Hi All. I’m in the middle of making this decision. I’m interested in the social sciences. Would choosing Emory Scholars outweigh Stanford?
@msmithcollege: Not necessarily. They are both going to be really solid in this arena, but if Emory is actually much cheaper (I don’t know what type of aid you got from Stanford), maybe choose it unless you like Stanford so much better that you think it is worth paying for. I don’t know if it will make too much of a difference. I would imagine that as a scholar, you have much easier access to opportunities than would a normal student at a selective institution would have because the opps. are built into the program as opposed to you having to compete against others for the opps. without the help or structure of the liaison (the scholars program). One thing I would not do is pay crap tons of money for Stanford if I was a social sciences major. I would really only even consider it if I knew I wanted to do something STEM related as Stanford is simply a better place to be if you’re into STEM, but for social science…both have great programs and will provide you opps to put what you learn into action, but the program will give you nice little leg up in this and give you access to a community of students to begin with (as opposed to coming in dry not knowing anyone like you). Plus there are cool things like the Voluntary core and whatnot. However, if you cannot resist the allure of Stanford and are willing to pay for it (and trust me, doing social sciences there will really offer no advantage over another well-endowed selective institution, especially when you come in as part of a special program), so be it. We cannot make this decision for you.
But honestly, I am surprised I am saying anything considering the fact that many will just follow the prestige if they can afford it. I would of course also weigh whether or not you could actually envision yourself being satisfied with your decision versus whether or not you will develop a bitter attitude and think: “I could have went to Stanford” if something doesn’t go perfectly (as if that can’t happen at Stanford, but people tend to assume that Stanford level schools are perfect…so something must be wrong with them if it isn’t all roses during their tenure there). Some people have a positive attitude about these things and intend to seek the best out of wherever they choose (in other words they see that the other option is excellent as well and do not attempt to tier the excellence), whereas some already come in with the attitude of “I’m only here because it offered me more money”. If you are the latter, maybe just pony up the money and go to Stanford.