As a substitute of the everyday hurried scramble to class through the college 12 months, Chavi Coy ’26 walked via a quiet Principal Quad in mid-July, having fun with the peaceable heat of summer time.
It’s a special tempo of life, Coy stated.
Whereas most college students packed as much as depart campus in June, a couple of thousand stayed behind to dwell on campus over the summer time. College students reported experiencing a special, calmer model of Stanford than in different quarters.
Housing choices through the summer time can vary from a couple of flooring in EVGR on the extra handy east aspect of campus, to Lagunita Court docket on the extra distant west aspect of campus.
Coy, who went from dwelling on east campus through the college 12 months to west campus through the summer time, stated, “It’s simply fascinating to be in two totally different geographical places and see what goes on.”
For a lot of college students, the value of housing performs a major position within the strategy of deciding the place to remain over the summer time.
College students are in a position to dwell on campus for an eight-week or 10-week interval. With solely a handful of obtainable choices on campus for Stanford and non-Stanford college students, housing charges can get expensive, starting from $3,142 for the eight-week time period to $4,024 for the 10-week time period. Along with the housing value, college students must pay home dues, expertise charges and meal plans.
Stanford offers a number of summer time packages for underclassmen, highschool college students and school college students who don’t attend Stanford, together with the Stanford Institutes of Drugs Summer time Analysis Program (SIMR) and Summer time Undergraduate Analysis Fellowship (SURF). Stanford additionally hosts packages for incoming first technology and/or low-income (FLI) frosh, together with the Leland Students Program and Stanford Summer time Engineering Academy.
Many first- and second-year college students stated these packages had been a driving consider deciding to dwell on campus.
Between 300 and 500 highschool college students dwell on campus through the summer time for Stanford’s Summer time Session programs.
“It’s somewhat bizarre … it’s type of just like the spring when all the excursions had been taking place,” Hunter Prinz ’26 stated, referring to the highschool college students who dwell on campus.
As a rising sophomore, this was Coy’s first summer time on campus. She stated that she discovered the campus setting similar to the educational college 12 months.
“I believe most individuals who keep for the summer time are underclassmen, usually as a result of numerous occasions folks will keep right here to do analysis,” Coy stated. “I additionally know that there are additionally numerous actually cool packages that you are able to do over the summer time with Stanford, particularly if you’re a primary technology low-income pupil,” Coy stated.
Coy selected to remain on campus and work as a summer time resident assistant (RA) in Governor’s Nook (GovCo). Each dorm that homes any inhabitants of scholars — together with highschool college students, Stanford college students and non-Stanford college students — requires RAs.
She stated that whereas Stanford college students taking lessons through the summer time or in undergraduate packages are restricted to residences like West Lag and EVGR, summer time RAs and workers of the College are required to dwell of their designated residence corridor rooms all through the job. These halls is perhaps unavailable for different Stanford college students through the summer time however occupied by highschool college students or non-Stanford associates.
Many college students agreed that there’s an phantasm of a full campus through the summer time, although the scholar inhabitants is restricted.
“Comparatively, there are much less folks … There are additionally so many conferences and different issues simply happening on a regular basis,” Prinz stated. “So, we undoubtedly have a full campus, however I’d say it’s undoubtedly a a lot smaller ambiance.”
Though the overall ambiance on campus through the summer time is much like tutorial quarters, college students stated that the eating expertise varies tremendously from the college 12 months. Some, like Coy, have their very own kitchens of their dorms, whereas others depend on eating halls for each meal.
All undergraduate college students are really helpful to have a meal plan through the summer time, however these dwelling in Mirrielees aren’t required to have one.
“In case you dwell in EVGR and don’t have a meal plan, they take the range out … so that you both must be on a meal plan or purchase your individual meals,” Coy stated.
Some college students opted for off-campus housing as a result of they needed to be near household.
“I made a decision to dwell [at home] this 12 months as a result of on-campus housing would have been somewhat expensive for me,” stated Soliman Aniss ’24, who lives within the East Bay along with his household.
All through his time at Stanford, Aniss — who’s a FLI pupil — stated that he by no means lived on campus through the summer time as a result of he noticed the break as the proper alternative to spend time with household.
College students may select to search out residences near campus and within the Bay Space, however these are sometimes unaffordable. Zip codes like Palo Alto and Atherton are extraordinarily costly; the median house worth in Atherton is over $6 million, whereas the median hire is about $7,400 a month.
“Even with monetary assist, not all of it’s coated, and so it simply didn’t make a lot sense for me, as a FLI pupil, to attempt to make it work,” Aniss stated.