Not sure how being near good hospitals has any bearing on comp sci degree… And for “pre-med” undergrad, hospital prestige would still play a minor role . Internships can be obtained at most major med center with similar results.
^^ Yes, I’m wondering about the rationale there, as well: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/9/26/the-real-premed-requirements/?page=single
I don’t find Stanford or Yale to be “chillaxed” at all. People at all three schools are the kind of strivers who work their butts off even without anyone/anything pushing them, and people at all three have fun with friends and blow off steam. There may be different ways of expressing it, but there are overwhelmingly type A personalities in this echelon.
@JustOneDad curious as to what you mean by the “new yale”??
They are working very hard to put more emphasis on "modern’ preparation like Computer Science and scientific research, particularly in the biological sciences. I also got the sense they were expanding engineering. Students who go there are the beneficiaries of all this opportunity.
Apart from computer science, that sounds very much like the “old” Yale. Yale has been expanding its engineering program constantly for a generation, since bringing it back from near-death, and as far as I know it has always placed emphasis on scientific research, particularly in the biological sciences. My biology professor more than 35 years ago was a Nobelist, and half the people I knew in my college were involved in some sort of biological or medical research. My freshman suite was decorated in three-dimensional models of organic molecules.
@JHS I know West Campus was created after you were there, but have you seen it? It’s quite impressive. Made me want to go back to school. 
And, I have to say that the biomedical sciences students who lead our tours were very impressive as well.
Depends who you are majoring in, to some degree - computer science? Then no brainer - Stanford. But overall, go to the school you feel most comfortable in.
There’s a weird idea around Yale that somehow because it’s so strong in things like literary studies, theater, music, and history, it has to be bad in STEM. That simply isn’t true, and never has been (although both Yale and Harvard can be accused of dropping the ball on engineering in the second half of the last century). It isn’t the across-the-board powerhouse Stanford is, certainly, and it’s math program is not as strong in as many fields as Harvard’s or Princeton’s, but in general, and especially in the life sciences, it has always been a great place to learn, and it attracts great students. Lots of people I knew there as a student are MDs or MD/PhDs. Some of them are “just” practicing physicians, but two of my former roommates are (or were, until recently) the chairs of major departments at world-class academic hospitals. Another classmate and friend is a professor at MIT. (I’m not cherry-picking; these are just people whom I happened to know without having any real involvement in science there.)
I haven’t seen the West Campus other than in pictures; it looks like a nice suburban office park. Meh. Every major university has been building STEM facilities like crazy over the past decade. Stanford has built so much in the past 15 years that many areas of the campus are almost unrecognizable. (If you like the Yale West Campus, you would looooove Stanford.)
I’m not sure it would be a no-brainer to choose Stanford over Harvard for CS. For one thing, most students change their minds about their major, so OP might decide to major in something else after getting there. Also, some schools prefer to take grad students from a different undergraduate institution. So if OP was thinking of going to Stanford for grad school, choosing Harvard might be the better way to go. Finally, Harvard recently received a huge donation in CS. These sorts of decisions are very hard—and OP might well have to choose, despite the odds, given the early acceptance to Harvard. I’d recommend visiting both places and talking extensively to students and faculty about all aspects of being a student there, then deciding. Either school would probably be fine, but the experiences would likely be very different, if for no other reason than their locations.
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There’s no denying that Stanford is fine.
In my opinion you would be a fool to go to Harvard over Stanford IF you’re going for computer science. Harvard is currently trying to improve their engineering department but it is not very well respected. Harvard is a great school don’t get me wrong but when it comes to engineering faculty/facilities are very important and Harvard is very average. Princeton and Cornell are the only two Ivy leagues worth going to for engineering. Since I am going to Cornell I know it’s ranked like 6 for CS. If you can’t put Harvards name aside, you would be much better off at a school like Georgia Tech/UT Austin etc. A degree from Georgia tech in engineering will probably go a lot farther than Harvard. It’s like going to Cal Tech or MIT for philosophy or something that isn’t their forte. It may be Cal Tech or MIT but you’re going for a department they are not well respected for. Put the name aside in your decision and go somewhere that is strong in engineering. Even though if you tell an average person that you’re going to Georgia Tech you won’t get the same “wow,” you’ll get a substantially better education (which should be the important thing). But if you told someone knowledgeable in that field you went to Georgia Tech you would probably get a bigger wow.
Just so I’m not making unsubstantiated claims:
http://collegeapps.about.com/od/collegerankings/tp/Top-Engineering-Schools.htm
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate
That’s awesome! LOL
OP: You’re on the horns of a dilemma. I think it boils down to how much of a hard core CS student do you see yourself being — H will definitely show you many things – great things that may make you leave CS behind. But schools like Stanford or GTech(like the example above) or UMich or Princeton will be great if you know you want a laser beam focus on EECS.
@T26E4. This is all MOOT. He does NOT have a dilemma. As we have said on the Stanford forum for this individual OP…the odds of him getting the “golden ticket” from Stanford is extremely extremely low…and even more so applying as a potential “CS” major in the regular round (since they get the best of the best seeking this major and many have been accepted already REA)…and now he will have to compete with all those others going for the “kill” from those who were already admitted to schools like MIT, Caltech, Princeton, Harvard, et al…
On a similar note as the other poster. If you’re completely set on computer it shouldn’t be Harvard or Stanford. Stanford is on one end of the spectrum (the best) and Harvard is somewhere in the middle. Instead you should be considering the some 20 or schools in between. If you’re not dead set on engineering, Harvard will be a great school and give you many opportunites other schools couldn’t. What if you decide you can’t stand engineering after 1 year and want to do economics instead? At Harvard you’ll be able to change your major and be fairly confident the department you change to will have excellent professors. Also I know some people who haven chosen not to go to Stanford because they don’t allow them to major and minor in what they want, that’s something to consider too. try to put rankings aside and see which offers you the most and has the best facilities.
Edit: just read something about Harvard engineering students taking classes at MIT, not sure if that is true or not but something to look in to
@Cornell19 That last bit about Harvard engineering students taking classes at MIT could very well be true, as you are allowed to cross-register between the 2 institutions.
@Cornell19. I agree with some of the things you have written…but this part is completely incorrect:
Let me clarify for you. Both Harvard and Stanford allow students to switch from concentration to concentration, major to major, minor to minor…you must be confusing Stanford with Cornell or UCBerkeley (state school that has separate schools and separate admissions)…
…at Stanford, like at Harvard, you can go from being a CS major to economics to art to music to engineering to whatever…as along as you can handle the workload…
@gravitas2 Cornell allows you to switch too, although it’s relatively hard. I think I worded that poorly and caused some confusion. I meant at Harvard, if you switch concentrations, you can be confident that they will be excellent in that field you change to. What I meant by the other part is Harvard and Stanford may have different combinations of allowed Major/Minor or Major/Major. The person I referred to didn’t go to Stanford because she wasn’t able to double major in what she wanted
^^Maybe it would help if you noted exactly what that unallowed double major combo was. I know people who custom constructed their time there.