Brief advice for Stanford freshmen

This advice is certainly biased! It’s the things I’m glad I did, or the things I didn’t do that I wish I did. This advice is aimed at highly energetic, ambitious people who aren’t yet sure what they want to do other than that they want to maximize their impact on the world.

In fall quarter, take a super light class load, and just hang out with people in your dorm and elsewhere.
In winter quarter, be aggressive about finding the other students that you admire most — and then make sure you live with them in sophomore year.

Be intentional in choosing who you spend time with, and who you feel like you’re competing with.

If you learn best from classes, take a major that allows you to learn and be most engaged. Don’t think about what a company will hire you for. It’s better to go all in on the bet that you can become excellent than to hedge and go down the path of getting a ‘good’ job. Boring.

If you learn best from books, take an easy major and spend your time reading.

Google for class reviews and take good classes. Take lots of introsems.

Probably put off getting into a relationship until sophomore year — freshman year is a good time for wide exploration (not in a partner sense, but in a general sense), and that can be somewhat easier before getting into a relationship, because great relationships are very enjoyable to invest *so* much time into that you will have less time for other exploration.

Meet people outside Stanford, and be semi aggressive about finding a few upperclassmen you admire and meeting them and becoming friends. Take upper level classes as a freshman — this can help with this. e.g. d.school classes and GSB classes (some let in freshman — the trick is impressing in a 1:1 level the TAs/selection people, long before they are making the selections — like a quarter before).

If you’re at Stanford, Cal, or Brown, email anon1@alumni.stanford.edu — I’ll happily connect you with other great students. I can also answer further short specific non-easily Googleable questions over email. Please include some data points that make it easy for me to see your ambition / smarts / curiosity / thoughtfulness at a quick glance.