Hi, is there any reason to attend Yale over Harvard/Stanford/MIT? Harvard is obviously the most famous and respected university in the world. Stanford has a lower acceptance rate than Harvard and has been beating Harvard in a few areas. MIT probably has the best techie cred. So if you can choose between these schools and Yale then is there any reason to choose Yale?
No.
Yes, there are lots of reasons. See post #4: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/1483765-choosing-yale-over-stanford-and-harvard-p1.html
I think it depends on what you want to major in. We have visited all four schools. My impression of Harvard is that there may be a lot of focus on it’s world famous graduate programs that detract from the undergraduate side. Perhaps that’s unfair or a misperception on my part but that is what I felt. Stanford and MIT are about Silicon Valley and the sciences. If you are a history major, you would be better served going to Yale
@hypsm123, I hope that if you are lucky enough to get in to some of these schools that you will make your final decision based on more substantial and mature reasons than those listed in the OP. You seem amazingly immature and superficial. I hope there is more to you than that, or you really don’t belong at any of those schools, regardless of your accomplishments or how smart you may be.
All 4 of the schools you listed are world class. Which one anyone should pick is a matter of personality and fit. There are dozens of reasons why any one of them could be preferable to the others for any given individual.
I think it’s a hypothetical dilemma that’s not worth a lot of thought until acceptances come in. The vast majority of applicants won’t be accepted to any one of these schools, much less all four, notwithstanding a few silly (in my view) news stories each year about a student admitted to all eight Ivies plus Stanford and MIT.
For example, only around 10% of Stanford admits are also admitted to Harvard, and that’s of the 5% who get into Stanford so that’s 0.5% of Stanford applicants. I don’t know what the percentage would be adding Yale and MIT but certainly very low.
Partly this is due to self-selection - some who are admitted in the early round to one don’t even apply anywhere else - and partly because each school has its own holistic admissions process.
@hypsm123: If you are lucky enough to be accepted to Harvard, you should realize that many famous professors there received their BA or BS degree from other colleges – and they have enormous respect and fondness for their undergraduate school, including Yale. For example:
Drew Faust, Harvard College President, graduated from Bryn Mawr
Rakesh Khurana, Harvard College Dean, graduated from Cornell
Michael Sandell, Harvard Professor, graduated from Brandeis
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard Professor, graduated from Yale
If you are lucky enough to be accepted to HYP and S, I would hope you would choose the school with the best fit, rather than which school has the lowest acceptance rate.
I think the OP is a lost cause:
I personally doubt these issues will be relevant in his case.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
As noted above, the question is moot until such time as acceptances roll in. When/if OP has multiple acceptances, asking the question is valid. Until such time, I see no reason to keep this thread open. Closing.