William's Summer School at Stanford

Why did you decide to go on a summer school? : For me, the decision to go to a summer school was closely linked to its destination. I am German and American but apart from vacation I have never actually lived in the US. Next to several other options, I am therefore thinking about pursuing my master’s degree there. However, as education in the States is considerably more expensive than in Europe, I saw the Stanford Summer Session as a great opportunity to get a small taste of what living and studying in the US is like beforehand.

Tell us about the other people in the Summer School with you: About 170 students from 27 different universities in 17 countries around the world came together, making the International Honors Program (IHP) truly international. Among these were 8 students from École Polytechnique (5 from the Cycle d'Ingénieur and 3 from the Bachelor Program - including myself).

How did your integration in the program go?: Both the arrival to campus as well as the integration into the student life were very well organized. In the first two weeks, activities such as game nights, playing Ultimate and many more, organized by other Stanford students, helped us to get to know each other faster.

What other activities did you participate in?: Apart from the activities organized for integration, the summer session organized trips to Alcatraz, an aquarium, the movie theater, sport events and even to Yosemite. They were free of charge, but it was hard to join since spots were limited. There were also many presentations and panel discussions offered. At one of these, I happened to meet an alumni from École Polytechnique. Independent of academics, we started organizing our own trips and activities. These also included trips to Lake Tahoe and Los Angeles over the weekends.

A few words about the classes?: As opposed to École Polytechnique, the tuition fee at Stanford depends on the number of units you take. Over the summer, most students took about 8 - 10 units, so about 2 courses.
I enrolled in a course on Artificial Intelligence (5 hours class / week) and Technology Entrepreneurship (4 hours class / week). Especially the latter offered me many opportunities, some of which I still hope to benefit from in many years. A major part of this course was centered on our own ideas for a start-up, ideas several teams (including ours) are trying to pursue even after leaving the summer school. I also participated in the Silicon Valley Innovation Academy (SVIA) which complemented the Technology Entrepreneurship course very well.
The concept of the seven-week program was to challenge four-person teams of high school and college participants to “imagine the impossible” using a mix of long-range thinking, critical analysis, and curiosity.

How was the campus life?: Life on campus turned out to be a very interesting experience since it was fundamentally different from the campus at Polytechnique - from food over sport activities to dormitories. It was nice to live on a campus that offered a large variety of vegetarian and vegan food. On the other hand, with the campus being so much bigger, I felt like it was a bit harder to try out new sports, even if the facilities were easily accessible.

Surprisingly the dormitories were quite different as well. While they offered larger common spaces for students to meet, play table-tennis or work, everyone had a roommate which clearly had its advantages and disadvantages.

What was your favorite memory?: There was very little which could come close to meeting the co-founder of Tesla, Marc Tarpenning, in person. One of our professors knew him and was able to arrange a talk with him for a small group of students. Listening to him about the first challenges and successes at Tesla was incredibly inspiring. He was even able to provide us with some valuable feedback for our own startup idea.

What was your least favorite memory?: Even though most homework assignments were fun (such as coding an autonomous Pacman) - working on one of them until 6 a.m. and still not being finished was a little bit frustrating.

Did you face any challenges?:  The greatest challenge I faced was before even leaving for the summer school. Stanford has very strict requirements for health insurance and finding a European insurance that fulfilled all of these requirements was difficult. But the effort was worth it - the insurance that Stanford offers to students for two months can be more than ten times more expensive.

Any cultural fun fact about the USA?: It's not quite a cultural fact, however I was still very surprised to find this out. Even though the Apple headquarters are only 22 km away from the campus and nearly every single computer at Stanford is an iMac, there was not a single store on campus (and very few in Palo Alto) where I was able to use Apple Pay - not even the authorized Apple campus store in the bookstore accepted it.

What did this experience bring you?: Attending the summer session was an invaluable experience - one I will not forget anytime soon. It not only gave me the opportunity to meet amazing and incredibly talented people, many of which I now consider to be friends. The summer quarter also allowed me to explore new topics and environments, notably entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley - something I would not have been able to explore to the same extent elsewhere.

As to my original objective, I have come closer to knowing which path I want to pursue after completing my Bachelor's degree at École Polytechnique. Learning about the differences between the American and the European education system has helped me considerably in this regard.

Most importantly though, the summer session has shown me the importance of seizing opportunities, especially applying to the IHP. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take!

Anything to add?: I would like to thank École Polytechnique for providing this opportunity to us and for their support.