Hello my lovely brohemians!
First off, thanks to all the lovely and talented people putting this blog together! I leap at any excuse to blab about myself, and all the admins and writers have put together a quality site so far! [Virtual high-five!]
But anywho, onto selfish me time!
I am Andrew, from the caffeinated hipster's paradise that is Seattle, WA. But, unlike hipsters, I have genuine passions for things (including disliking hipsters, which in a way kind of makes me hipster I guess…? (Hipster-ception?(Parenthetical-ception!)))
(#toomanyparentheticals (#irony))
…
…Sorry about that. ANYWAY! I am a bonafide geek. I love me some sci-fi, be it in book, tv, movie, comic book, or video game. Doctor Who is my favorite show, which I think says a lot about me (specifically my ability to stick with a show even when it gets terrible….Looking at you Russel T. Davies!) I watch TV obsessively and geek out over movies, loving to process the finer points of pop culture. I also consider myself a creative type, doing quite a lot of theater and writing during high school. I acted in a bazillion plays, and even got around to writing one, so theater is a passion well-practiced.
As you may not have been able to tell by my inability to write with anything remotely resembling formal style and proclivity to make up words (brohemians?) I absolutely love to write, both just on my own and on another blog. I write plays, short stories, reviews, essays, and whatever strikes my fancy.
Additionally (because you didn't think I'd let you go that easy, did you?) I am a music FANATIC. I play (at last count) eight different instruments. I write, play, record, produce, listen to, review, an obsess over music. I play in two bands and make my own music.
….Blahblahblah I'm sure this is boring as hell to most of you. You don't want to know about ME, you want to know about Stanford! SO, how about this change of pace: Why Stanford?
Well, for me it was three-fold:
3) The Academics. Let's face it, Stanford is a good school. It has great faculty, great facilities, endowments, and is certainly a school to get a good education. However, this was less of a deciding factor for me, because my other schools were pretty much on par academically (as most schools are.) There isn't as much of a jump in quality from school to school as people make it out to be. It's certainly a factor, but as a friend of mine says "Chemistry isn't going to change if you study it at Harvard or UW."
2) The Quarter System. I LOVE the quarter system because I'm a nut who wants to study everything. Having an extra quarter to take extra classes is EXTREMELY attractive to me. I want to double major (or at the very least major, minor, and take a bunch of electives) and the flexibility that the quarter system provides is great for that! Plus, it makes me feel better about my possible Film And Media Studies Major if I can also take useful classes like Comp Sci or Economics.
1) The geekiness. This is probably the end-all and the be-all. The Big Daddy and the Little Sister. The….third thing and it's compliment? Anyway, Stanford is a geeky school. No way to argue that. And this particular zeitgeist was captured perfectly for me when I visited campus and went with my dad to the Stanford/UW game. I care ZERO about sports, and adore music, so I was excited to see the band play. And when they came out playing "All Right Now" in Star Wars outfits, I knew this was a school where I would feel right at home. This was a school where I could put my Doctor Who posters on my wall and be appreciated. This was a school where I could invite people over for Settlers Of Catan marathons. This was a geeky, nerdy, school, and that was the kind of school that I want.
After all, in my application where it asks for five words to describe yourself, I chose:
"Nerdy Kid Loves Loud Guitars."
There's a reason that Nerdy was the first word I chose, and it's the same reason that Stanford was the school I chose. Nerdiness is a part of me and a part of Stanford, making me a part of Stanford too.
-Andrew W.
I'm a current student and came across this blog, and TBH, I think you'll fit right in at Stanford. :) Funnily enough, I know someone at Stanford who is a) a major sci-fi geek who loves Doctor Who, and b) is a major theater geek who performed in lots of plays in high school. When the new season of Doctor Who was coming out, a few friends of mine were actually having a countdown party, during which they had a marathon of their favorite episodes that they voted on, etc. You'll be in good company. :)
ReplyDeleteRegarding academics: it's true that the material is the same no matter where you go; it's not as though chemistry or whatever changes by school. But Stanford, and similarly selective schools, do raise the bar on you: by having more capable peers, you are forced to a higher standard. Professors create more difficult curricula to challenge students, and expect you to master more material at a faster pace (the quarter system does this too). They tend to have a higher standard of productivity: more papers, more projects, more creativity. There's also a greater emphasis on presentation and communication, which is possible only with smaller classes.
And of course, above all, Stanford's professors are all total ballers. No matter what the subject is, you know that your profs will be among the most renowned in their field. A friend of mine, who goes to a UC, was going on at length one day about how one of her profs was a renowned scholar, which just floored her; it made me appreciate that much more my profs at Stanford, where every single one of my classes was led by that kind of big-deal scholar. It's true even of assistant profs: you can rest assured that if Stanford hired them, they're a rising star in their field, if not already a star.
Welcome to the Farm! :)