Big Choice!!!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>OKAY, I was recently accepted to Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and Stanford and I have a very small amount of time to choose. I have almost narrowed it down to Princeton and Harvard, but I still have Stanford and Yale.</p>

<p>Please help me choose</p>

<p>Biology Major with interest in English Composition, Economics, and Chinese.</p>

<p>Looking for:</p>

<p>Strength in Majors
Great undergrad experience
Not-too-hard competition
Amazing profs
Cool classmates
Campus/City "fit"
Good social life
Overall convenience and comfort
Hate to admit it...but prestige</p>

2

<p>princeton has arguably the best economics program and its freshmen mandatory writing seminar shows its dedication to english, which it is also very strong. princeton loves foreign language and the freshman writing seminar and foreign language are the only required classes.</p>

<p>I would argue that Princeton has the best undergrad experience, its amazing location and pristine natural setting makes it a paradise to live in, only stanford's beauty can rival. princeton is more laid-back than yale and harvard, and princeton is known to be more down-to-earth than the stereotypical harvard/yale student. since princeton's main focus is undergraduate, undergraduates have more attention and have more opportunities than harvard/yale/stanford where graduate students take away many of those opportunities. also, princeton is significantly smaller than these other institutions. princeton isnt tiny like a LAC but its not large like harvard, i find it the perfect size with 1200 entering undergrads each year.</p>

<p>princeton is more difficult than harvard/yale, less grad inflation, but from my relatives and friends, the competition is not serious, everyone helps each other out and friends are always there to rely on to have help with various assignments/classes. </p>

<p>princeton does not have the same problem as these other institutions where there are rarely graduate students instructing classes. since the graduate school is rather small, professors do the majority of the teaching in most classes, also princeton has the smallest faculty/student ratio out of all of them</p>

<p>princeton's campus is known for beauty. not right in an urban setting, princeton has the luxury of being surrounded by the beautiful natural scenes of the garden state, and princeton's location truly is gorgeous. its location directly between philly and nyc (45 minutes-1 hour from each city) is really ideal and perfect for weekend trips/internship opportunities and other stuff.</p>

<p>i would say princeton and stanford on ur list would have the best social life. princeton has so many activities on campus every day and also the residential colleges take trips to NYC to see shows and even yankee games every month. there are parties but if u arent into the alcohol scene, there are other activities on campus to keep u busy =P</p>

<p>i would say they are all very prestigious, but usually HYP have a slight higher prestige than stanford, i would say harvard has the edge in prestige however</p>

3

<p>Isn't Princeton's reply date today? Or is it tomorrow?</p>

<p>Search for the bajillions of posts on this forum relating to P vs. S, P vs. H, P vs. Y (they've all been beaten to death, haha). Good luck with your decision! Hopefully you'll end up becoming a part of the tiger pack!</p>

4

<p>Hey sinbad,</p>

<p>Princeton's bio major is really strong, especially if you're interested in molecular biology, because it is home to the Lewis-Sigler Institute. President Tilghman was a famous genomic biologist herself and has really been pushing to make princeton's biology program incredibly strong. For economics, P is unbeatable. Two P professors, I think, have occupied the chief economic advisor position for president bush, among many other distinctions (nobel, etc.)</p>

<p>Princeton is basically known for being geared toward undergraduates, and it usually turns up on national "happiest students" lists, plus, from what I hear, the students know how to have a good time. The one thing that I think is unparalleled, though, is the fact that at Princeton the students aren't taught by TAs, but rather directly by its world-renowned faculty, because Princeton is first and foremost an undergraduate institution. The first line says it all:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/main/about/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princeton.edu/main/about/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>(oh, as for prestige, while harvard might impress a random person on the street more, people "in the know" know that princeton undergrad is where it's at: <a href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/01/10/news/11773.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/01/10/news/11773.shtml&lt;/a> )</p>

5

<p>HARVARD HARVARD HARVARD!!!!!!!!</p>

<p>Just saying that b/c my sister and 2 of my next door neighbors attend The Big H atm.</p>

6

<p>You've got an awesome choice there. You really can't go wrong. Personally, I'd choose by location. Do you want a city campus or a suburban one? Stay close to home or go far away? These are pretty important. Mol bio is awesome at all those places. Parties are definitely better at Princeton and Yale than at Harvard. And yes, Princeton will be harder than the rest now with the grade inflation policy, though that shouldn't be your deciding factor. In any case, you can roll a die, and then choose. Hopefully you'll choose Princeton. =) Good luck with your decision.</p>

7

<p>I talked with all my friends and family. I've almost decided on Harvard, but I'm still not sure...</p>

8

<p>My sister goes to Harvard. </p>

<p>She just called my parents to say she wants to transfer out. </p>

<p>--David--
Princeton '09</p>

9

<p>Why ? I'd really like to know.</p>

10

<p>yea, same, I know 2 family friends who have gone, and 1 family friend who will be going (was accepted to Harvard and...Cornell/Columbia out of the ivies - location made his choice). The older H alum was neutral-pleased with his experience. He's quite the science freak and mentioned liking the courses. That said, he didn't make it to a hot grad school, for whatever that bit of info is worth.
The other friend had a miserable 4 years and talked a lot about wishing he'd gone somewhere else. Reasons cited:
- overly stressful/academic focus.
- professors told him to his face (tho he was pulling pretty good grades) that they preferred to support only the very top students with research/recs/connections, everyone else was quite literally not worth their time.
- student body didn't seem tight-knit. Friends/groups you hung out with were always from your ECs etc, there was no unity or camaraderie beyond that.</p>

<p>To be painfully honest, I didn't feel like my H interviewers were enthusiastic either (I had two). The only time the more enthusiastic one seemed to talk about her undergrad with any real passion was when she was talking about the H-Y rivalry, which is fine - sporting rivalries are always fun : ) - but it wasn't personally a compelling reason for me to go. </p>

<p>That said, my interviewers and all the alums I know seem very down-to-earth and mostly sociable, really quite a far cry from the H stereotype of being uppity/arrogant.</p>

11

<p>
[quote]
professors told him to his face (tho he was pulling pretty good grades) that they preferred to support only the very top students with research/recs/connections, everyone else was quite literally not worth their time.

[/quote]
I think it's perfectly fine if the professors decide to support only the top students, in terms of aptitude and achievement, but the thing about connections really bothers me.</p>

12

<p>suburbian - </p>

<p>well, if you're fine with profs only giving resources/attention to the best (of the best at H) students, then according to my friend anyway, then you'd thrive at H fine. </p>

<p>Also keep in mind that he's the only one who was willing to elaborate about what he didn't like at H so it's only one person's opinion. If you've enrolled already, I wouldn't sweat it -- you've found tons of more positive things about H to counterbalance it + you'll have a great time.</p>

13

<p>mightychip, considering you posted "My sister is a freshman at Harvard and she seems to be happy!" on the Harvard waitlisted thread, could you elaborate on what happened that made her change her mind in a month? or on any of her impressions/opinions, for that matter...</p>

14

<p>Hello everyone. I would just like to share a little story about my sister, who is a freshman at Harvard, and her Oxford facebook friend.</p>

<p>Sister: I go to Harvard. I just wanted to facebook someone from Oxford.
Oxford Guy: Harvard, eh? That's cool.
Sister: I love Harvard, but I've heard so many things about how amazing Oxford is.
Oxford Guy: Harvard is good. But when Harvard was simply a little farm in some far off colony in America, Oxford was already a wordly University.</p>

<p>Ha ha. Just thought I'd share this Oxford arrogance. I laughed for so long when my sister told me about it."</p>

<hr>

<p>And post by "mighty chip" on April 27:</p>

<p>"I dont know about Harvard, but I was waitlisted at Yale and spoke to an admissions officer. 1000 people last year were waitlisted and 8 were taken off the waitlist and offered admission. I got into my preference though: Princeton!</p>

<p>Good luck for everyone on the waitlist! My sister is a freshman at Harvard and she seems to be happy!"</p>

15

<p>I don't know, but the description you give for your ideal college seems to match more or less with Stanford's profile.</p>

16

<p>Thought this Op post was odd, so I found this:</p>

<p>sinbad
Junior Member
*
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: LA County
Posts: 54 </p>

<p>Are you guys planning on taking the SAT in June. </p>

<p>I am and I'm a bit apprehensive as I am a freshman and I have NO IDEA WHAT TO STUDY. It seems from this post that most prep books dont really prep you...</p>

17

<p>Very odd posts indeed, I don;t mean to be mean, but why do this? I know, I wasted my time, but I have a pretty good memory and this stuff was easy to find: Posts by Sinbad </p>

<p>04-08-2005, 05:17 PM * #1
sinbad
Junior Member
*
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: LA County
Posts: 54 </p>

<h2>When Should I take Math IIC </h2>

<p>Should I take MathIIC after Alg2/Trig or after pre-calc?</p>

<p>04-08-2005, 02:27 PM * #1
sinbad
Junior Member
*
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: LA County
Posts: 54 </p>

<h2>Accepted into HYPS, HELP!!!! </h2>

<p>Lets hypothetically say that I was accepted into Harvard, Princeton, Yale, AND Stanford for major in biology/pre-med. What would you choose and why?</p>

<p>P.S. The reason I'm doing this is to narrow down colleges for my first-choice</p>

<p>04-08-2005, 01:52 PM * #1
sinbad
Junior Member
*
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: LA County
Posts: 54 </p>

<h2>Scholarship Contests </h2>

<p>Should I put scholarships down on my applications next year? I'm talking about competitive essay contests and research contests that are technically scholarship contests but are extremely competitive.</p>

<p>A common example is Siemens Westinghouse.</p>

18

<p>Oh wait. i just realized the OP is a troll. I delete everything i just said. Screw you.</p>

19

<p>no one says princeton > boston but.... nyc > boston, philly > boston, nyc + philly >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> boston. complete boston ownage. boston is nice, but it aint that nice. its definitely a very overrated city. nyc is where its at</p>

20

<p>maybe. But who is going to constantly take the 1-1.5 hr trainride? Boston is a walk across the river, not to mention Boston has like 40 other universities around.</p>

<p>btw. the op is one sad kid. good luck with college admissions, cause if i was an officer and i ran into your application and you came off as you do in this forum, id throw you application out.</p>