Stanford is known for its renowned programs in many tech-related fields, such as computer science. But is there a culture divide between those who pursue STEM careers vs. those who choose non-STEM careers?
Part 1 is here
Transcription
Princess
It is like a colloquial term here that if you do STEM and you’re a techie, and if you’re a humanities person, you’re fuzzy. And they say that if you’re an interdisciplinary person who does both, like if you major in symbolic systems, for example, then you’re considered like a funky
Kamila
let’s get on to like actual Stanford college experience and such. So you’re coming in saying, you got in, obviously, actually, tell me your reaction. How was your reaction when you got into Stanford,
Princess
I cried. I, I told myself I was not gonna open my my admissions at school. And I was like, I’m gonna wait till I get home. And I looked at the clock, and I was like, Screw it. I’m gonna open them right now. And I and I opened them. And I had gotten in, and I, it was like, in the middle of my chemistry class. And we were doing a lab actually. So I was totally slacking off to look at my admissions decision. And there you go.
Kamila
You just started crying in chemistry class. Yeah,
Princess
I was in a nice box, because people were busy. And I, I told like one person, I didn’t tell anybody else. The one person that I was sitting at the table with and then during Classic period, I like extra cried, you’re gonna, I’m saying?
Kamila
I mean, you mean, that’s, it’s a huge accomplishment. It’s amazing getting into the schools. So now we are on college experience. So before we get into your own personal experience, can you just give us a, I guess you could say quick rundown of Stanford as a college or as a university. And I’ll give you some examples. So like, you know, some schools have like a school of medicine, a School of Engineering School of Music and such. And then, you know, some, for example, Yale, they have this really cool system with their dorms, their residential areas, and how they structure it. So can you just give us like a quick overview of Stanford as a university? What do they do with the different majors? How do How are the dorms set up? And what a Stanford offer?
Princess
Yes, of course. So Stanford is a liberal arts institution, undergrad population is around 7200 isn’t too big. Um, and but we have like a huge campus. Like, I always joke that Stanford is like a country club, it feels a little bit like High School Musical too. And, and oftentimes, like, people will, like the the problem is like, you sit inside too much as a college student, like you sit at your desk, and you spend entire days sitting at your desk. But I think here at Stanford, like the bigger issue is like wanting to go outside and spending the entire day outside and sort of doing your schoolwork. And that was something that I liked a lot. It’s something that I still like, and honestly find pretty true. The weather here is amazing. I would say that, no matter where you go across campus, you will always find something amazing, like something something really wonderful something to explore something that is well known. And I say that because you know how it you can think of like certain colleges and you’re like, oh, this college is known for their law program, or like this college is known for like having an amazing pre med program. At Stanford, 40% of our undergraduates are computer science majors and 90% of the undergraduate population takes the intro to CS class. But I would say like literally, like every single department here is really powerful. And that’s something that I really like
Kamila
40% of computer science majors,
Princess
like computer science. Wow, you’re the heart was on Valley like through and through
Kamila
40% It’s incredible. I mean, I can understand why Stanford obviously says, you know, California Silicon Valley, as you said, Okay, so now it’s like, we’ve gotten like the logistics of Stanford out of the way how its structured. So let’s get into your actual experience. Another thing I want to talk about is, I think it’s just completely unfair. The college process, especially for first generation, low income, because you don’t have the resources to do well in high school. I mean, you had quest purchase stuff, but a lot of people don’t know, they have the stuff they don’t have access. And it’s really unfair, because even for like the high school students, that kid does go to a competitive high school. College is a completely different universe. It’s much harder, and I can only imagine how much harder it is for people who weren’t thoroughly prepared. So can you tell us about your experience coming into Stanford like your own personal struggle struggles with the transition from high school to college, or university?
Princess
Before is my transition was pretty rough. I am not gonna lie. Um, I honestly feel like I have just barely gotten over the hump of my transition. Which means that I’m like, I now feel like I have the room to grow. But that is that is true, like what you were saying about how college is a lot harder than people make it out to be. Um, I think for me, like the biggest thing is coming to a predominantly white institution. In a dominantly extremely wealthy institution, like like Stanford boasts the fact that it is produced the the most number of billionaires in the entire world. And I’m like, I’m not sure that that’s something to really be proud of. So, so, so coming to college and living in like a fresh dorm. So when as a freshman, you get to say that you either want to live in all freshmen dorm, or you can live in like an epic themed house, or a combination of different classes in one dorm. And I got placed into a freshman dorm over here we called freshmen frosh, so I’ll just say that, and in being in my first dorm isn’t the first time that I had gone to school with people who are wealthy, like, like, dead ass, like people who raised more than 75,000 income bracket above that, um, the first time that I had gone to people with I had gone to school with white people. The first time that I was surrounded by like, by I would say, like, just the established like privilege. And I think that it’s really interesting to think about my position here on campus as someone who has been able to, to like really gain access to these type of opportunities, and who is highly committed to sharing it with my community, because I know that that isn’t like the same standard for the entire institution. And it becomes clear and like, a couple specific ways, um, for me, honestly, like, I will be completely frank and saying that, like, I feel like I’m hyper aware of class differences. And that is, like one of the biggest things at Stanford. And so my transition was just like rough like, I, there’s this thing called the Stanford duck syndrome. Have you heard of that before?
Kamila
Like, I watched this YouTuber. She goes to Stanford, and she’s thrown a lot at me it sounds familiar, but I can’t remember exactly what that means.
Princess
Well, YouTuber, was it.
Kamila
Her? I don’t know her whole name, but the channel is Kath path. Oh, yeah. You know,
Princess
I don’t know cat path, but I knew that like this and stuff like that. Um, but yeah, Stanford duck syndrome is real in in basically the idea of it is like, you know, how you see like a duck coasting on the water, it looks like it’s like, going smoothly, right? Just like minding his business. But underneath, it’s paddling, super hard to stay afloat. That at Stanford is like, the, it’s like the realest thing ever an imposter syndrome. Like in comparing yourself to your peers to, to the environment that you’re in, I would say that we definitely are a school that is more collaborative than competitive, which means that you don’t have to fight to like get into a certain major or to do well in a task. And you don’t have to buy it to like, find a community who was there supportive, and it’s like, makes you feel secure. But the biggest competition is with yourself. Because there are so many high achieving people here. And because we live in such a passive, fast paced environment where a lot of things are based on, on honestly, like, on who you know, and like, how well you do in something and your meritocracy. And it feels hard to, it feels hard to move beyond when you don’t feel confident, you know, like it’s, it feels really hard to make a friction and to make a difference. With so much is already happening.
Kamila
And I have another question. And this is not just exclusive to Stanford, this is, I think, yeah, my question is centered around top schools in general, the one you go to Stanford, so the college admissions process is honestly pretty random, you can be the most competitive applicant be an incredible person, and you still may get rejected from top schools, it’s really just, it depends on so many things. And sometimes it’s just completely random. And I know that everyone who goes to Stanford, you know, God, and so everyone knows they’re like, worthy of being here. But are there some people who just like, in a top school in general just boast about their accomplishments? Like, oh, you know, at the age of 16, I had this, you know, that I did this or like, at the age of 17, I had already accomplished this. So coming in, was anybody like that? No boasting about their accomplishments trying to because Stanford, obviously, you have some of the most amazing people, but then do you ever see like competition to see who’s the best of the quote unquote, best?
Princess
Um, I know that people that that exist, but I will say that I am fortunate to not be friends with anyone like that, or to, to have had experiences like that. Um, I honestly, like I just stick to the phi community. Like, we all know each other. There’s maybe 100 of US per class. And literally, like, we all know about each other. Um, and so I find that pretty cool. There was this one time when this was actually my like, very first conversation having some or my very first time having a conversation like this, but there was this one time last quarter in the beginning of my sophomore year where I met a freshman. And the first thing that he said to me was that he has experience in venture capital. And I was like, it’s nice to meet you, too. And I bet I mean, I bet there are people like that across the entire campus. But I wouldn’t say that it is like very dominant.
Kamila
Okay. And let’s get on to the thing. Stanford is known for computer science 40%, you said of people major in computer science? Again, you said you were interested in STEM. But exactly, how did you come upon computer science as a major?
Princess
Oh, so I have always had, I’ve always been really interested in computers. They’re, they’re like, my favorite thing. And technology is a very exciting thing. For me, I feel like what I was saying earlier about how it feels like social justice, and being a part of the tech industry, like completely clash, I think that that is like something that we have to really reframe, and like, rethink, you know, and, and just like understanding that, like, justice work is like a part of literally, like every industry, like every decade, every group of people like something that has to everybody has to be involved in. And so when I think about like the tech industry, and when I think about the Silicon Valley, it is very different from my home, and from what I know, but I get excited, because I’m like, this is the future. And with the rapid innovation of technology, you know, like, now we have AI and we have like algorithms, some that are more powerful, and beyond our understanding, like we can even control them anymore. But I think that like, at the beginning of such a powerful tech era, if we can hone in on these concepts, and like really restructure what the tech industry is and what it could be like we can we can, we can create, like a very good and very, like justice centered world.
Kamila
And is that kind of why you got into computer science? Or perhaps did you kind of arrive at computer science after trying out different sort of engineering or tech related majors?
Princess
Yeah, exactly. So that’s, I think that’s, I honestly, like went directly to CS. I didn’t go to college when I was in high school. And, um, I, I wanted to I came to Stanford wanting to do like aerospace, but it proved for me. And I just really liked my computer, like my computers, my best friend, honestly. And it felt kind of natural to declare see us, I do think that I’ll be switching my major pretty soon into our interdisciplinary CS major, which is called symbolic systems. And symbolic systems is a combination of four different majors. So it’s CS, philosophy, psychology, and linguistics. And I think that is honestly just like, perfect. Like, I think that sounds exactly like we were just talking about about, like, combining justice and tech.
Kamila
That’s amazing. It was a completely different things, you know, opposite sides of the spectrum. And, again, with that channel, Kath path, she, you know, you know, she does blogged and then she does like what her college application was about. But then she also talks about Stanford as well. And as a, as a school. So one of the things she was saying, I think she’s also gonna know, I think she’s a political science major, but she did dabble with computer science. And she was saying how in Stanford, it is known for its computer science and other you know, tech programs as well. But she was saying how there’s a clear divide between people who major or do something related to in the STEM field, versus others who were perhaps in like the humanities, and I think she used the term fuzzy for like, human fuzzy for humanity says, can you get deeper into that? Can you explain what that means? Yeah,
Princess
sure. So that’s, it is like a colloquial term here that if you do STEM and you’re a techie, and if you’re a humanities person, you’re fuzzy. And they say that if you’re an interdisciplinary person who does both like if you major in symbolic systems, for example, then you’re considered like a Bucky.
Princess
So I consider myself like a Bucky, have I like never hear anyone ever talking about that, though, to be honest. Oh,
Kamila
I’m not gonna say that word on here. But okay. That’s an interesting term. Okay. Now back more to your college experience and such. I want to talk about first semester because that’s the I would say so far for the people I’ve interviewed. They say it’s probably one of the hardest semesters and transition wise. And I want to specifically go into like academics wise, rigor wise, the difference between high school and college and I’ve said this a lot but because I am in high school, and I’m living through it in high school, you can be a salon. You can just, you know, kind of have facet and get by fine get your a get your beat. But in college I’ve heard from numerous people is completely differently. You just, I mean, maybe there are some things you can BS your way through, but some most things you really can’t. So can you describe the transition there like What makes high school academics in rigor, different from college? Like, what’s, what specifically is the difference there? And what makes it harder?
Princess
Yes, I’m so sure about BS thing, I feel like something. Something that’s always said is like, you know, work smarter, not harder. I think that’s true in college too. Especially during like, COVID-19, I think it I will, I will say that you really learn to, you really learn how significant your emotions are, and actually how significant your well being is. I think that if you, it is, it is pretty difficult here, academically, but if you were to go to a professor, my favorite thing is like everybody goes by their first name, so you can hit a professor column, their first name and be like, Hey, I’m feeling like super unwell. And you’re like, please do I hope you understand, like, may have received some academic accommodations, and they’ll do it, whether we’re independent, like or not. And I think that that is like amazing. Because at the end of the day, like it’s all about, you know, it really is about like mastering the content and mastering the skills not necessarily like grinding and grinding and grinding, and then like forgetting it and go to sleep. I would say like, the biggest differences is that it feels like your resources in high school are a lot more hands on, you know, so you can, you can like raise your hand, ask your professor, or you can ask your teacher something, or you can stay after class to talk to your teacher. And it’s the same here, but there are just so many more people. And people are like pressed for time. And that means that in a lot of classes, and a lot of departments, when you go to a lecture it is you’re expected to come into the class like having your questions ready and expected to know the content. So you have to do a lot of preparation beforehand. Lecture is lecture. So you go off, you learn something, and there’s no time to really like review. Even if you’re confused on lecture, then you’re going to stay confused for the entire lecture until you have time to sit down at your desk and like look through your notes. And to attend office hours, office hours are huge. And we have like, we also have like a great tutoring service in different departments level to be confused in college. Like if you’re in class, like if you think you’re stuck at this class like that is because everybody else thinks that they suck.
Kamila
So in Stanford, what kind of flexibility do they give you in the classes that you can do? So you are? Of course, you’re going to have a specific major, but do they give you flexibility to do other things? or pursue other things? Or are you kind of more stuck to major, and then your internships and everything revolves around that?
Princess
Um, yes, totally. And I was actually just gonna mention that, at Stanford, like we don’t have, we’re not expected to declare a major coming in. And we don’t have to declare a major until the end of our sophomore year. Literally declaring a major takes three minutes. Like, you hop on a zoom with somebody or you visit someone’s office, I was like, hey, I want to declare a CS, for example. And they’re like, cool, you’re on the list easy. And it is just as easy to switch your major to explore different areas to take classes that you want. And that’s why I would highly recommend coming to somewhere like Stanford or like a liberal arts institution, where you don’t have any expectations around what you study, the only expectation is like meeting your major requirements, obviously. So you have to be smart and like when you declare and what classes you take, but beyond that, you have complete academic freedom. Here we only have, we have, we have like requirements. But no one really cares about the requirements. I mean, you have to get them done. But you get them done like naturally, because every class that feels like some sort of requirement, you only have three general education courses. So you have to take one that is called college, it was formerly known as Thinking Matters. It’s basically a philosophy course. So so every person is required to take a philosophy course, a one intro to writing course, and then an intro to Oral Communications course. And those are the only three requirements that we have. My I think, like one of the biggest pieces of advice that I would give and I have received is to always take something that you’re interested in. So even though you you may have to meet certain requirements per quarter, because, you know, certain classes are only offered during certain quarters, like it’s a really good idea to do something that excites you, because when you have the room, it you know, it keeps your intellectual vitality, it keeps you motivated during the school year. Things like that.
Kamila
And another thing I want to go over is because I think most people I’ve interviewed and just most colleges and universities in general, I think they go off of a semester based school year, but I know Stanford goes off a quarter quarter system. I think Northwestern does, too. So can you quickly explain what the quarter system is in case for people who don’t know because I think the most common type is semester so you just have two semesters in a year.
Princess
quarter system. Yeah, so we have three quarters. Technically we have four but we have three academic quarters which are the fall the winter in the spring. Um, that means that we start school very late. Typically it’s around like September 20, when we start the fall quarter, and then we end spring quarter, mid June. And our quarter system is means that we have 10 weeks per quarter, typically a semester system is like 13 to 16 weeks or something like that. And with a quarter system, it’s very fast paced. So, so that’s why that’s why I think like, academics are extra hard just because you have to fit in so much in 10 weeks. And in a lot of classes, it’s like you have to be, if you are behind on like one or two days of content, like it’s really easy to kind of have it snowball you, but you get behind it like several weeks. So you really do have to be like on top of your game, you have to you have to be performing well in order to just like stay on top of your classes. And the quarter system is rough, but I prefer it about the semester system.
Kamila
And you do have your like exam at the end, there’s no midterm is just one vague exam at the end.
Princess
So we have the entire quarter system is honestly considered midterm season. I have one class where I have five midterms. And so that means I have a midterm every two weeks. Um, and that is pretty hard. And this quarter specifically, like I’m taking, I’m taking three big classes or like three classes that have midterms, and they’re all like spread out. So in one class I have one every two weeks and another I have 123 weeks and then the other one only has a two but that means I have a midterm every single week.
Kamila
Sounds awful. And like it’s you don’t have I know in college, this is just a general thing for college. You don’t have extra like, I guess you could call homework participation points, your like whole grade is riding on these exam scores.
Princess
Oh, Malaysian, we have we have like, maybe like 25% of your score will be homework. So one week. And then 10% is attendance and then like 65%, nine exams or something
Kamila
like that. Okay, okay, that sounds pretty even pretty even. Okay, one last thing I want to discuss before we kind of wrap up here is we got to talk about like Silicon Valley and Stanford, you know, and internship wise. So can you tell me about the kind of the connection Stanford has with me Silicon Valley’s right there. So of course, I’m sure a lot of people in turn all the big tech companies. So can you tell me like do is that typical, like have a Stanford student to get an internship at one of these huge companies? I don’t know, like Google’s over there. Some other high tech, maybe Ubers? Over there as well. So is it common for like a Stanford student to get an internship there do big tech companies look specifically for Stanford students?
Princess
Yes, I would say Stanford is like the heart of this look on Valley literally, it was born out of Stanford. So the Silicon Valley is like it is structured outside of Stanford and honestly, is just an extension of like, the the network that we have. Of course that has is it has its negative ramifications. You know, like in this area, gentrification is extremely high. Like, class disparities are also extremely high. That means that the communities that are located directly outside of the Silicon Valley have a very different experience than the ones who were in Hulu. I grew up in Palo Alto in Mountain View. But yeah, it is, it is true that most people will get an internship or something like that. I like big companies. I think Stanford is one of maybe three or four schools that companies actively recruit from. So throughout the entire year, we’ll have different career fairs. Like I know that week three of the fall quarter, this is kind of hard for freshmen, because freshmen like don’t know what they’re doing when they come in. Week three, the whole quarter like there is this tradition, where we have a massive career fair, and the entire school walks around with like resumes, and you can talk to anybody one on one and just hand your resume in. And a lot of times people will get recruited from them. And so, you know, we’re one of the only schools that like tech companies recruit phone just because we are like the center of it all.
Kamila
That’s amazing. So you just like you, they just set up a huge fair, like Google’s in their place. Uber’s like over there and you just walk around, you’re like, Hey, nice to meet you. Please give me an internship. Just
Princess
we have going on one side we have like, and then we have some that happened in the winter quarter. It we also have other ones that are kind of like a Google startup there. We have like this thing called the Haas Center, Haas Center for Public Service and that one is more dedicated to like government and politics and public service related things. But we have like we basically we just have a lot of programs that have been placed so that you always have something to do and that you always have the resources to do it. Which means that if you want an internship but they’re not going to give you money then the school can give you a stipend. If you apply for one or the you can apply for a grant or something like that.
Kamila
That’s incredible. And are you expecting to I know COVID has, you know, mixed everything up and people? It’s, it’s kind of difficult to get internships like know where to start. But do you plan? If we do end up going back, which is I guess this fall coming fall? Do you plan to, like, get internships at one of these big tech companies?
Princess
I don’t know. I do think about that often. So I actually had, I worked at a startup for 15 months, from my fall quarter of my freshman year up until the beginning of my winter quarter sophomore year, so I quit the job like a month ago. And it is called street Code Academy. It’s based in East Palo Alto. And we provide like free we provide free STEM education and STEM resources. Basically, the idea is like mindset skills and access to the under underserved and Upper Rez represented communities who are impacted by the development of the Silicon Valley. And so and so, you know, like, amazing work like that comes out of comes out of things like this, too. I think it is a very interesting relationship. And I honestly don’t know if I want to go into the tech industry like that. But I’m only a sophomore. So I’m exploring. And I really
Kamila
are about social justice work. Vertical. Okay. So, princess, we’re coming to an end here. And there’s something I do with everybody, which is advice. So one piece of advice for current high school students. And, again, this could be about anything, whether to do like really good on college applications, what college application tips you would give, or just generic life advice in general for high schoolers. And then another is for college students. And I guess this is more aimed at college students who are perhaps, you know, freshmen, maybe sophomores who are really confused because college is a different universe. It’s completely different, no matter your academic or smartness level. So what advice would you give for high school students? And what would you give first college students who are maybe struggling or don’t know their place.
Princess
So to everybody dream big, um, seriously, like, if you come in with a bigger picture, maybe you have to meet little milestones along the way, and all the steps are necessary, but it just be solid in what you want, and what you know, that you can achieve. Like, never forget your worth. I think a lot of times when you’re going into college, or even when you’re when you’re going into a more academically competitive environment, whether you are a high school or college student, it’s easy to feel imposter syndrome in both the work that you produce, and you perform but also in yourself. So just be rooted in yourself rooted in who you are, be rooted in what in what you love, above anything, like don’t lose, just don’t lose sight. Um, I would say, when it comes to the college application process, when you are like writing your essays and going through the entire thing, don’t consider what the admissions officers want to see, but more who you are. Because at the end of the day, like if you are true to yourself and your essays, you feel confident in the work that you’re submitting. The school is gonna accept you as a person rather than as somebody else who belongs in like the institution. You know, I’m saying because we make up the school, the school doesn’t make us we make it up.
Kamila
That’s very true there. And what about for college students coming in?
Princess
Take it easy on yourself, please, dear God. Like seriously, take it easy on yourself. Don’t Don’t fret about how much time you have. Don’t fret about how many resources you have, or how how have all do different failures, I think it’s really good to admit failure or to really learn for them. To to other first generation and low income students in particular, I know that it feels like every single opportunity loss is like the world loss, but just remind yourself that like they’re gonna keep coming. And that as long as you as long as you continue striving and continue working, of course, taking necessary breaks here and there, like I’m taking a lead next quarter just because I really don’t think I can do school anymore. If if you put yourself first, then everything else will fall into place. I have a friend remind me recently that joy is like the best revolution. The joy is the only true revolution. So if we ever really want to change the world, whether that’s you working at some big tech company, or you being in local government or anything like that, like it’s always it’s always your content and just before anything.
Kamila
Very good advice there. Thank you very much for coming today. And for you, it’d be afternoon so have a good rest of your day
Princess
for us, thank you so much.
Kamila
Marilla Thank you have a good one. Bye. Bye bye. That’s it for part two of my interview slash the last part of my interview with Princess if you have not checked out part one make sure to do that. Also, make sure to subscribe because next week I’ll be releasing an interview with my first train for students from community college to Boston University, you do not want to miss that. And also, if you don’t know make sure to check out my blog, a college kid.com For more college related content. Well, other than that, I hope to see you in the next one.