 2009! I just finished my first quarter at Stanford and I remember CC as well as some other boards being of much help last year, so I'm here (and bored enough) to return the favor. I don't know if you guys have many questions at this point, but I'm available to answer any.</p>
<p>Well, you made it to your dream school (I assume) -- is it everything you were expecting and more? :) I'm sure that I'm not the only person who'd love to hear about your classes, dorm life, the social scene, etc... The more perspectives, the better! :)</p>
<p>I haven't read the packet yet, but can I choose what kind of housing I want?</p>
<p>hows the food?
lol, that + all the questions raven asked</p>
<p>Could u tell us more about the dorms? </p>
<p>(room size, atmosphere, food, etc)</p>
<p>yeah and in general what do you think of stanford? pros and cons? any regrets?</p>
<p>Classes: IHUM (Introduction to the Humanities) and PWR (Program in Writing and Rhetoric) are the 2 frosh requirements that everyone hates. Theres also a rigorous 10(?) unit humanities program called SLE that will get you out of IHUM and PWR, but I dont know much about it. Theyre all boring, but there's no getting around them and it's nice knowing that everyone suffers along with you. Get lots of feedback from older students about which classes are easy (I can tell you now that Journeys, taught by Wolff and Yearley, is the easiest of the fall-quarter IHUMs). Along with IHUM I took Math 51 and Chem 31x, the typical curriculum for pre-meds. My course load was fine, Id say it was even on the light side. Stanford also offers a bunch of introsems, small specialized classes for freshmen and sophomores. I havent taken one yet but I heard theyre really rewarding and good for getting to know a professor well if you choose the right one. During orientation youll be meeting with your academic advisor and a peer academic advisor, and theyll help you with choosing classes and such.</p>
<p>Housing: You dont get to choose a specific dorm, but in the summer one of the forms you fill out will ask you to rank what kind of housing you desire. You can choose combinations of all-frosh, 4-class, co-ed floors, single-sex floors, FroSoCo (Freshman Sophomore College), or one of the ethnic-themed houses. It really ranges from Branner, the largest, loudest, and newly renovated all-frosh dorm, to say one of the 4-class dorms in West Lagunita, which suck. Most people rank co-ed all-frosh as first but obviously many like me dont get in. I wouldnt worry too much about housing, it seems like a big deal but no dorm is really that bad, and each has its perks. Just be warned that if youre easily distracted and you end up in a loud all-frosh dorm, youll almost have to go to the library when you need to study.</p>
<p>Dorm life: Dorm life is the number one thing that makes college so great, and its during freshman year when the college experience really revolves around your dorm. I cannot emphasize enough how much I love my house and staff. In most dorms youll end up getting to know everyone in the building really well. The student staff is wonderful; theyre energetic but not overbearing and theyre really there for your well-being and not to be police. In fact, the RAs can usually be the craziest people in the dorm. There are also academic consultants, peer health educators, and computer/tech people (youll learn the acronyms for all these later) living in the dorm, all students, and theyre super helpful. The dorms go to San Francisco for a scavenger hunt, a snow trip to Lake Tahoe, and Secret Snowflake during fall quarter dead week, which is insanely fun, and in general just living around friends 24/7 is awesome.</p>
<p>Food: Stanford food in general is good, and I think the general consensus is that Wilbur Hall has the best food. Its not Cornell, but its healthy and of good quality. As with any other college the food selections get very repetitive after the first 2 weeks, but theyre tolerable and youre free to dine anywhere on campus.</p>
<p>Social: The parties are ok; theyre not outrageously wild but its Stanford, what do you expect. There are usually 2 or 3 good frat parties every weekend and these will be widely advertised. If youre not into the party scene, there are always people hanging around in the dorm and that can get pretty crazy already, if youre creative. There are the crazy drunkards, the ones who stay locked in their rooms playing computer games all day, and everyone in between, but the great thing is that everyone is smart and Ive found that people are pretty tolerant and easygoing, and not at all snobby.</p>
<p>I love it here at Stanford and I honestly think most, if not all, people feel the same. Like with any college it takes some adjusting to, but the administration really goes all the way to make you feel welcome from the very start. Youll learn quickly that Stanford is really relaxed with everything, and I think its the casual atmosphere encouraged in the dorms, classes, basically everywhere, that distinguishes it and makes it so much more pleasant (at least in my opinion) from other top 10 schools. Of course you still have to work hard here, but my first quarter was probably 20% work, 80% play. Weather is definitely a plus, I'm a local but it really does make difference when you see sunshine streaming into your window in December and all your friends at Harvard are complaining about the snow. I strongly encourage you all to come out for Admit Weekend; I myself didn't have a very fun time there because of really strange circumstances, but it'll acquaint you with the campus and you'll see how enthusiastic the people here are.</p>
<p>Btw, any other stanford students reading this are welcome to add their own opinions =)</p>
<p>Are there really a lot of kids from California or is that just a stat? Do you feel like you're meeting people from everywhere in the country?</p>
<p>Californians really do make up a huge fraction of the student population, but you'll meet plenty of people from other states and countries. Even norcal and socal seem like completely separate cultures already!</p>
<p>So I'm not the OP, but I'm also a bored class of 08er back home from school...
first I would like to point out that I logged on to CC maybe twice the ENTIRE quarter, after having had a fixation to it between Christmas last year and a few days before school started. Stanford is AWESOME. I applied here and nowhere else and I have never regretted it. </p>
<p>Stanford is everything I was expecting and much much much more. I live in the biggest awesomest frosh dorm on campus (Branner, baby), and I love it because while the people I'm closest to live on my hall, there are wonderful people throughout the dorm, and there's ALWAYS music playing and people to hang out with. I live in a two room triple, but one of my roommates left after a month, so it's been a big giant two room double for a month and a half... but we're getting a new roommate next quarter, so it'll be back to normal sized room. There's definately room for everything, though. And it's really nice having two rooms when someone wants to sleep/study without the outside distractions. </p>
<p>The social scene is quite unique. I spent the first month and a half going to frat parties every weekend... at which I didn't drink at all, just danced... and they are super fun if you go with friends for like the first hour but then they get so crowded that you can't move... so I usually go at like 10:30 and leave by midnight. People who don't mind it (usually because they're drinking) end up staying till like 2 though. Otherwise, most of the socializing happens in the dorms. I've had so many "perfect college nights" of just chilling in the hall at 2am talking about who-knows-what. :-) </p>
<p>Sleep is hard to find, but isn't that true at any college? </p>
<p>I took three theatre classes and IHUM (required freshman humanities) this quarter... so it wasn't too bad... IHUM was awful though. It all depends on your Teaching Fellow (who leads the section, and grades all your papers). And even in theatre classes, it's not like high school where you did the work and got an A... you really have to work at everything. Which is one of the reasons I came to Stanford.</p>
<p>The food is pretty good. It REALLY depends on where you live, though. But compared to most college food, we're in the money. :-) (I suppose we pay for it, after all)</p>
<p>Bri- you can choose whether you want all-freshman or four-class housing, and whether you want to live on a co-ed or single sex floor. (Co-ed rocks, my floor is 14 guys and 6 girls... and it's so much fun). </p>
<p>Hope this helps... and I'd love to answer more questions if you have them! :-)</p>
<p>glshbelj: To add onto what efilsiertaeht said about room sizes, everything is pretty much standard. FroSoCo has two-room doubles, but that's the only thing they have to brag about. Roble and West Lag are a bit shabby and small but thats about as bad as it gets. Most people end up in FloMo, Stern, or Wilbur, all of which have one-room doubles. It's not luxurious, but it's definitely big enough for plenty of floor space.</p>
<p>wow, now i REALLY want that large envelope.</p>
<p>Haha, yeah maybe this isn't the best time for this thread. Those of us who read this and then get rejected are just going to feel worse. Perhaps we can put it off until Wednesday? :)</p>
<p>Samwise: Understood, this thread can wait. Meanwhile, anyone can feel free to send me a private message, I'll still be checking in once in a while until January.</p>
<p>ACtually, why don't you just keep on posting here, if you think you'll feel bad then don't read it</p>
<p>Hey Pinky which IHUM you gonna choose for Winter? I didn't go to that IHUM Open House thing and I have no idea which IHUMs are good. </p>
<p>Also, when you go to ihum.stanford.edu I can't find the preference form even though they said they extended the deadline to december 13th. There's only a petition to change form on there.</p>
<p>If I were an applicant waiting to hear admission results, I'd still come in here out of curiosity, so maybe it's still better to hold off until things settle down. But it's up to you guys to decide, I'll answer whatever's posted.</p>
<p>Rooster: I chose Literature into Life (mostly because I've already read a lot of the books), and I heard Myth and Modernity is easy and very popular. Otherwise I don't know, they all sound dull to me. =( If the link you clicked on said "Course and Section Request/Change Petition" or something like that, it should be the correct form.</p>
<p>You talked about this a little in your first big post, but my question is a little bit more specific.</p>
<p>Do people come out of their shell at Stanford? I've been fairly insular while is HS, and I would like to think that in college I will be more outgoing, go to more parties, etc. How welcoming is the social scene to people who may not have been that social before?</p>
<p>feuler--
You shouldn't stress about it; the guy who got voted 'Quietest' at my school is in college and he came out of his shell. He was pretty eccentric also--but he parties all the time and still manages to get straight A's. I think that wherever you go the people are all really accepting, in other words, everyone should be alright--just listen to some sublime and you'll be even better...</p>