Dear ProFro,
Congratulations! You got into Stanford! You even visited for Admit Weekend! I’m incredibly grateful I got to be your RoHo (room host) for the weekend. While I’m glad I could answer some of your questions, I’m sure there were others you didn’t get the chance to ask — I was in your shoes just a year ago, and I had lots of questions, too. Unfortunately, in the short year that separates you and me, I can’t say I’ve learned the answer to all of those questions, so here are a few questions I’m glad you didn’t ask me.
1. Is Stanford hard?
There are so many different variables involved in that single question that I don’t even know where to start. Not only is every person different, but every class is different. Every student group is different. Every Stanford experience is different. Whether it’s hard or easy is honestly up to you.
2. What’s life like in other dorms?
To be honest, I’m kind of curious about that myself. Although I’ve talked to and visited people in other dorms, I’ve only lived in one up until now. On top of that, dorm life can easily change from year to year as old residents move out and new ones move in. Dorm life is tied much more closely to the people in the dorm than the dorm itself, and it’s hard to get a picture of that without living there.
3. Which dining hall has the best food?
Honestly, I don’t even know how many dining halls there are on campus, much less which one is the best. To truly understand which dining hall is the best, I’d have to eat at each one multiple times. That would require far more effort than just propagating the rumors that say Ricker is the best. Maybe the new Killa Bites Daily column will discover the truth once and for all.
4. What are you majoring in?
I’ve been asked this question, and asked myself this question, dozens of times over the past few months. As a freshman with over a year left to declare, I have absolutely no idea what I want to major in, and I change my mind every month.
5. How do you avoid the Freshman Fifteen?
If I knew the answer to this question, the first question my parents asked me when I went home for spring break would definitely not have been: “Have you gained weight?”
6. Are professors nice?
As someone who has been taught by exactly twelve professors up until this point, I can at least say that the ones I know are pretty great. Knowing that this is a just a drop in the bucket, I looked up how many professors Stanford has to estimate how dubious any extrapolation from there would be, and according to the Stanford factbook, there are 2,219 professors at Stanford as of fall 2017, which means I know approximately 0.5 percent of professors here. For comparison, a large pizza is about 154 square inches in area, and eating 0.5 percent of that is ¾ of a square inch. First of all, that’s not a lot of pizza, and second of all, it’s not enough pizza to judge the entire pizza, since the differences in toppings, crust, cheese and sauce might not all end up in that piece. Maybe I’ll be able to answer that in four years when I’ve had much more pizza.
7. How do you make friends in college?
I’d love to know the answer to this question. Somehow, I’ve made some pretty awesome friends already, but I’d love to learn how to befriend more of the amazing people on campus.
8. How does the Marguerite work?
All I know about the Marguerite is that it is almost always late, and one of the routes goes to Target.
9. Why does everyone at Stanford make up acronyms like ProFro?
That’s a good question for Stanford Memes for Edgy Trees; they have a lot to say about the acronyms, abbreviations and various other components of “Stanford Speak.”
10. What’s the best/worst part of Stanford?
This question is tricky because while Stanford has a lot of great parts, there are also quite a few negative parts. I guess you’ll need to decide for yourself during your four years here.
Sincerely,
A not-so-knowledgeable RoHo
Contact Kiara Harding at kiluha ‘at’ stanford.edu.