<p>I'm a freshman at Stanford. If you can handle your work and start early, Stanford really isn't that stressful. However, if you put everything off until the night before, things can get really bad, really fast. Early this quarter I started to fall off track. I got very stressed out, and dealt with some serious depression issues that kept me from more than marginally participating in school. </p>
<p>So, halfway through the quarter, under the guise of needing to talk about academics, I set up to talk to Dean Jim Kim, the assistant dean of freshmen. He was very understanding and helpful - and I'm really not that much of an open or easily approachable person. Besides just helping me figure things out and put things in perspective, he set me up with a counsellor (a service provided for free for all Stanford students) and a meeting with a study skills advisor, who was also very helpful, friendly, and competent. Now, I'm nearly completely back on track (and if I might add, kicked ass on my finals :-) ).</p>
<p>Overall, I was very impressed by Stanford's response - there are many different systems in place to help struggling students. The oveall academic atmosphere is by no means cut-throat, and they really do have caring, first-rate people.</p>