<p>I did my undergrad at Wellesley and spent a lot of time at Harvard, and grad school at Stanford. I think there are three major differences:</p>
<p>1) Urban versus a suburban campus. If your d wants to be in the middle of a city, the decision is easy. However, Stanford is not isolated. It is in the middle of one of the most dynamic business communities in the world. There is easy access to San Francisco also and many students go there several times a month. </p>
<p>2) Both schools are great academically, with top students. However, outward intensity and competitiveness is much less at Stanford. At H, the competition extends to extracurricular activities. </p>
<p>3) The quarter system at S. This enables the students to take more classes with different profs. However, the time period between exams and papers shrinks. </p>
<p>The dorms at S are not an issue. The ethnic dorms, which are small, are limited to maximum 50% of the students being of the dorms ethnicity. Most students are in dorms that are very diversified. At S, students may end up in different dorms each year, while at H, most stay in the same dorm when upperclassmen. Also, S has the most diversified student body of the top universities. </p>
<p>I would let your d experience both schools when in regular session. Admit weekend is basically to sell the student on the school. I think by going to the campuses, talking to students casually and attending classes in a subject of interest, which the school will arrange, would be a better approach. Also, ask for specific classes because the open classes are usually large lectures.</p>
<p>My daughter faced the same decision last year, and is now thrilled to be at Stanford. We live in Chicago so it could have gone either way.
I think she picked Stanford because it seemed like it would be more fun. She wanted and active social life, but didn't want to miss out on quality of the education.
Right now she is majoring in CompSci but is also interested in creative writing. At Harvard, you pretty much need to be an english major to take creative writing, and even then its competitive to get into those classes. At Stanford they are open to everyone by lottery (only a few kids are waitlisted each quarter).
Her freshman dorm is incredibly diverse. And the Stanford housing draw (for soph-seniors) is so bizarre and baroque that I don't think its really all that possible for kids to segregate themselves!
Good luck with the decision though -- it wasn't easy for her to say no to Harvard!</p>
<p>The business community is very supportive of Stanford and the students benefit in many ways. </p>
<p>The students are not bored. There's plenty to do on campus. Downtown Palo Alto is similar to Cambridge in having restaurants, coffee shops for students, as well as some of the best restaurants in the Bay Area for visits from parents. </p>
<p>Stanford has initiatives to improve performing arts on campus, with a new building underway. Also has a partnership with The Public Theater where plays are developed together. One -- Passing Strange -- just opened on Broadway.</p>
<p>I know plenty of students -- grad students in particular -- who get bored with Palo Alto. When I lived in Berkeley, we had plenty of Stanford students spending weekends in our communal house. Our livingroom was sometimes referred to as the Stanford Flop House. They were escaping the suburbs of Palo Alto (and it's 'white people', lol) and hitting Berkeley's clubs, restaurant, bars, and countless tiny movie theaters showing an international fare of films unmatched by the South Bay.</p>
<p>That may be true for grad students. I think the experience is very different for undergrads who live in dorms. But that's a benefit of Stanford -- access to SF and Berkeley. My son has never complained about being bored and he went to high school in NYC!</p>
<p>My graduate experience which was 25 years ago when Palo Alto was much less developed was very positive. We lived off campus because the only grad housing was for married students and had cars. But we had places we went to for drinks, dinner, etc., in the local area. Many of my classmates ended up staying in the area permanently.</p>
<p>It's such an individual thing. I think I have stayed in the Bay Area all these years because I love the weather so much. But my friend, who is from the East Coast, refers to Palo Alto as "Pallid Alto" and that is a common term from many people. (she lives in Berkeley now :) ). </p>
<p>I am another who has been in both places: Harvard undergrad and Stanford grad. I'm so glad that I was able to experience both places. While I preferred Stanford, a lot of people feel the opposite. My son never considered Harvard, but I had raised him right, as a Stanford fan ;). Unfortunately, admissions has changed a lot and my daughter was rejected. Count your blessings that you have the choice.</p>
<p>what annstone said in her first post (#41).</p>
<p>I attended Stanford and transferred to UCLA long ago (and too long a story to explain).</p>
<p>I also spent some time on the Harvard campus, as well as Yale. The East Coast elite colleges run at a completely different pace and emotion than Stanford. Stanford students have a relaxed way of dealing with pressures. It is far less outwardly competitive. In my view this is better. Your D has another 50 years in which to deal with outwardly imposed stress. Why subject the great young adult college years to unnecessary anxiety -- unless she enjoys stress.</p>
<p>The downside of Stanford is that is is annoyingly CA suburban sprawl. All beige 1-2 story blah buildings (with two exceptions: HooTow and MemChu. Very little interesting hardscape. It's more like a partially developed dusty subdivision with incomplete landscaping! The lake (Lagunita) is not even filled with water since 1973, but dust!</p>
<p>And it does get boring on weekends.</p>
<p>So, there you have it -- if your daughter wants a more relaxed atmosphere, Stanford. If she enjoys outward competition, faster pace, more stress, and the greater excitement of the city of Cambridge, then Harvard.</p>
<p>Two elite schools could hardly be any different.</p>
<p>I don't have a dog in this hunt, as both DDs chose LACs, but how do the two schools' graduation requirements compare? Friends whose D went to Harvard said she loved it but did find the distribution requirements onerous and restrictive; they apparently got in the way of taking some wonderfully interesting electives (and she didn't even try to go abroad). That was a few years ago... Perhaps it's different now?</p>
<p>It was many years ago, but my sister was an undergraduate at Stanford and she had rather too many parties to go to. I was in law school there at the same time, and I had a blast my first year. After that, I had a girlfriend, and my night life consisted mainly of the Law Review, but we got up to San Francisco at least a couple of times a month.</p>
<p>On the other hand . . . Cambridge it's not. Nor Berkeley. Downtown Palo Alto is perhaps best suited for power breakfasts, and it's a good mile and a half from anywhere undergraduates live. Fun at Stanford is pretty much internally generated unless you have a car. (Palo Alto had the first bookstore/coffee house I ever saw, though, with a thriving adult pick-up scene. Twenty-five years ago, that was pretty cool. And the biker bar at the top of the ridge in La Honda was aces for kicking back in the afternoon.)</p>
<p>Edit to comment on something gratefulmom said: In my opinion (with which anyone is free to disagree), it's nuts to give up a semester (or more!) at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, or the like to go on some glorified junket to a foreign place. You'll always have Paris, but you only have four years to suck the juice out of one of the greatest institutions in the history of Western Civilization. The world comes to you there.</p>
<p>Having an S at Stanford, I would say Harvard for its clear financial aid policy. Stanford's is murky and too subjective, leaving one not knowing how you will be treated. But if financial issues are not relevant, then, since you said D is laid back, I would say Stanford. S says it is not competitive (after attending a very competitive high school), but he admires the ability and work ethic of his classmates who work hard. They don't brag about grades but also don't pretend they did nothing for that A. You know the old: "I didn't read the book but still got an A garbage.</p>
<p>JHS -- I'm a big proponent of study abroad -- but I agree that too many schools make it an overpriced junket. Schools like Harvard often use that reason to discourage their students from taking part even from their own interntional programs. (Well, discourage is a strong word. But they don't encourage study abroad, that's for sure.) There is a fair amount of arrogance in this attitude -- no other place on the PLANET offers as good an experience. Sorry I don't buy it. To their credit, these schools are so well endowed they do offer terrific post-graduate international opportunities to those who really want it. And that's a good thing.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your daughter on having such a difficult decision to make! A couple of posters have talked about Stanford having the quarter system and how what that means course wise and study wise. My elder daughter did undergraduate at the University of Chicago which is also on the quarter system. From a calendar perspective the quarter system means you do not go to college in the fall until the end of September, early October. That was tough for my daughter because all of her friends left for school a month or more before she did. And, the third quarter ends usually in mid June. For some summer jobs and internships that is also an issue.
Just something else to throw on the scales!
Good luck!</p>
<p>I don't know anything about Stanford, but there are endless opportunities at Harvard for students who are willing to seek them out. Harvard has a lot of money and is quite welling to spend it on Harvard College students by giving grants in more areas than you can think of. Contrary to popular belief, many students do go abroad; many go for free or at a reduced rate via a grant during the summer. Again, students have to seek out opportunities; Harvard is not a hand-holding school.
In my opinion, the worst thing about Harvard is the calendar (exams after winter break) but that is changing after one more year. The core curriculum is also changing.
The houses are great, but don't expect big rooms. Remember, the buildings were built a quite a long time ago.
Harvard is totally integrated into Cambridge. That's one of the things my kid loves about it.</p>
<p>A good choice to have, but a tough decision. Two very good and well known schools, but as different as they are far apart in miles. I lived in San Jose for most of my life and have been to Stanford many times, as an athlete (from a rival school), visitor for international events and as a consultant to the Children's Hospital. I really like visiting. Still, there is something about Harvard that carries so much more prestige and influence than any other school worldwide. I had the privilege of taking courses by top professors visiting from both Harvard and Stanford during my B-school days in Barcelona. On the average, I found the Harvard profs to direct the most thought provoking interesting classes I have taken. The Stanford profs were more focused on numbers. Perhaps, this shows a little deeper of what each school may value over the other.</p>
<p>JMHO, not looking to get into a debate as I am certain that experiences of others vary.</p>
<p>My son has had a wonderful experience at Stanford, but I would say that as much as I have looked at it through rose-colored glasses, the annual housing lottery stress and the lack of good advising have been two big negatives. I agree with whoever said that Harvard's housing situation is so far superior it isn't funny; not that that should be a major factor in the decision, however. (There are awesome houses at Stanford, but there are also awful ones, and a lot of doubles turned into quads which can really be terrible). It's just luck of the draw what you get.</p>