The message echoes throughout our culture: Go West.

It's idea that we can capture the spirit of progress by packing our bags and journeying far away from home. Scientists have done it. Artists have done it. Entrepreneurs and entertainers have done it. The admissions officers in Old Union are telling you to do it. You're not sure want to. Here's an account of what you might find when you get there.

Stanford University is located in Palo Alto, Calif., 30 minutes from the Pacific Ocean. San Francisco is a 30-minute drive north and San Jose, the unofficial capital of the Silicon Valley, is a half-hour south. Think about it: Stanford is right in the thick of things.

Despite being a short drive (for visitors and recruiters alike) away from major offices of companies such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, Stanford students live on a traditional college campus. The university's most important building are inside the Campus Drive loop, the majority of classes are taught behind the arches of the main quadrangle and the newly constructed science and engineering quad, and most undergraduates live in the vast array of dorms and houses on campus.

Living conditions vary from cookie-cutter dorm rooms to suites in converted mini-mansions. Where you live depends on the luck of the "Draw," a housing-assignment event that happens each spring.

Students spend most of their time on campus, where the bicycle is the dominant form of transportation. In sprawling, suburban California, getting off-campus practically requires a car since public transportation is somewhat limited. Although it is possible to get along without a car, those without one (that's you, first-years) will be left stranded on a campus that many jokingly refer to as "the Bubble."

Living off-campus--in anything larger than a closet--is not a popular option. You would need the salary of a CEO to live in surrounding Santa Clara County, the most expensive to place to live in the country. Yes, it costs more than Manhattan.

For the city types out there with an admissions letter in hand, you will begin starving for the buzz of downtown in no time. If you live for the thrill of the Metro or T, stay on the East Coast.

Otherwise, trips to San Francisco to see "Miss Saigon" happen two or three times per 10-week quarter. Opportunities to visit Yosemite or Lake Tahoe happen just as often. Day trips to Monterey Bay, local shopping malls and other area attractions are extremely common, but again, you'll need a car or to know someone who has one. For those not so lucky, Palo Alto offers little more than upscale cafes and restaurants to take your date to before a semi-formal or swing party.

Still, being stranded on "the Farm" may not be as bad as it sounds. Most students would agree that campus life at Stanford is simply amazing. You will have incredible opportunities to meet students, staff and faculty, alike. Dorms regularly schedule dinners with faculty members; dorm patriotism (complete with dorm battle cries and chants) is a way of life.

In the more independently minded houses, happy hours and barbecues abound. And when you need a little bump and grind, a small-but-lively Greek system throws all-campus parties nearly every weekend.

As for our love lives, busy Stanford students really don't go on dates in the traditional sense of the word. People tend to hang out in groups, which sometimes leads to romance. Someone once commented that "having a significant other is like a five-until class." Evidently, he didn't get out much.

But when the parties are over, Stanford students settle down to work hard. For those who rely on lulls in the curriculum to handle their work, the quarter system at Stanford will be difficult to handle. It's a running joke that professors originally from Harvard and Yale--both run on semester systems--try to cram everything into the quarter anyway.

This may mean that you'll have less time to participate in extracurricular activities, or it may mean--as is the case with most Stanford first-years--that you'll just have to clean up your act. Unfortunately, one of the diagnostic signs of a Stanford students is that we're overloaded and over-committed.

It's widely known that many of Stanford's departments, both in the science and engineering fields as well as the social sciences, are second to none. Faculty, past and present, include Linus Pauling, Richard Zare, Robert Sapolsky, Eric Roberts, Steven Chu, John Taylor, Richard Zimbardo, Condoleeza Rice. If you know anything about their respective fields, you'll know who we're talking about.