My one piece of advice for new students? Know this: Most students I’ve talked to go through imposter syndrome when they get to Stanford.
It’s this feeling that you don’t belong or you were somehow admitted by mistake. It’s very common. Folks should know that the university doesn’t make mistakes in admitting people. They’ve been doing this for a very long time. You belong here. When I got here, I failed my first two exams. I was certain that I wasn’t going to succeed. I wish I would have recognized earlier that there are just bumps along the way and that’s normal.
I’m trying to share wisdom like this with younger students through a mentoring group called EDGE – Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education.
Related spotlights
Thomas Colburn
PhD candidate
Materials Science and Engineering
I was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. We were surrounded by nature, so my siblings and friends and I spent a lot of time exploring the wilderness and getting lost in the woods.
Read Thomas Colburn's story
Kayla Patterson
MS ’24
Computer Science
I was born and raised in Robbinsville, a small town in central New Jersey.
Read Kayla Patterson's story
Adrienne Propp
PhD candidate
Institute for Computational & Mathematical Engineering
I never planned to become a mathematician. I liked math growing up because it made sense to me – plug this number into this equation here, and you’ll get an output that follows some predictable logic.
Read Adrienne Propp's story