Stanford University Top Questions

How to manage my personal finances, seek mental and emotional counseling from non-peer to peer sources and overall health and well-being. I also wished I had better health practices to avoid gaining wait and eating an unhealthy diet: the late night food service was a disincentive to practice healthy eating, as well as the dining hall food options. Although we could eat at any dining hall, it wasn't always convenient to do so.

I wish I'd taken more though about how I wanted to take advantage of all that Stanford had to offer. I would have liked to know that designing your own major is hard, and that it's best to make connections with faculty early. I would have also preferred to live in an all-freshman dorm rather than a four-class dorm to have a stronger community of friends. And I wish I knew about the Women's Center earlier on!

I wish I had known how difficult the quarter system was. It seems people are always taking midterms and taking exams, much more than at semester schools. As a result, falling behind can be detrimental.

I wish I had known that the era of academic competition is no longer important. There is such a diversity of brilliance at Stanford that there is just no point in competing - I have to strive for my personal best, as cliched as this sounds. I began by taking overly-challenging classes that weren't tailored to my skill or interests, thinking it was what "everyone" was doing. I should have started off by taking the classes that truly sparked an interest in me to have avoided a lot of stress and boredom.

Don't try to balance too many extra-curriculars.

How awesome it was!

I wish I had known that Stanford would have a demanding workload, but also that you get what you put into your Stanford experience.

I wish I had known the importance of applying for scholarships in high school. I didn't realize just how hard it would be for my parents to come up with tuition every year or that I would only get a couple thousand dollars in government loans for financial aid. I feel like I could have won many scholarships in my senior year of high school.

I felt prepared because of on line registration resources.

Writing papers is totally different from high school papers