Stanford University Top Questions

Popular groups: the Stanford band, frats/sororities, intramural sports. I was involved in the co-op community where we grew our own veggies and lived organically. I was minorly involved in the film society, but largely as a supporter of their projects, and not as a participant. Students in dorms sometimes leave their doors open - it depends on the dorm. Athletics are very popular. Guest speakers/theatre are a bit less popular. The dating scene is confusing and odd, but that's probably because students are young and unsure of their needs and wants. I met my closest friends in my dorms and in classes. If I'm awake at 2AM on a Tuesday, I'm watching Saved By The Bell with roomies. Traditions: Full Moon on the Quad, the Band Run, (others I'm forgetting). People party to different degrees: it could be 5 nights a week, or not a single one. Frats/Sororities seem to be important, but I wasn't in one. On a Saturday night, you could study. Off-campus, you can visit San Francisco and take a breather from the bubble. And then return.

Students do really leave their doors open in the dorms, although we are discouraged from doing so. Theft does happen, and people do lose Ipods and laptops here and there. There is always some event to go to so it's impossible to be truly bored at Stanford; if you're bored, it's probably cuz you're procrastinating and too lazy to get up and do anything else. People are up at all hours of the night, and they can be doing anything, from studying, to partying randomly, to playing video games, to just talking. Weekend/weekday schedules are much less rigid in college than they are in high school or later in life. Some people study on Saturdays, some party on Wednesdays. If students leave campus, they usually have a purpose, like shopping at Walmart or Target. There isn't much to do in the town of Palo Alto. So people go to San Francisco, which is a cool city.

Student groups are definitely a younger student dominated thing. Every freshmen joins every single group, but by senior year you realize that student groups are actually relatively inefficient and not worth your time, and you would rather focus more on your academics and save your free time to be with the people you care about. At least that is true for me and my friends. Students in dorms, at least freshmen dorms, definitely leave their doors open, and the same can be said for the coop communities. It is a very open place, and lots of people like to hang out in common areas and socialize. Events and speakers are definitely popular, but amongst certain groups of people. You will see the same crowd at the athletic events every time, and the same crowd at the Ethics in Society events every time. Dating is pretty non-existent, but I think that is a more general trend true of our generation (I could be wrong about that). People date seriously, but there is not a whole lot of casual, let's go out to dinner on friday or maybe a movie kind of dating. People party as much as they want to. There are always things happening on Wed-Sat nights, and Sun, Mon and Tues tend to be more studying nights, but people are more or less involved in the party scene depending on their preferences. Off campus I love to go into San Fransisco or Berkeley and study in a coffee shop or go to a museum, or go out for dinner and a few drinks. We also go camping/hiking a lot, go to the beach, go to concerts, etc. There is no end to the awesome things that can be done off campus in this area, although it definitely helps if one person in the group has a car because public transportation is not ideal. There is plenty to do on a Saturday night that doesn't involve drinking, including watching movies, seeing theatre performances either on campus (tons of great theatre stuff on campus) or off, hanging out with friends, going hot-tubbing, etc. I don't feel like there is any unnecessary pressure to drink in order to be social or have fun, and I feel like there are lots of creative people who do fun spontaneous things that don't involve any alcohol. There is a social scene for whatever you like, and if there isn't, you just create it. People are always down to go along with some plans you make that sound fun and interesting.

Freshman dorm is where you meet everyone. Alcohol policy is relatively loose compared to UC's, so people hang out and get to know each other. Friends for life are made in the freshman hall. Freshman year at STanford is summer camp. Flicks! movies every sunday night. People drink and yell at the screen during the movie. They throw paper. There's always a cartoon first. I was also in the Band freshman and sophomore year. They're crazy. lsjumb.stanford.edu. Crazy costumes and offensive halftime shows, they've been banned from major airlines and universities. I also met great friends doing hillel stuff, friday night shabbat dinners and israel speakers from Ehud Barack to Thomas Friedman. Met Muslims from all over the world I would not have had the chance to meet otherwise. I lived in a co-op junior and senior year. Vegetarian food. Consensus meetings. People who had traveled all over the world. Highest concentration of earth systems majors I had ever seen, including the earth systems building. A little crazier than I signed up for but good memories. Stanford was the 2nd university in the nation to divest from the worst companies doing business with Darfur. My buddy Ben Elberger wrote a 50-page divestment advocacy report to present to the Board of Trustees about the details of each company and their weapons-oil agreements with Sudan's government. I wrote about a paragraph of it. We raised tons of money. Apparently there's still a genocide. I saw a job posting once for "Beat Bush, Get Paid" or something like that and

I'm president of the Survey club, where we fill out surveys for two hours once a week

Stanford is a competitive Division I school, so there are a lot of athletes. There are so many random clubs and organizations on campus, though, that most people seem to be involved in something or other, even if there’s not an athletic bone in their body. There are a lot of concerts and shows, from major productions at Frost Amphitheatre to little music gigs at the CoHo. It’s nice to have activities to break up your studies at night, and Stanford was good about that. The frat scene was also pretty big, but they are certainly not the only places to party. The Row, a main social spot, is made up of co-ops and theme houses as well. There are often dinners and theme parties that have nothing to do with the frat scene, but will happen alongside them.