Admit Weekend opens Thursday for Stanford’s Class of 2021

Admit Weekend offers prospective freshmen a glimpse of life on the Farm, with academic and social activities designed to showcase the university's breadth and depth.

Stanford will welcome 2,800 prospective first-year students, parents and guests for Admit Weekend 2017, which opens Thursday morning with tours of the arts district, the Science and Engineering Quad, Stanford Stadium, Bing Concert Hall and the campus itself.

Previous Admit Weekend scene

Prospective freshmen will learn about the Stanford community during Admit Weekend 2017, which begins Thursday. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

Nearly 1,278 admitted students are expected to attend the three-day event.

The event continues Thursday afternoon with an official welcome from Provost Persis Drell, Harry J. Elam Jr., vice provost for undergraduate education, and Richard H. Shaw, dean of admission and financial aid. In addition, a panel of undergraduates will share their intellectual journeys on the Farm.

The April 27-29 event ends Saturday with a closing presentation by Adam Klein, ’13, who last year won Survivor, the reality television show. Since then, he has raised more than $400,000 for lung cancer research and awareness and has donated $100,000 to the cause from his $1 million Survivor winnings. Currently, Klein is a senior manager at LifeMoves, a local nonprofit organization that provides interim housing and services to enable individuals and families to return to stable housing and self-sufficiency.

Admit Weekend is designed to encourage prospective freshmen to explore Stanford’s academic, residential, athletic and social scenes by offering them a wide variety of activities and programs that showcase the university’s breadth and depth.

Many of the admitted students will share dorm rooms with current students so they can experience Stanford’s residential life firsthand.

Student community centers, residence halls and departments will host open houses. Students and staff at the Haas Center for Public Service will host an open house. So will career educators at BEAM (Bridging Education, Ambition, & Meaningful Work).

Sweet Hall – the heart of undergraduate education on campus – will welcome visitors who want to learn about its many programs, including Bing Overseas Studies, Introductory Seminars, Thinking Matters, the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, and Undergraduate Advising and Research. The Financial Aid Office will also offer three sessions led by Karen Cooper, the director of financial aid.

Admit Weekend also features “A Conversation with President Marc Tessier-Lavigne” and a picnic with admission officers.

Panels of students will talk about studying overseas, LGBTQ life on the Farm, and the experience of first-generation college students at Stanford. Student panels will also discuss opportunities available to women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and the research they are conducting at the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute. Visitors are also invited to hear a panel of students, professors, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists involved in Stanford’s Technology Ventures Programs and BASES (Stanford’s largest student entrepreneurship organization) talk about the entrepreneurial spirit at the university.

Stanford offered admission to 2,050 students for the Class of 2021.

Admitted students have until May 1 to accept the university’s offer.

The university has created a website for the Class of 2021, Stanford Admitted Students.

Admitted students can get a taste of life in the classroom by attending Academic Expos – seminars taught by faculty members– including:

  • The Economic Case for Caring about Climate Change
  • Jews, Russian Literature, Illegal Migration and the Evil Eye
  • Conservation Photography: Putting Images to Work for Nature
  • Inside Out: Visualizing Chemical Transformation and Light-Matter Interactions with Nanometer-Scale Resolution

The program also features a two-hour symposium highlighting the research and creative projects of current undergraduates.

Admitted students can explore social life on campus through a variety of special events, including an a cappella concert, “Casino Cardinale,” and a Dance Expo. Admit Weekend also coincides with the opening of the photography exhibit, Blood in the Sand: Lives Lost in the Fight for South Africa’s Rhinos, produced by Kinjal Vasavada, a senior majoring in human biology.

Admit Weekend includes several events designed for parents or guardians, including tours of residence and dining halls, an alcohol education panel, and a breakfast. Parents or guardians are invited to join members of the Parents’ Club of Stanford University for a mixer on Thursday evening. On Friday afternoon, Stanford administrators and parents or guardians of current students will host a “coffee-table talk” on how students can make the most of their Stanford experience.