A story from a freshman at Stanford. Like all, I had expectations going into Stanford. But what was the reality? In my case, far better.
Finding Community at Stanford
The most impactful experience at Stanford was the people. It felt like everyone knew to grow up from their high school selves and be a better person (or appear more mature than they are) because they are now in college. With move-in day and New Student Orientation, most people I spoke to were thinking about what it means to be a Stanford student. It felt like a time for discovering ourselves and meeting new people. Organically, my dorm became a tight-knit community. These were also the people with whom I spent most of my time.
I intend to be frank - to portray an accurate picture of Stanford. While my most significant community was my dorm, the same cannot be said for everyone. For example, freshmen who lived in Crothers often echoed that there was a lack of community because the dorm was too big. Whereas, freshmen in Governor’s Corner were farther from campus life. However, it does not mean that you will not find a community if your dorm community isn’t tight-knit. I lived in a dorm called Junipero (or JRO for short), and we had “honorary residents” that felt like they became part of the JRO community even though they didn’t live in JRO (JRO was an all-frosh dorm for the class of 2025, but for the class of 2026, JRO is an energy theme house). In my experience, most places - if not all - on-campus are inclusive, and campus life is what you make of it.
Daily Routine
To transition from my remark on housing and community, I will be talking about my life at Stanford. Many use their freshmen year as a year to explore their areas of interest and begin thinking about majors. I knew I wanted to be pre-med, so I had my list of requirements lined up. Nonetheless, there’s still more than enough time to explore during your first year. I took CS 106A and CS 106B (the two most common computer science classes that most Stanford students take) just as a way to explore the CS route. Aside from CS, the rest of my schedule was filled with Chemistry, Math, English, and Language classes. While some use freshmen year to explore their options, I used mine to finish requirements since I knew pre-med would only become more difficult as I finish my introductory courses.
Most of my earliest classes were at 9:45 am. Very few people wake up for breakfast. The few times I’ve had breakfast, there were only about 5 to 10 people in the Wilbur dining hall. Wilbur breakfast is not their meal highlight (Wilbur lunch is far superior). The breakfast variety is dim and not very appetizing. Brunches, on the other hand (on Saturdays and Sundays when breakfast isn’t available), are fabulous.
Normally, I have a breakfast snack, bike to my 9:45 am Chemistry lecture, and have lunch at 11:00 am. Towards the beginning of the year - my friends and I surfed different dining places for lunch. We came to find Wilbur to be the best!
Most people bike to classes since the campus is pretty huge but at the end of my spring quarter, my bike got stolen, which left me walking everywhere. The downside was that I had to allocate extra time for walking, but the upside was that I could finally appreciate how beautiful the campus is. In between classes, I worked at benches outside or inside libraries. The campus has so many places dedicated to doing work or unwinding that it begins to feel like a scavenger hunt! My favorite place to unwind is McMurtry roof - you could see the entire campus from here!
Because many of my classes were STEM, I was always in the Chemistry building or the Engineering quad. There are lots of benches scattered outside, and you’ll always find people catching up, working, or hanging out with their friends. The Chemistry building is where I did most of my work. It felt perfect for me, not too serious/intense like a library, but quiet and scenic to do work.
Most of the classes I was taking were lectures and introductory classes, where the class space was a huge lecture room fit for 300 - 400 people. I remember during the fall quarter, CS106A had about 700 students, and they couldn’t all fit into the lecture hall! Thankfully the lectures were also recorded, so many decided to take the class virtually. Because of the pandemic, some of my classes were still on Zoom during the fall and winter quarters, so my classroom consisted of my computer screen.
Work hard, play hard!
My day-to-day routine varied since some days were packed with lectures, while on other days I essentially had no class. I spent my day usually hanging out with friends at the dorm or doing work. Also, there are just so many things going on campus! Keep good track of your emails, since they will inform you of events happening on campus. Most of these events are packed with free food/swag! Once there was even a petting llama event simply to destress during finals!
The campus events vary from political discussions to club meetings with free food to acapella singers! The campus also celebrates Holi, which is by far the best event I attended. We threw colors at each out on Wilbur field and went fountain hoping to wash off!
My point is that throughout the week - there is ALWAYS something to do on campus! Towards the evenings around 6:00pm, I would have dinner with my dorm friends, hang out in my room or my friend’s room, do work if I needed to, and eventually sleep.
Fridays and Saturdays, the library closes early, which paves way for campus life to take place. Most weekends are spent going to the games, or outside of Stanford with friends to the shopping mall, or eating out. Some weekends I would also stay in, and even staying in was fun because we had dorm on-calls where a residential staff would have activities and food in the lounge.
My dorm also had a lot of trips during our first year! Each dorm gets a dorm fund to use for on-call events, food, and trips! We had a dorm prom, we took a trip to Carmel and stayed overnight in cabins, we went on a boat, we went to Monterey, we went kayaking, and we had our end-of-the-year dorm party. Most dorms go on trips, and they are often the best experiences.
Before going to Stanford, I was excited to be on campus and meet new people. I let the unknown excite me. After my first year, I realized that my most memorable moments were not only because of the dorm trips we took or the plethora of events on campus, but because my best friends were also alongside me for the ride.
Written by Akriti Dhungana, PathIvy Stanford Ambassador