A disorganized list of great classes at Stanford
Reviews of some of the best courses at Stanford.
Class advice
not sure what to take? look at your general requirements, and see if there are any classes that look interesting that fill a requirement that you’d have to do at one point or another.
if not, then just take a class where you think you might meet interesting people.
Class recommendations
These recommendations below don’t apply universally, but if the description seems interesting to you, then you should definitely take them. These recommendations basically mean, if you like the sound of this class, consider this my stamp of approval that you will enjoy the class.
About me: I like classes that are easy, enjoyable, and provide real value. All of the below classes fit those criteria.
- Designing Your Stanford, ME 104S
- Any GSB classes with Jennifer Aaker (yes, it is possible to take GSB classes as an undergrad. tip: the TAs are the ones who decide who gets in)
- Peer counseling, EDUC 193A — useful skill for life, not just counseling
- One d.school class (perhaps no more than one, the benefits drop off steeply past the first class, but the first class will be great)
- ME 410A, Foresight and innovation
- MS&E 178 (take it during a quarter with good ETL speakers). Fun class if you participate in the discussions.
- ORALCOMM 117 or ENGR 103 (I took the former, both are great though)
- Sport electives — fun, meet people
- MS&E 180 (I thoroughly enjoyed this class. I took it with Kathleen Eisenhardt)
A list of Favorite classes of a few people I know
Person 1
THINK 37 Rigorous and Precise Thinking, taught by Ravi Vakil and Ruth Starkman. It was one of the first Education as Self-Fashioning classes offered at Stanford and introduced us to formal logical reasoning while showing us the beauty of math. We connected concepts across disciplines spanning philosophy, music, arts and math. I wanted to mention this class even though it’s for freshmen since it was probably the most influential class I took here.
STRAMGT 110Q Making Sense of Strategy, taught by David Demarest, the Vice President for Public Affairs at Stanford and a lecturer in the GSB. This class consisted of a case study every week, sometimes involving role playing. The topics ranged from mountain rescue, product crisis in a famous company and failed military missions.
Person 2
Any history class with James Campbell. I rarely take humanities classes, but I think it is important to broaden the scope of your education outside what is required of the GERs. James Campbell gives interesting lectures and is a good storyteller, which is why I recommend him specifically.
Person 3
PS214R (Condoleezza Rice’s class) — taking a class with a former Sec of State is incredible because she’s sat in the driver’s seat of US policy. Preference to seniors and grad students, but apply as a junior. Applications required.
Phil 80 (Lawlor or Taylor) — Philosophy 80 (Mind, Matter, Meaning) taught by Krista Lawlor (Fall) and Kenneth Taylor (Spring), covers issues such as Consciousness, free will, determinism, and dualism. I took it with professor Lawlor, who is among the best professors I have had at Stanford. Krista speaks clearly, unpacks material well, and deeply cares about her students’ understanding. I recommend it for anybody who wants a class to inform their approach to life beyond Stanford.
GSB GEN 315 (Schramm) — JD teaches how to public speak, make slide decks, and how to write handouts.
Any Class with Scott McKeon — Econ 102a, 102b, 137
MS&E 93Q (Hecker) — Sophomore seminar on nuclear energy and weapons taught by head of Los Alamos lab.
Person 4
MS&E 111 — Optimization taught by Michael Padilla. Great teacher because he really wants to make sure that you understand the material. The class itself is a great way to think about any problem and how to solve it.
Person 5
Music 8A: Rock Sex and Rebellion
Person 6
CS106A — Programming Methodology — Introductory computer science class here at Stanford. Enough said.
Sports Business Management (GSB) — Really interesting class at the GSB where I was exposed to the case method of teaching, but also got to balance my interests and academia. Also a really cool chance to meet big shots in the world of sports.
Person 7
CS 106A — Everyone should at least be familiar with programming in today’s world
Person 8
Slavic 145: The Age of Experimentation — Professor barely speaks English, but the books are just amazing and he has some pretty amazing explanations for all of them. Focuses on the different stages Russian literature went through when transferring from a poetry-based society to a prosaic one.
Econ 137: Decision Modeling and Information — Scott McKeon is the best professor in the Econ department without a doubt. Ridiculously smart and easy to talk to! Lecture is extremely enjoyable and you learn a great deal. He basically tries to map decision making to individual utility functions… Would not be surprised if his method started to get used in Consulting and asset management in the not so far future.
Soc 114: Economic Sociology — Mark Granovetter is well-known in the field. Class goes through many studies regarding how society and individuals have an effect on economic decisions and vice-versa. Handy knowledge that explains a lot about corporate culture.
Econ 143: Finance and Society — Anat Admati is a GSB professor, world famous in finance discussions. Read her book Bankers’ New Clothes. The concepts explained in the class are pretty straight forward, but she is worth getting to know, and the speakers she brings to class are unbelievable.
Person 9
CS183B (all lectures available online)
Person 10
ARTHIST 1B: Taught by Professor Nemerov, this is the most engaging class I’ve taken at Stanford. Every class ends with applause if that indicates anything to you. It’s only taught in the fall unfortunately but if you have the opportunity to take a different class taught by Nemerov I recommend it. His approach to art history is unique, and my personal value of art has grown immensely throughout the quarter.
Main advice for freshmen
CS: Do CS 107 in Winter fall quarter.
Take as many intro seminars as possible. Some of these classes are awesome. I did three but should have done more.
Advice on getting accepted to introsems
Email the professor a few weeks before applications, and ask to chat with them. Read up on them, and show your interest in person, and you should be set.
CS 106B vs CS 106X
Take CS106B, not CS106X.
Take CS106B fall quarter — avoid taking CS106X. [Note from KR: I find that it’s not that easy to find ambitious people in X because it’s very hard to distinguish between people who are interested in starting things vs. really really good programmers who want to go to industry, and the lecture format really isn’t a good way to find people esp. when there are so many people. X just adds an extra assignment that can be very time consuming and in my opinion doesn’t really offer much value, it takes away time that can be spent elsewhere. It’s counterintuitive for someone who has a lot of experience to take B vs. X but I think it’s probably the best thing long term. Another thing I’ll mention about 106b vs 106x is that a lot of people I’ve met who have experience building and shipping things (apps websites) are in 106b, so 106x isn’t going to be separating these people like I initially thought — 3h more wrk w negligible reward.]
More favorite classes from people I asked
ENGR 40M, An intro to making
We got to do really cool projects (such as a 4x4x4 LED cube) and learn Arduino programming!
ENGR 103, Public speaking
Really well taught, very hands on, learn how to speak and present like a pro.
PHIL 80, Mind, Matter & Meaning
Krista Lawlor made the already interesting course material fun.
CS 221, AI
Covered wide variety of cool material.
TAPS 103, Beginning Improvisation
it was very fun and it taught me how to be more spontaneous/think about situations differently.
MATH 171, Analysis
beautiful
CS 244B, Distributed Systems
Fascinating theory + very practical too. Project was open-ended and a ton of fun
HISTORY 98, History of Modern China
Engaging lecturer!
PHIL 171, Justice
Really cool if you like political philosophy.
CS 143, Compilers
Beautiful material, great instruction.
POLISCI 114S, International Security in a Changing World
It really introduces us to all aspects of international security, from nuclear weapons to bioterrorism. It also analyzes on a macro and micro scale the interactions of countries.
EE 364A, Convex Optimization
Stephen Boyd is an amazingly entertaining lecturer and convex optimization is applicable to a wide variety of different domains.
CS 140, Operating Systems
More than any other single class, this class made me a better engineer. It was one of the harder classes I took at Stanford. Also, John Ousterhout is the boss.
CS 107, Computer Organization and Systems
As much as I didn’t appreciate the lectures for this class, I felt that this class taught me the most valuable things that I have learned so far at Stanford. It taught me how to figure things out when I don’t know what to do. After CS 106A and B, I didn’t feel like I would be able to go and code anything real from start to finish, but after 107, I know I can.
CS 246, Mining Massive Datasets
Great teaching and really useful material
EE 263, Intro to Linear Dynamical Systems
boyd. also, cs majors need to get their crap together and truly understand linear algebra and the powerful things you can do with it
CS 98SI, Visual Web Design
It taught me a ton about visual design and communication as they apply to Web Development. Very cool and laid back introduction to design
HISTORY 147, History of South Africa
Professor Campbell is the best! I’ve never been that captivated for a 90 minute lecture. The class changed the way I think about the world.
CS 42/CS 99SI, Callback Me Maybe
Project-based learning, live coding sessions
CS 124, NLP
Excellent class
CS 229, Machine Learning
Cool
CS 274, Representations and Algorithms for Computational Molecular Biology
Good mix of theory and applications of bioinformatics algorithms. Dr. Altman is a dynamic lecturer and makes the class accessible to people who aren’t experts in genetics, chemistry and biology. Note: assignments did take a lot of time and there wasn’t much guidance.
HISTORY 1B, History from the 1300s to 1800s
Amazing professor and rigorous course that teaches you historical thinking
More notes on a few classes
CS 1C, Introduction to computing at Stanford
1 unit
- Super fucking easy, just a good chance to hang out with people from my dorm.
- Our RCC made it especially easy, which was nice.
CS 1U, Practical unix
1 unit
- Great lab. Absolutely worth taking.
CS 106B, Programming abstractions
5 units
Jerry Cain
- Jerry is fucking awesome. This class is great.
- If you’re a freshman and have any amount of programming experience or even just high confidence, I strongly recommend doing CS106B rather than CS106A.
MS&E 472
1 unit
- Not really worth enrolling in. Just look at the speaker list (etl.stanford.edu) and go to the ones that seem most interesting.
- Perhaps useful as a way to meet other interesting freshmen.
PSYCH 1
5 units
James Gross
- Thoroughly entertaining. Only downside is that it doesn’t really count towards much.
- Suggestion: Plan out your WAYS (or whatever the current requirement system is) requirements and see if you can make PSYCH 1 count.
- If you’re good at memorizing and taking tests, this class can be really damn easy. (Also true of other psych classes, like social psych, or intro to developmental psychology)
View more classes in this spreadsheet I compiled back in ~2013
Additions and updates
Added May 2016
Check out https://carta.stanford.edu/ (thanks to DG for the rec)
Added Mar 2016
Autumn: ME 208: Patent Law and Strategy for Innovators and Entrepreneurs (MS&E 278)
prof was an angel investor in cruise, which was acquired by gm for $1bn
history 40/140: world history of science (winter quarter)
have heard it’s awesome. includes highly recommended book guns, germs and steel as one of the books
(Same as HISTORY 140. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 140.) The earliest developments in science, the prehistoric roots of technology, the scientific revolution, and global voyaging. Theories of human origins and the oldest known tools and symbols. Achievements of the Mayans, Aztecs, and native N. Americans. Science and medicine in ancient Greece, Egypt, China, Africa, and India. Science in medieval and Renaissance Europe and the Islamic world including changing cosmologies and natural histories. Theories of scientific growth and decay; how science engages other factors such as material culture and religions.
Added Feb 2016
cee 146a is very easy (~1hr work/week) and you can petition to take it as one of the engineering requirements for any eng degree incl cs (it used to be on the list of approved engineering classes, but no longer)
HISTORY 40: World History of Science is apparently a very entertaining science class, the description looks pretty great, might count for some general requirements
Added Jan 2016
bioe 80 is apparently an awesome way to get an engineering fundamentals requirement out of the way. they talk about the future of bioengineering, apparently super easy. all reviews on stanfordrank.com are bad bc they refer to old version of the course, it’s been updated
Me 297 forecasting sounds interesting
See also
Dec 2025: I also compiled this new list of great classes here.