<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>There are tons of posts about chances, or admission, or missing parts of applications. However, what I really want to know is what Stanford is like. What are the dorms like? What is the typical Stanford day/weekend/whatever? What sort of people are there? What do people do for fun? What don't you like about it, and what do you love about it?</p>
<p>Any current students?</p>
<p>I'm a high school soph and I went to Stanford for a summer course three years ago and stayed with my uncle in Palo Alto. Stanford has possible one of the most beautiful campuses I have ever seen, or ever will see. People there are really smart, but still laid back so it's a great place if you want to be challenged but you don't like all the massive tension that usually accompanies that. People there usually walk around in shorts and sandals, I would think, because of the awesome weather. I love the place and I'd love to go there for college. (I'm not actually a student but that's my 2 cents)</p>
<p>there are tons of posts from december/january about this with frosh opinions. I'm a current student (2008) so you can email me at <a href="mailto:ariellem@gmail.com">ariellem@gmail.com</a> with specific questions b/c you questions are rather vague. also consult the admit.stanford.edu website for other info.</p>
<p>btw the only reason I'm posting is b/c it's our spring break and I'm so bored. i usually have no time :(</p>
<p>Why aren't you out having fun at something since this is spring break?</p>
<p>I had to come home since I'm staying on campus this summer and I won't see my parents or sibling until next christmas</p>
<p>I'm not sure if you know this already, there's no link from the main Admit Weekend site, but check out this website for lots of pictures of life at Stanford:</p>
<p>admit.stanford.edu/Pictures</p>
<p>They've been asking everyone here to submit their pictures to this site.</p>
<p>It'll give you a sense of how close friendships develop within your dorm..., plus you might find some pictures of the residence halls, rooms, etc...</p>
<p>now i doubt any of those are pictures of people working and studying, but that's also a huge part of life at Stanford too =)</p>
<p>i have alot of friends who go to stanford ugrad. i'm currently a senior who lives 5 min from stanford and i can say its quite possibly the most boring socially of every college campus i've been to. articles are written often in the Stanford daily about how dating and getting to know people is next to impossible at stanford. i applied to stanford and my dad went there, but i can say that if it were between berkeley/ucla and stanford, i would most likely go to berkeley/ucla. i'm disappointed, but that doesn't mean that stanford doesn't have small social groups or other methods of meeting people.</p>
<p>I really believe you can't tell without actually living on campus. I too lived 10 minutes from campus all of my life, and I wouldn't trade the social life for any other campus in the world (and I visited many). I think that it is the perfect size. Any bigger, and there are just too many people. You'll only get to know so many of them well at all... and then have a whole bunch of acquaintances and thousands of people you'll never meet, or care to meet. At a smaller school, you know every person by the end of sophomore, if not freshman year. So if you haven't met a datable person or a best friend by then, give up. At Stanford, you know just enough people that everywhere you go there's a friendly face, but there are always new people to meet. It's absolutely perfect, to me and the people I'm close to, at least.</p>
<p>I graduated from Stanford in 2004, and loved every minute of! I think its unfair to say that Stanford is "socially boring". It might have fewer frat parties (there are still plenty!) but there is an incredible diversity of social interaction. From soccer games, to conversations at the dinnig hall's brunch, to band run and Full Moon on the Quad, your entire freshman year is about building friendships with smart, diverse, interesting, fun people.</p>
<p>Stnaford won't make the Princeton Review's top 10 party schools, but for many freshman, weekends involve parties with alcohol. Drink, or don't, no one is judging you. Weekends also involve varsity football/basketball/volleyball/etc. games, study groups, enjoying the sun and the bay area, and events with your dorm. In fact, the dorm expereince is one of Stanford's biggest strengths. Unlike big state schools, you never feel like the RAs are "out to get you", and dorm events are actually fun. You'll make your best friends in the dorm, and for years after you leave Stanford, when you meet other alums, you'll talk about which dorms you lived in.</p>
<p>But the combination of great dorms and expensive real estate means that everyone lives on campus all 4 years. In a lot of ways, that is great and helps makes campus the wonderful place that it is. The downside--no college town, no student area of Palo Alto, and nowhere to get cheap hamburgers at 3:30AM on Friday (unless you know someone with a car and drive to In 'n' Out).</p>
<p>Academics, studying, and your classes will be an important part of your life, but for most people, they won't be everything. One of my favorite parts of the quarter was selecting classes and picking which 4 really interesting things I wanted to learn about over the next 3 months. But you need balance in your life, and you will develop it. And not balance in the "which 5 ECs will look best on my resume" sense, but an inner sense of balance and better grasp of your priorities</p>
<p>Socially, I grew a lot as a Stanford student. If you ask Stanford freshman at the beginning of their first year to use three adjectives to describe themselves, most people will include "smart" or "motivated" or "intelligent". After a year surrounded by other people who share that, you learn to define yourself in other ways, and its a really important period of growth.</p>
<p>So, what's life like at Stanford? It's fun, challenging, diverse, exciting, and maturing, and lots of other really great things.</p>