Stanford University Top Questions

The big gap between how perfect everyone assumes things are and says they are on one hand, versus reality - a good school with plenty of warts.

Professors are NOT accessible. Also, many students suffer from eating disorders, depression, anxiety disorders, etc. These sorts of disorders/conditions are extremely common and make life more difficult than it need be, since the actual workload at Stanford is not as demanding as perhaps the school's reputation suggests.

That everyone seems to be doing fine in classes, etc. -- which makes me feel like I'm the only one who is not doing so well. I know it's not true though, it's called the "Stanford Duck Syndrome". People are really good at hiding what's going wrong in their lives and putting on a faccade that everything is okay.

Exessive drinking

Having to balance my ROTC life and my normal student life. Stanford isn't the most accepting of the military.

The most frustrating thing about Stanford is that there just isn't enough time to take all interesting classes offered on campus, to go to the many amazing events and join all of the groups that you want to join.

I had quite a few difficulties and frustrations my freshman year of college, but none of them really had to do with Stanford, they were all more personal frustrations. I had a hard time balancing my social life with my extracurricular activities and my academics. I was so overcommitted that I couldn?t fulfill the expectations I set for myself. Because of this I became frustrated with myself for not achieving the grades I would have liked. However, none of those frustrations or troubles were caused by Stanford or its policies.

Workload

The most frustrating thing about Stanford is how decentralized it can be. Solving a problem with the administration can be a run-around, and it's difficult to find centralized resources for academic information, research opportunities, etc. Once you become accustomed to the system, it's certainly work-able, but it takes some time and resourcefuless, not to mention patience, to master it.

So academically competitive among students, small feel because many never leave their room because of studying.