<p>So when exactly do we go on summer holidays? Late June?</p>
<p>This might seem like another trivial question, but how are the facilities for students? Like laundry machines, phones, kitchens of any sort in the dorms, community bathrooms, etc. or does it vary from dorm to dorm?</p>
<p>dreamer: early june-around the 8th or so. possibly earlier depending on your finals.</p>
<p>college: It definitely varies from dorm to dorm. I live in Lagunita and the facilities are rather old compared to most of the other residences. As for phones, most people have nationwide cell phone plans. My dorm has a kitchen in it but since you have a meal plan it really isn't necessary unless you love to cook. Laundry is fabulous at stanford since it's included in your tuition so no quarters are needed. And there's six machines in our basement and a couple designated for handicapped persons on the main floor but it's open to all. Bathrooms are communal but they're not bad at all. I've never had to wait in line for a shower because there's always one available in my hall or the next. My dorm also has two lounges with wireless internet and a piano, TV etc. Come to Admit Weekend and visit as many frosh dorms as you can to get an actual feel for the facilities available to you at Stanford.</p>
<p>In Branner, the facilities are sparkling new and GORGEOUS. :-D The kitchenette just happens to be two doors down from my room, so I tend to use it to boil water, and my friends definitely use it for baking. I also use the freezer cuz the freezer in our fridge doesn't work. It's nice cuz not too many people use it. We have an elevator, so all the floors except the third (elevator goes basement-2nd floor) are all-accessible, and washing machines/dryers are in the basement (pretty accessible to everyone, convenient if you live on my hall cuz there are stairs down to the basement 15 feet from my room) lol but that just goes to show first floor east side kicks ass. 8 machines, 8 dryers. Wireless internet EVERYWHERE. Lag sucks in that respect. Two TVs in the lounge (our lounge is big enough that people actually do use them at the same time) and a beautiful Steinway. :-D</p>
<p>What other dorms are there besides Lagunita and how much worse are they than Branner?</p>
<p>Flomo, Roble, Wilbur, Stern, Muwekma-ta-ruk, and FroSoCo. </p>
<p>Frosoco (Freshman & Sophomore College-special program you have to apply to when you get the forms in May <a href="http://frosoco.stanford.edu%5B/url%5D">http://frosoco.stanford.edu</a>) is probably your best bet instead of Branner, the tradeoff is that everyone there is known for being either weird or intense academically-not as bad as SLE but close-and you're far away from everyone else on the far side of West campus. BTW Branner, Wilbur, Stern is on east campus If you think Lag is far then you haven't been to frosoco. The dining is peanut free and very vegan in my opinion.</p>
<p>Wilbur is across the street from Branner and the food there is superb, although the facilities are old. I personally hate the bathrooms. But you've got the benefit of living with 25% of the frosh class and cool upperclassmen. Houses the Asian theme dorm.</p>
<p>FloMo is actually nice on the inside-1st floor of Loro. This is all I know since I rarely go there. Food is pretty good compared to Lag.</p>
<p>Stern is slightly worse than FloMo because it's ugly and the food is worse but the people are probably cooler since it doesn't house SLE. Houses Chicano theme dorm.</p>
<p>Roble-they're supposed to redo it soon. if they don't then I apologize in advance if you're assigned to it. Just go in with a positive attitude... They eat at Lag and about 400 people live there.</p>
<p>Muwekma-it's supposed to be very nice with a location on the row. It sucks to live with only 7 other freshmen though. Very small. Native American theme dorm.</p>
<p>Does stanford have a well-respected English Department? Do the undergrads who major in English seem content? What is your experience in taking an English course?</p>
<p>same question as joker for poli sci and international relations</p>
<p>what about law school placement</p>
<p>Are bikes necessities for a Stanford student? If yes, where would you get one (if you're from out of state) and how much would it be?</p>
<p>Bikes are pretty much necessary. I know people who don't have bikes, but they have to leave as much as half an hour early to get to places you can get on your bike in five minutes. You can spend whatever you want on a bike, $200-$300 for one you can rely on. You'll get a flyer in the information over the summer about Stanford deals, and there are several shops close to campus you can buy bikes from. They always stock up right as everyone arrives. </p>
<p>dreamer9- adding to what peachieva said, Lag houses the African-American theme dorm, Flo-mo is cool because the keys work on any door (in Wilbur and Stern you can only get into your own dorm, which is SUPER irritating in Stern because there is no way to get through from one side to the other) and you can get anywhere really easily, they also have a catwalk on the third floor that connects all the dorms and the doors are always open up there. The dorms are fairly nice, but the lounges are connected to the dining halls, and aren't very big. And each one has a piano, but they're like 20 feet apart some times so you can't really use them at the same time. :-P polisci/int relations a very popular program and people seem pretty content with it. It's on my list of classes to take.</p>
<p>joker- stanford does have a well-respected english program, and the people i know in it seem content. I have not yet taken an "english" course (humanities hardly counts), but my Academic Advisor has a B.A. in English from Stanford and seems to have been successful (lives and works in San Francisco).</p>
<p>To clarify about Wilbur, Stern, Flo-mo, and Lagunita: each of those are complexes that house 7-8 dorms. Wilbur has 4 all-frosh dorms: Rinconada, Junipero, Cedro and Otero and four-class dorms: Trancos, Soto, Arroyo and Okada(asian-american theme dorm). Stern has 2 all-frosh: Donner and Larkin, and 4 four-class: Serra, Twain, Burbank and Casa Zapata(Chicano theme dorm). Flo-mo has 3 all-frosh: Paloma, Gavilan and Alondra(1/2 SLE), and 4 four-class: Loro, Mirlo, Cardenal (SLE frosh) and Faisan (SLE frosh). It is usually separated into West-Flo and East-Flo, West being all the non-SLE dorms (Paloma, Gavilan, Loro and Mirlo) and East being the SLE dorms (Alondra, Cardenal and Faisan). Lagunita has all four-class: Granada, Eucalipto, Adelfa, Casa Naranja and Ujaama(African-American theme dorm) and is also divided- Granada, Eucalipto and Adelfa make up West-Lag, and they're basically one dorm, just with different names for different parts of it. </p>
<p>Branner is it's own complex, as is Muekma-ta-ruk, which is actually a house on the Row (the Row being where many frats and some self-operated houses are). </p>
<p>FroSoCo is in Governer's Corner and has two houses within it, Adams and Schiff, and is bordered by all-sophomore-houses Potter and Robinson, all of which share Ricker Dining. Other upper-class housing also exists in GovCo, but they don't eat at Ricker.</p>
<p>What is SLE?</p>
<p>How is Stanford's biology department? How is their undergraduate research program?</p>
<p>Can students create individual majors, like Biochemistry, since that particular one isn't offered?</p>
<p>Also, is there a new Biomedical Engineering major that will available to freshman in Fall 2005?</p>
<p>What other means of transportation are there? i.e. rollerblading, scooters, etc.? Are those common, or is it just bikes mainly? I'd like to avoid using a bike, but I don't know if I'll have enough time between classes to manage without one. </p>
<p>How long did it take to redo Branner? (I'm curious in case they redo Roble.)</p>
<p>What are things NOT to bring for your dorm room? Microwave? etc.?</p>
<p>SLE stands for Structured Liberal Education and it's a 9 unit humanities program for frosh that lasts the entire year. There's lots of discussion and you get writing tutors and most of the curriculum is based in your dorm, since all the SLE kids live together. It sounds more rigorous than IHUM, but I've heard that SLE has a lighter workload than IHUM.</p>
<p>Biology is strong here and a very popular major. I'm currently doing bio research at the medical school but I didn't obtain that through the URP, so I can't help you much there.</p>
<p>Stanford offers tons of flexibility when it comes to designing your own major. I believe Human Biology started off as one, and now it's an extremely popular major. You can definitely work with an advisor to design your own curriculum once you get here. </p>
<p>I'm not sure about the biomedical engineering...I have a feeling that will be for the grad students, not undergrad, but I could be totally off.</p>
<p>Most people do bike, but I've seen some people use rollerblades, scooters, some even have vespas. </p>
<p>I believe Branner was shut down for one year to remodel.</p>
<p>Technically halogen lamps and anything with open flames aren't allowed in your room. Microwaves are allowed and very useful for midnight snacks.</p>
<p>the Undergraduate Research Program is AWESOME if you're in the humanities, because it's ExtREMELY easy to get grants to do basically whatever you want. For everyone else, the people who get the grants get to do really awesome things, it's just harder to get because there are more people who want them.</p>
<p>You mean it's difficult for people who aren't in the humanities? I'm going to major in science. How exactly are students chosen to do a research project? Is the process different for science majors and humanities majors?</p>
<p>pinky08 - That's so awesome that you're doing a research project at the medical school. That's definitely something that I want to do, is to do some sort of biomedical research. Is it really big competition to do something like that?</p>
<p>I'm glad to hear that biology is a popular major... but does that mean it's going to be really big competition to do any sort of research, whether through the URP or the medical center? Also, how are the resources there? What type of biology does Stanford specialize in (medical, ecology, evolutionary biology, molecular, etc.) or is it pretty strong in all areas?</p>
<p>BTW -- you guys are awesome. =D Thanks so much for taking the time to answer all of our questions. It's really nice to talk to students at Stanford.</p>
<p>I agree with collegebound123 on that one, :).
How would you guys describe the student and professor relationship at Stanford? Do the profs love to teach the undergrads and are ready to help them? How small are the class sizes and are discussions encouraged?
How would you describe the pre-meds on campus? Do they have a life? Do they go on to attend good med schools?</p>
<p>We talked a bunch about class size on the previous page of this thread, so you should check that out. I think the general experience here except perhaps for Math 51 and it's ilk is that professors love teaching the undergrads. I personally am on a first name basis with several of my professors, and definitely feel that i could go in and talk to them about anything. One of them even offered me a job the second week of school. :-) My closest friend formed a really good relationship with her Art History teacher... so the possibility is definitely there for good interaction. </p>
<p>The pre-meds I know have a life... they make up a Huge percentage of the freshman class, although many give up not too far in because of the amount of work it is. It's only the computer science and electrical engineering kids who seem never to leave their rooms. Otherwise most students do all of their work AND socialize, barring nothing. :-) And it seems that the ones who make it through go on to attend great med schools.</p>