Hi everyone. I'm an admitted student who is fairly convinced she's coming here, but still has some lingering questions. May 1st is Monday, so hopefully some of you will read this soon
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I agree with virogthecong on the drinking thing. I've had probably three or four drinks since I got here in September, never been drunk, and I still have just as much fun as anyone. It's up to you how much you'll have to drink, and you'll never feel pressured into doing it. There are, however, those people who feel like they can't have a good time if they're not drunk, but I tend to not hang out with those types.
Being away from my family was terrifying at first, but once you get busy and you make some new friends, it won't be so bad. My mom wants me to come home for Memorial Day weekend, but I'm declining in favor of stuff that's happening on campus.
Making close, close friends can be hard, especially when you have a lot of work to do. I've noticed that a lot of the time I can't find someone I want to hang out with because he/she is in the library. But again, that's just my experience, and I'm sure it will vary from dorm to dorm. You're still going to meet some awesome people, and when it comes time to choose housing for sophomore year, you're definitely going to have a group of people that is going to stick together.
I make most of my friends through the dorm, and people will tell you that it's because I'm in SLE, but really that happens pretty much anywhere. People in Wilbur know people from Wilbur, and people from Stern know people from Stern.
Funding for student groups: I'm not an expert on this, but being a member of El Mariachi Cardenal de Stanford I can say that had we not gotten the Special Fee mentioned above, we'd be scrambling for money to pay for our instructors and other expenses. For the most part, though, we've been fully funded and we stay afloat pretty easily. We've had retreats on the beach and driven around all over the place, and the most I've spent being in Mariachi Cardenal is $3.50 for gellato that we didn't subsidize because we were too lazy to keep track of what everyone ordered.
One weakness that I'm sensing is a sort of separation between the ethnic groups on campus. This is part of a big rant I go on and on about, but the African-Americans go to the African-American events, the Latinos go to their events, and what I don't see is an openness that allows for interactions between the different racial cliques on campus. What I get a feel for is that people are proud to be Black, Latino, Asian, whatever, and not so much to be part of the Stanford community. That's just my opinion, though, and I encourage you to ask other people before taking my word for it.
It's great to know that clubs at Stanford won't be as unfinanced as clubs in my high school!
Your observation on separation of ethnic groups is interesting. One of the major reasons I like Stanford is its ethnic diversity. You write of events, but would the housing system be a cause of this? Are there a lot of interracial friendships? Can I still assume that each ethnic group, and individuals within, is tolerant of every other?
Stanford is, I agree, very diverse. And there are definitely interracial friendships. I have friends from Indonesia, Japan, Latvia, and Texas. The housing system... there are people who feel that they "needed" Ujamaa, Casa Zapata, and Okada to "get them through" their first year, which I think reflects an unwillingness to trust people outside of your ethnic group. Which I can understand, to a certain extent. But come on, it's Stanford.
The girl across the hall from me says that someone on one of the "ethnic" chatlists sent out an email telling everyone (of that ethnicity) to go to the talent show and vote for someone (of that ethnicity), because white people wouldn't vote for her poem about racism. This, of course, barring any judgement of her talent and the talent of other people at the show. It becomes very hard to determine how much tension there actually is on campus, and how much is just perception.
As for me, I have not lived in an ethnic-themed dorm, so I can't really speak for how they socialize. As a rule, ethnic themed dorms must be 50 percent of "that" ethnicity, and 50 percent "other." So by no means are the people in those dorms shutting themselves of from other people. I would suggest talking to someone who has lived there.
Don't let this discourage you at all, because this is just me talking as an outsider to all of this race stuff. I live in East Florence Moore Hall, where I don't think I've ever felt any sort of tension along the lines of race or nationality. And the same goes, I think, for a lot of places on campus.
A lot of it, too, I think is up to you and how open you are to meeting new people regardless of whether or not they have the same amount of melanin you do.
Stanford is an awesome experience, and I would still make the same decision to come here, knowing everything that I know now, in a heartbeat. It's just a few little things about the dynamics that some people shake up a bit that makes me uneasy. But, I think, those people tend to be in the minority.
Hm, okay. I don't think I'll be living in an ethnic-themed dorm, unless they randomly assign me to one, so I think I'll be fine. I lived in (I think West) FloMo during Admit Weekend -- in Gavilan. It was great fun!
Being away from my family was terrifying at first, but once you get busy and you make some new friends, it won't be so bad. My mom wants me to come home for Memorial Day weekend, but I'm declining in favor of stuff that's happening on campus.
Making close, close friends can be hard, especially when you have a lot of work to do. I've noticed that a lot of the time I can't find someone I want to hang out with because he/she is in the library. But again, that's just my experience, and I'm sure it will vary from dorm to dorm. You're still going to meet some awesome people, and when it comes time to choose housing for sophomore year, you're definitely going to have a group of people that is going to stick together.
I make most of my friends through the dorm, and people will tell you that it's because I'm in SLE, but really that happens pretty much anywhere. People in Wilbur know people from Wilbur, and people from Stern know people from Stern.
Funding for student groups: I'm not an expert on this, but being a member of El Mariachi Cardenal de Stanford I can say that had we not gotten the Special Fee mentioned above, we'd be scrambling for money to pay for our instructors and other expenses. For the most part, though, we've been fully funded and we stay afloat pretty easily. We've had retreats on the beach and driven around all over the place, and the most I've spent being in Mariachi Cardenal is $3.50 for gellato that we didn't subsidize because we were too lazy to keep track of what everyone ordered.
One weakness that I'm sensing is a sort of separation between the ethnic groups on campus. This is part of a big rant I go on and on about, but the African-Americans go to the African-American events, the Latinos go to their events, and what I don't see is an openness that allows for interactions between the different racial cliques on campus. What I get a feel for is that people are proud to be Black, Latino, Asian, whatever, and not so much to be part of the Stanford community. That's just my opinion, though, and I encourage you to ask other people before taking my word for it.
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Your observation on separation of ethnic groups is interesting. One of the major reasons I like Stanford is its ethnic diversity. You write of events, but would the housing system be a cause of this? Are there a lot of interracial friendships? Can I still assume that each ethnic group, and individuals within, is tolerant of every other?
Reply
The girl across the hall from me says that someone on one of the "ethnic" chatlists sent out an email telling everyone (of that ethnicity) to go to the talent show and vote for someone (of that ethnicity), because white people wouldn't vote for her poem about racism. This, of course, barring any judgement of her talent and the talent of other people at the show. It becomes very hard to determine how much tension there actually is on campus, and how much is just perception.
As for me, I have not lived in an ethnic-themed dorm, so I can't really speak for how they socialize. As a rule, ethnic themed dorms must be 50 percent of "that" ethnicity, and 50 percent "other." So by no means are the people in those dorms shutting themselves of from other people. I would suggest talking to someone who has lived there.
Don't let this discourage you at all, because this is just me talking as an outsider to all of this race stuff. I live in East Florence Moore Hall, where I don't think I've ever felt any sort of tension along the lines of race or nationality. And the same goes, I think, for a lot of places on campus.
A lot of it, too, I think is up to you and how open you are to meeting new people regardless of whether or not they have the same amount of melanin you do.
Stanford is an awesome experience, and I would still make the same decision to come here, knowing everything that I know now, in a heartbeat. It's just a few little things about the dynamics that some people shake up a bit that makes me uneasy. But, I think, those people tend to be in the minority.
Erm, no pun intended.
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