Stanford University Top Questions

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Football!

Everyone at Stanford knows the marching band, LSJUMB. They are a high-spirited marching band that play at sporting events and it's something everyone looks forward too. Other popular student activities/groups include the a capella groups and dance groups. Their performances attract hundreds of students.

Stanford has a wide array of student groups - some of the most popular are Green oriented (e.g. SSS - Students for a Sustainable Stanford) and range from advocacy oriented (e.g. MAAN: Men Against Abuse Now) to debate centric (e.g. AHA: Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics) to more artistic groups (e.g., acting, juggling, and dance groups). It's easy enough to start your own group and get funding - I know from personal experience as co-president of a food justice group on campus for two years. The difficulty lies in garnering enough help from members to make the group successful. It's a common complaint from student group presidents (me included) that unless Stanford students have an official high ranking title in the group, things won't get done. This goes for the more advocacy oriented groups than the artistic ones. Speaking of artistic groups - Stanford has an AWESOME tight-nit dance community. As a member of a salsa group on campus, and as someone who takes part in alot of the dance events at Stanford, I can say that if you love dance (or want to learn!) Stanford's a great place to be. In terms of the social scene - there's definitely a place for everybody, but Stanford isn't known to be that "happening" if you're into clubs and bar hopping (which I am, so that was a bit of a disappointment for me :)). When people refer to Stanford as a bubble it's in large part because students tend to stay on campus for their social needs. And most students are happy with what Stanford has to offer. Every week there's at least one or two campus wide parties in dorms or on "the row" (the upperclassman houses considered to be the best place to live) by co-ops, fraternities, and sororities. Those who are feeling motivated will head to the city (SF) about 40 minutes away by car, or downtown Palo Alto (10 minutes), though the latter has fewer options. For those who don't drink, you'll be happy to know that around 1/5th of Stanford students don't drink, and there's very little peer pressure to do so (I know from personal experience). If you want to have fun on the weekends without drinking and hard core partying it's very easy! As mentioned before there's a great dance community which throws socials on the weekends. Additionally, many Stanford students can enjoy relatively tame nights with their friends in their dorm rooms. All in all, Stanford's social scene is pretty good. I should repeat, though, that if you enjoy more exciting and eclectic nights out, Stanford isn't exactly the right place - largely due to the "bubble" phenomenon and its distance from SF.

The social life at Stanford, though really big and rambunctious, is pretty unidimensional. Either you get f*cked up on the weekend, every weekend, or you sit in your room and study. It's pretty much hit or miss that way. Frats and sororities are the major social events on campus for freshmen, but as you get older it is less so.

A walk around the student activities fair in White Plaza.

Social life is friday and saturday night when people start drinking at 10 go out to a frat party and home paired up with some other loser by 12:30 or else just giving up on the night. Partying is self-medication not something to enjoy for it's own sake

One thing that Stanford students have to lean, is that there is always something going on and one cannot attended every event. Around the year there are speeches of famous people held in auditoriums on campus and as a student with limited spare time one had to decide very carefully which events to attend. So no worried, there is enough going on. Freshman students usually live in dorms with sizes between 80 to 150 students. By the end of the first quarter one got to know all there people and many more outside of the residence. This is a very good way to get to know a lot of people in very short time and allows for a vivid social life in ones vicinity. Parties are usually held at by fraternities, ranging from pure drinking parties to dancing parties. Additionally every imaginable interest has a student group on campus (and when there isn't, just create it!) So whatever your interests are, you will find people with just the same interest right on campus and get to pursue your activity further. Or you might decide to dive into something completely new by taking up an activity you might have never dreamed of before.

Freshman Year Social Life: Trying to get beer at frat parties, playing beer pong. Very liberal policy at Stanford where RA's are more hands off in enforcing no underage drinking, although because of a consistent stream of hospital visits for alcohol poisoning, this may change in future years. Sophomore Year: Some frat parties, hanging out with the close group of friends you made freshman year, exploring off campus more frequently. If you're into co-ops, co-op parties (way better than frat parties). Junior Year: Mostly hanging out with close group of friends + off-campus activities. Hosting room parties. Senior Year: Often more focused on academics, honors thesis, graduate school, find a job, etc. But also a lot of fun senior events to attend (formals, Pub Night). Summary: Stanford is really social, you won't lack for opportunities to party here.

The fact that Stanford is so isolated makes having a balanced social life hard. Unless you want to go to frat parties weekend after weekend, there is not a lot to do on weekends. You have to show a lot of initiative to get off campus or organize your own social gathering, which can be hard, especially for students without cars and freshman who don't know many people.