This week, The Daily asked students to share their plans for Halloween. From pumpkin-carving to papers on Plato, here’s what Stanford has on the agenda for the spookiest night of the year.

Valery Liang ’30 — Possessed by the ghost of struggling student spirits past and … Steve Jobs? 

I can taste it — the candy, the crowds, the chaos, the campus clamor swirling around Halloweekend. As a frosh, my excitement for the holiday brims and practically dances. However, I can also taste the midterm paper where I must mime a deep fascination with Plato’s “Republic” for 1,000 words. I can taste my second Math 51 midterm, scalding and startlingly close. Academic anxiety notwithstanding, I have faith that Stanford’s Halloween spirit will blast away my scholarly struggles. Also, my friends want to hit the annual block party held in Steve Jobs’ former Palo Alto neighborhood! Hopefully, some fun outside of campus will help me forget this midterm misery.

Sanya Gupta — Ph.D. candidate | Halloween is the one night of the year…

To put a spin on a quote from “Mean Girls” (2004), “In the real world, Halloween is when children dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In Ph.D. world, Halloween is the one night a year when a grad student can party like they aren’t decades behind on their research and their advisor can’t say anything about it.” This Halloween, I will carve pumpkins with my friends, strike up conversations with strangers at Rains, shoot a promo video with my dance group (shoutout Breaking Ground) and think about everything but fluid dynamics all weekend.

Miley Weiner ’30 — Dressing up and studying

This year I am excited to dress up (maybe as Snow White?) and experience my first Halloween at Stanford. Between the costumes, themed club meetings and events across campus, I just know that Halloween weekend is going to be a blast! Even better, I am thrilled to celebrate on the actual holiday, rather than the weekend before or after. However, with research papers and class readings piling up, I also know that my weekend will involve some serious studying, drafting and revising. As long as I have time for a Halloween movie though — maybe “Halloweentown” (1998) — I won’t be complaining!

Amy Zhang ’30 — Trick-or-treating on White Plaza, virtually pumpkin-carving, catching up on homework

Back home in Hangzhou, China, we don’t celebrate Halloween, so my impression of it comes entirely from American TV shows and movies. Am I now past the age of trick-or-treating? Probably. But hey, life is all about the experience. In addition to on-campus festivities, I plan to carve pumpkins over the phone with my best friend in Canada, while we will probably be haunted by looming assignment deadlines.

Vivien Jiaqian Zhu 朱嘉倩, visiting scholar | Haunted by deadlines

Halloween is that special holiday where being surrounded by ghosts is supposed to be fun — though, as a graduate researcher, I already spend plenty of time haunted by unfinished drafts, unread books and deadlines that seem to materialize out of nowhere. I’ll probably spend at least part of Halloween catching up on research and writing, with the occasional break to enjoy the spooky season. My ideal Halloween would involve a clever costume, good company and absolutely no footnotes. Realistically, the footnotes might win.