<p>I already know Sly Si’s answer to this question, but I’d like to hear from other Stanford students too. What are your extracurricular activities at Stanford? Are you in a club? Do you play a sport? Are you part of a musical ensemble? What activity would you LIKE to do at Stanford if only you didn’t have to devote some time to studying? 
Do you make a lot of new friends through your activity?</p>
<p>Is everyone too busy to take time from the chances threads?</p>
<p>I think end of quarter papers are due soon and exams are next week.</p>
<p>Well, I’m not at Stanford yet, but I don’t have exams coming up, so I’ll just say some of the stuff I’m interested in joining next year:
-SLE –> Structured Liberal Education
-Dil Se (if I get in) –> Hindi Film Dance
-Raagapella –> Indian singing group, but it’s only for guys 
-Sanskriti –> Indian organization
-Volunteering –> w/ the organization I’m already with, and at the Children’s Hospital
-Researching! Definitely looking forward to some serious neurobiology research, maybe with Lou Gehrig’s Disease if possible.
-More stuff that I find out about at Admit Weekend and NSO. :)</p>
<p>ughhhh SLE…im in it right now and personally hate it, but i’ve heard its one of those things that you only like when you finish with it
last saturday i finished a 3 day final where i wrote 3 papers…it was PAINFUL
im taking a break (procrastinating) from studying for my Chinese final:</p>
<p>right now im taking 20 units (including SLE), which is not that bad considering that 3 are language units and 3 are student initiated-courses
i’m part of STAND, the group on campus that does darfur advocacy
i’m currently doing research for a political science professor on democracy promotion (10 hours per week)
i also tutor 4 hours a week (well only 2, but takes 2 hours of transportation to get there) in East Palo Alto, teaching children English…</p>
<p>i’m not musical…i’d like to write for the Stanford Daily if i had more time. maybe i’d do more in an asian organization? i’m also not sporty. oh if i had more time id maybe do debate/mock trial/MUN like in high school.</p>
<p>…most of my friends are in SLE. i’m trying not to sound like a SLE-hater here - keep in mind i feel whiny right now i guess…
but definitely don’t take it if you aren’t sure you want to do all the reading (it sounds good - that’s part of why i told the instructor i wanted to take it, so i could read all these classics but i end up not reading much at all and just being annoyed) and really like philosophy and religious studies. you don’t really get to the history until 3rd quarter. be prepared for your afternoons for most of the week to be sucked up by SLE.</p>
<p>Hmm…that doesn’t sound appealing…I guess I’ll just have to wait until AW to see if I’m really up for that… :(</p>
<p>Thanks for telling me about SLE.</p>
<p>well, i was (am) in a sle bashing mood, so keep that in mind. i consulted with my roommate though, and she agreed that that’s a realistic approach to SLE.</p>
<p>The one thing is that it really does help your writing. This year, we had a draft or final paper due every single week and that really kept me on my feet. So I was editting a 30 page brief for my Voting Rights introsem (unfortunately, taught by an amazing professor who is leaving for UW - i only wrote 6 pages, it was a group project - introsems are usually fairly easy) and everyone else in my group was in IHUM/PWR. They intentionally put me in charge of editting because I was in SLE and they really liked the way I wrote; everyone else seemed to make mistakes that I had made at the beginning of the year/throughout the course of the year in SLE that my tutors or section leaders corrected me on (for example “i like food and, thus, i like buffets” - that the commas need to go around “thus”) and I was able to pick up on this. Also, I was very used to cutting down and tightening essays. So I feel that my writing has improved a lot. This will really come in handy if you plan on being a fuzzy (humanities) major. </p>
<p>SLE IS a lot of reading. You need to like reading, be good at reading critically, and read quickly - sometimes you’ll need to read a 500 page novel in a week (you’re suggested to read in advance, but we all know that doesn’t really ever work out unless you’re incredibly disciplined - props to you) or Plato’s Republic, apprx. 300 pages of incredibly dense philosophy. </p>
<p>SLE does take up a lot of time. 3-7 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 3-8 on Thursdays (includes 1 hour time period to eat dinner with your profs if you so wish). You can skip lectures though - Tuesday + Wednesday night - because most are tangential to the actual topic. Movies can also be very tangential.</p>
<p>You are restricted in your class choice because of this - you won’t be able to take about 1/2 of introsems and a significant percantage of other classes.</p>
<p>You don’t get grades on your papers until you get your final grade at the end. The first quarter final is 24 hours to write 3 essays, 2 pages each. Second quarter is 3 days, 3 essays, 3 pages each. Last quarter is oral examiniations.</p>
<p>Your experience depends a lot on your section leader - Mark and Suzanne, the two “SLE Gods” are leaving. Mark is the only full professor in SLE and he’s amazing - professor emeritus of history, 30 years ago used to be one of the top Sinologists (US-China relations specifically) in the world. Wrote a history textbook on China. Incredibly brillant. Advisor to king of Bhutan, drafted their constitution and came up with the idea of “Gross National Happiness” instead of “GDP” (yeah they’re actually using this…). He’s met so many amazing people, Hannah Arendt (Heidegger’s mistress/protege/student) wrote a letter to the then President of Stanford supporting Mark’s idea for SLE, Foucalt, etc. </p>
<p>He’s also kinda of a jerk. He is very open about his hatred of Christianity and conservatives (I’m Christian, but def. not conservative). He openly calls people stupid. He will shoot you down really callously. He has started to not really care at all about SLE. He doesn’t really do anything. </p>
<p>That’s part of why I hated SLE this quarter. That, and I’ve realized that I hate religious studies and philosophy - which comprise almost all of 1st and 2nd quarters. </p>
<p>But you do bond A LOT with your fellow SLE people. It’s a great opportunity to get to know the amazing professors, especially over dinner since you can talk to them. You breathe SLE and unconsciously always talk about it - it’s up to you to decide whether this is good or not. And you get to pester your writing tutors with multiple drafts, etc. though they will vary in terms of how much they can help you. </p>
<p>If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask. I’m in a much better mood now than before (hence the actual following grammar).</p>
<p>What’s SLE?</p>