Advising
Advising is available to students through student, staff and faculty roles.
Peer Advisors
Primarily advise prospective majors and serve as a resource for initial questions about major course planning, departmental policies, and the declaration process. Prospective students must meet with a peer advisor prior to meeting with the Student Services Officer.
Student Services Officer
Advises both current majors and students in the process of declaring to ensure that students' initial plans, revisions, and change requests will satisfy all requirements for the program. The Student Services Officer also collaborates with each student to create and maintain a curriculum plan that captures the student's area of interest and provides an understanding of STS conceptual and intellectual frameworks.
Student Services Officer Office Hours
Associate Director
Reviews and approves the curriculum plans of all STS majors. Cohesiveness, intellectual coherence, strong technical sequences, strong analytical coursework, and engagement with STS analytical frameworks are all considered during this review. All petitions must be approved by the Associate Director.
Associate Director Office Hours
Faculty Advisor
Acts as an intellectual mentor to students in a way similar to pre-major advisors. Our diverse pool of faculty advisors belong to various departments. Meetings between faculty advisors and advisees typically involve "big picture" conversations about students' academic interests, goals, challenges, and possible research opportunities. This allows students to have the opportunity to build rapport with a faculty member beyond the classroom. Students should be proactive in reaching out to their assigned advisor, and should be responsive to advisors' communications. We encourage students to meet with their advisor at least twice each year. The more you meet with them, the more rewarding your relationship will be.
Writing Resources for STS Majors
Excellent communication is valuable in any field. At Stanford, the bulk of one’s academic work culminates in written or spoken communication. As an interdisciplinary program, STS sees intellectual cross-pollination as a key source of learning, creativity, and innovation. We teach engineers to speak with policymakers and code designers to confer with ethicists. Strong writing skills help students to connect different areas of study in productive and innovative projects without losing coherence, specificity, or depth.