Ask a Student - Academics - Page 3

docketgold · 04-16-2009, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Well, I wanted to still do something along the lines of engineering but also mix business with it, so MS&E looks appealing. But it looks like it doesn't have much respect on campus? Or is that just your opinion?

What do you mean when you say business? It's a really broad term to begin with, and I think a lot of college kids just say they want to "do business" when they see people in a corner office making a ton of scratch and want to have that kind of lifestyle.

Here's the problem I have with MS&E. First off, none of the classes are very challenging. Now, just because a class is hard does not mean it is valuable, and just because a class is valuable does not mean it has to be hard. But a major with no tough classes at all? I call shenanigans.

Secondly, particularly with their classes geared for undergrads, you'll take the class, some of the stuff will be kind of cool and thought provoking, but it's taught so vaguely and generally that it has zero applicability in the real world. This is especially true with the more business-type classes on decision making, management, etc. You can't really gain any value from that kind of thing until you've gone into the real world and experienced the problems first hand their teaching you to solve.

Which leads me to my final point about MS&E. It's just not the right type of program for college undergrads with little to no work experience. It's basically an executive MBA program with dumbed down information and more of the basics (e.g. accounting) thrown in for good measure.

Now, you've said you're interested in engineering with a business focus. I think you'll be putting your time and money to better use doing your engineering in undergrad and then getting business exposure through internships, spare classes, or a graduate degree.

veggie delight · 04-18-2009, 02:47 PM

MS&E doesn't look that bad. It's definitely not in the same category as sociology or communications.

Japanese is definitely less difficult than Mandarin; you're supposed to be able to reach a level of proficiency in 3 yrs of classes. Keep in mind that for study abroad in Kyoto, they only require you to have taken 2 quarters, though more might be nice.

aberdeen15 · 04-18-2009, 04:24 PM

docketgold, I understand and agree with your point about business being too broad of a term. Um, the problem is I'm not completely sure what I want to do in the field - I was thinking entrepreneurship or finance, but I don't know enough about the fields to make a decision.

I want to "do business" not because of the lifestyle, but because of its real world application - much like how people say everyone should take a few Comp Sci classes because of the world's dependency on computers today. So naturally I wouldn't want to take classes with little real world application, as you have said about MS&E... I dunno. I'm planning on getting an MBA, I just thought it would be good to start with classes as an undergraduate.

Thanks veggie for your reply. I saw you can take either 3 quarters of 5-credit Japanese or 5 quarters of 3-credit Japanese, if I remember correctly. Do you know the more typical route for students, particularly for people who want to go to Kyoto?

veggie delight · 04-23-2009, 06:02 PM

Pretty sure 3 classes at 5 units is more normal.

Colbs · 04-25-2009, 09:25 PM

Computer Science: opinions? hard? time consuming? thought provoking? practical?

LazyAsian · 04-27-2009, 02:14 PM

I'm pretty sure taking the 5-unit Japanese track is a requirement to go to Kyoto. You only need two quarters before you go if you're an engineer, but you need five if you're a non-engineer. At any rate, regardless of the requirements, you should try to take as much Japanese as possible before you go -- the more you understand the language, the more you'll get out of your experience.

cracker123 · 05-05-2009, 07:15 PM

Does Stanford grad schools have any preference for taking its own undergrads, or is it actually harder for Stanford undergrads to get into Stanford grad schools?

Sly Si · 05-06-2009, 03:32 AM

Depends on the field. A *lot* of people end up coterming--they do five years and get a master's degree (and are considered a grad student for their last year or so). In that sense, it's not that hard to do grad school at Stanford, but that's only for a master's.

In hard sciences (math and physics, for example), you are strongly discouraged from doing grad school and undergrad at the same institution. I don't know if this also applies to engineering. When I started looking at schools for a math PhD, I was told flat-out not to apply to Stanford.

cracker123 · 05-06-2009, 01:15 PM

I was wondering if it would be an advantage/disadvantage to go to Stanford for pre-med should I want to get into Stanford med school. Same question for engineering, since I don't think I'll major in hard sciences.

floppy · 05-06-2009, 11:02 PM

Stanford med school doesn't have a preference either way towards admitting its own undergrads.

Just an FYI its strongly discouraged for people to be pre-med and engineering since engineering is much more time consuming than biology/chem and engineering classes tend to have harder curves since they tend to have really crazy smart people.

HarvardStanford · 05-07-2009, 08:03 PM

ok thanks I'll make sure to stay away from engineering now

SusieBra · 05-19-2009, 06:44 PM

Are these all of the requirments?
Office of the University Registrar

How many do you have to do for each category/section?

Sly Si · 05-20-2009, 03:19 AM

The page below is the best place to find GER information.

Office of the University Registrar

To summarize, you must fulfill the following requirements:

1. IHUM. Three courses, one each quarter of your freshman year. You will be assigned to these courses, and changing courses requires petitioning (which isn't that hard if you've got a good reason, like a conflict with the class).

2. PWR. Two one-quarter courses, one freshman year and one sophomore year. Like IHUM, you get assigned to these.

3. Disciplinary Breadth. Five areas; you must take one course from each area. Courses in your major will satisfy at least one of these, if not more.

4. Education for Citizenship. Four areas; choose two and take one course from each. So two courses total.

5. Language requirement. You must take a full year of one foreign language. You can test out of all or part of this requirement.

Some notes: The language requirement is the only GER you can test out of. Some courses will satisfy both a DB and EC requirement, so taking one of these (they're not that hard to find) will reduce the number of GER courses you'll have to take. And if you take SLE, that satisfies the entire requirements of IHUM and PWR (so you don't have to take PWR as a sophomore), plus one of the EC requirements (I don't remember which area).

foodzeatr · 05-25-2009, 06:30 PM

For Pre-meds:

1. Is Chem 31X recommended? How do I prepare for the placement test? (is there a textbook I should study, what kind of material is covered, etc)

2. Is there a way to take bio core before taking organic chem (33)? And is it recommended to take chem 33 freshman year (2nd or 3rd quarter depending on if I take 31A/B or 31X), or will the workload be overwhelming?

3. Can freshmen take physics 20s series freshman year, or is there some sort of prereq? (I'd like to get rid of physics my freshman year lol) And the 20s series is sufficient for med school req, right?

4. Can somebody elaborate on the Human Biology major?

Thanks!! (sorry for the laundry list of questions)

Pistachio · 05-26-2009, 02:16 PM

1) Chem 31X is recommended if you have a strong chemistry background and want to get your chem requirement out of the way in one quarter.

Do not study for the placement test. It's a test to figure out which level of chemistry you belong at and studying for it sort of ruins that. You do not want to get placed in a class that you cannot handle.

2) You can't take biocore until Sophomore year.

As for Chem 33, it can be a difficult class for many people, and it's difficult to say if it will be overwhelming without knowing what other classes you're planning on taking with it.

3) Yes, freshmen can take physics 20 series freshman year and yes it is sufficient for medical school. That being said, you have four years here so there's really no need to finish up all of your reqs within the first two years. It's better to do well in the classes rather than finish them all up quickly.

4) The Human Biology major consists of a 30 unit core usually taken sophomore year (10 units each quarter). In addition to that, students have a 20 unit area of concentration that combines upper division classes from at least three different fields (for example, my friend has a combo of Humbio, Econ and Public Policy classes while another friend has a combo of Bio, Humbio and Psych classes). There's also a 20 unit foundation (of which 10 units can be premed) which is basically any intro level classes relating to your Area of Concentration. Other than that, you just have three other upper div HumBio classes and a 4 unit internship.

Basically, HumBio is a good choice if you (a) have interdisciplinary interests, (b) know that you want to study something involving either health/biology/environmental policy/health policy but aren't exactly sure what or (c) want a lot of flexibility/few requirements