kazoow

Beautiful Sunshine Makes the Rainy Winter Quarter Worth It

When it's sunny, the Stanford campus is absolutely beautiful and all the students seem happier. It doesn't get as warm as I would have expected, but fall and spring quarters are generally very pleasant. It usually rains a lot winter quarter, and that definitely contributes to the gloomier environment during those ~3 months. Students tend to pack on extra units and harder classes winter quarter because they know they'll just be inside all the time, but it creates a vicious cycle.

Incredibly Active, High Achieving Students = Double-Edged Sword

Some of the main reasons I chose to go to Stanford were: it was ranked "#1 Happiest Students" and "#2 Best Quality of Life" by Princeton Review at the time; everyone I met there was so down-to-earth, "chill," and modest about their amazing achievements and talents; and it is a very well-rounded school with world-renowned academic programs, incredible professors, amazing athletics, a general culture of fitness and wellness, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, concern for environmental and social issues, and students who are passionate about so many things. I think the extracurricular life at Stanford is especially vibrant. You can find a club for anything... and if you can't, you can easily start one and find others to join you. But there are downsides to this. Since everyone wants to start/lead organizations and host events, they're too busy to go to other events. Stanford students are so spoiled by the huge range of incredible speakers that visit (from Colin Powell to Bill Gates to famous actors) and so over-committed that they will pass up or drop out of once-in-a-lifetime events at a shocking rate. Also, Stanford has gone from "happiest students" to "most stressful school" in the course of 4 years, and I have personally witnessed how each class of freshmen is more uptight, over-committed, and stressed. As a freshman, I would have given Stanford an "A" rating, but now it's s "B-". Honestly, most majors in themselves are really not that difficult. Students just stress themselves out by being overachievers (everyone seems to be taking the max 20 units a quarter when you only need 15 per quarter to graduate in 4 years) and overly involved in extracurricular activities. If you can fight getting sucked into this, you'll enjoy all the amazing academic and personal enrichment opportunities that Stanford offers.