Academic And Social Life At Stanford

marlgirl
Mon, 19 Mar 2007 13:29:20 +0000

The science classes vary a lot in size. I imagine some of the intro chem and intro bio classes can be rather large (perhaps 200-300 students? just a guess). My physics classes have been at most 45 students. I’ve had one course taught by a post-doctoral student, but none taught by grad students. (The postdoc was actually an amazing teacher, and is now a prof on the east coast.) All profs have office hours, so it’s very easy to meet up with them. There are a lot of opportunities to get involved in research. In the physics department, for example, you are guaranteed money one summer to do research on campus if you so desire.

Many of the dorms are simple and functional. The rooms are a lot bigger than I had expected and hold a lot more stuff than I thought would fit in my room. They vary a lot in design from one room doubles to two room triples to three room quads. As far as I know, all the dorms have a lounge and a kitchenette (except for the row houses that have full kitchens). Most lounges have a TV and a piano, and some also have pool tables and/or ping pong tables. There isn’t really any pressure to drink. Some dorms are louder than others, it depends a bit where you live. Some of the frats, for example, are pretty loud during the week whereas some of the dorms have a reputation for being especially quiet. Since a lot of dorms have students who are athletes, there are quiet hours in the dorm after 11PM on the weekdays and 2AM on the weekends that are usually respected. If anyone is being loud outside you can politely ask them to be a bit more quiet and they probably will be happy to close their door or move into the lounge. There aren’t any sort of alcohol-free or drug-free dorms. You probably won’t run into students doing drugs (the closest you may come is people smoking pot) and there isn’t much pressure to drink, so I think that there just isn’t a high demand for “chem-free” dorms because it’s not an issue for most students.