<p>Oooh.</p>
<p>I think we rule in the food area:). Chez Panisse, the Vietnamese pho shops, Korean barbecue, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Shanghainese, the fresh produce, everything from the French Laundry whole year salary meals to the taco trucks 1 for $1.00 where the carnitas and salsas make your mouth water just to think of them:).</p>
<p>Of course, lobsters are not native to our waters:(. Have to go with Monterey Bay spot prawns instead.</p>
<p>Add Mexican. And New Mexican Mexican. And Tex Mex.</p>
<p>Nobody in Boston understands these cuisines. Not even at Harvard.</p>
<p>Neither Chez Panisse nor the French Laundry is anywhere near Palo Alto, or a college student's budget. I'm sure there are excellent restaurants in Palo Alto now, but what I remember most fondly from my time there are Col. Li's Mongolian Barbecue in Mountainview and the aforementioned biker bar (with great burgers on sourdough rolls) in La Honda. And some place with cioppino near (but not in) Half Moon Bay. Chow fun at Sam Wo's in the City. My budget wasn't so big, either.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I remember going to some place in Cambridge called The Yard of Ale when I was about 12, and we were visiting my four cousins who were then at Harvard (one per class). We took them there for lunch, and you (not I, of course, but they) could order yards or half-yards of beer, and it came in these incredible tall glasses (18 or 36 inches high) in wooden frames that sat on the floor. It seemed soooooo sophisticated and grown up to be a Harvard Man and have that right next door.</p>
<p>I think I tried bubble tea for the first time in Cambridge, too.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>And nobody yet (myself included) can think of a quarterback of Elway's caliber out of Harvard (I figured the Pats were close enough). That settles it. Stanford it is.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Not so fast. Let's settle it with US Presidents. </p>
<p>Presidents who went undergrad to Stanford: Herbert Hoover. </p>
<p>Presidents who went undergrad to Harvard: John Adams, John Qunicy Adams, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and John Kennedy.</p>
<p>That settles it - Harvard for sure.</p>
<p>(Semi)seriously, Reese Witherspoon notwithstanding, it's a little hard to think of artistic types who have gone to Stanford. Harvard has scads of them. Bonnie Raitt, Rivers Cuomo, Tom Morello, the guy in Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic. Whit Stillman. Peter Sellars and John Adams. Robert Lowell, Norman Mailer. The woman who wrote Special Topics In Calamity Physics.</p>
<p>Where (who) are the Stanford equivalents?</p>
<p>It's been enjoyable to see the spin this thread has taken. It's almost like a Saturday Night parody of a College Confidential thread! </p>
<p>May not be so helpful to the OP....but it's nice to see this lighthearted release as another admissions season winds down!</p>
<p>Bubble tea is really big in Cambridge!</p>
<p>No- I have laughed all the way through! And I have been sending every comment to D. There is a lot of information hiding between the jabs between Stanford and Harvard loyalists!</p>
<p>She is an hour south of Boston, and is planning to visit. Unfortunately, the admit weekends overlap. I told her I could change her flight so she could leave Stanford early and be a little late to Harvard's, but she may want to do it another time. We have spent a fair amount of time in Boston over the past two years, and she's experienced the weather, so that won't be a surprise. She also went to a short summer camp at Stanford, but has never met students there (other than the tour guide!)</p>
<p>If nothing else, I have concluded that it probably matters little which she chooses. The most important thing is for her to experience each campus and go with her instinct.</p>
<p>Anyway, THANKS! :D</p>
<p>Well, it's been another perfect day in Palo Alto :). Air that feels like it is kissing you, clear blue skies, still-blossoming trees and wisteria and roses in full abundant bloom, a run by Lake Lag, robins on the lawn in the early morning.....</p>
<p>I don't really have an axe to grind here as I am so fond of both places. But although Harvard probably legitimately claims the edge in artists, actors, etc......we have Larry Page, Sergey Brin (okay, okay, they were grad students), Jerry Yang, the Packards, the Hewletts, the brilliant computer scientists and entrepreneurs, and then there are Tiger Woods, Mike Mussina, Brevin Knight, CANDICE WIGGINS!!!.......Of course, there is that Facebook guy, but he came to Stanford-land......</p>
<p>Around Palo Alto, most of the Stanford kids that I know like the restaurant scene on Castro Street in Mountain View, and there are some nice places on University Avenue and California Avenue in Palo Alto; the latter two are walking/biking distance from campus. OTOH, there is nothing like Harvard Square in Palo Alto, that is for sure!! BUT for fashionistas, we've got Stanford Shopping Center. The Coop wins out over the Stanford Bookstore although the latter isn't bad. Boy, this could go on and on.</p>
<p>Poor kids who have to make these decisions :)</p>
<p>And it's a lot closer to San Diego, which, by the way, also had a beautiful day! In fact, the Crew Classic is here this weekend and D1 (not to be confused with D2) has the UW mens' crew team here outside....she cooked them dinner! Smart girl....</p>
<p>...she's a coxswain at UCSD.</p>
<p>"Unfortunately, the admit weekends overlap. I told her I could change her flight so she could leave Stanford early and be a little late to Harvard's"</p>
<p>Cgarrett: You would not believe how many students do exactly that. When I was at the admitted students weekend with my daughter a few years back, the Stanford kids were coming in in droves!</p>
<p>That weekend Harvard's weather was disgusting - extraordinarily cold for April and rainy. I wonder how that affected decisions!</p>
<p>John Steinbeck attended Stanford.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>n fact, the Crew Classic is here this weekend<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>I'll be going this weekend. How will I recognize you? Do you have a CC sweatshirt or hat??</p>
<p>
[quote]
I met someone who attended Harvard undergrad and went to Stanford for gradschool. He honestly didn't feel that Stanford was even remotely as good as Harvard.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>First of all, I didn't attend either Harvard or Stanford. I draw my conclusion purely based on numbers. In god we believe. For everything else, bring us data.</p>
<p>In my view, based on data, Harvard and Stanford are the best 2 universities in the world. They are roughly equal in terms of quality across various majors. But there are some fields where one is clearly better than the other.</p>
<p>Stanford is clearly better than Harvard in engineering and applied sciences. Stanford has 84 faculty memebrs in national academy of engineering (NAE), while Harvard has only 14. Stanford people (faculty and graduates) have played a dominate role in generating modern technologies, such as internet, laser, radar, transistor, microprocessor, and etc. Stanford has 18 ties to Turing Award. </p>
<p>Stanford is also clearly better in school of education, computer science, psycology, statistics, and applied math.</p>
<p>Harvard is clearly better in medical science. Harvard has more than 100 faculty members in the prestigious institute of medicine (IOM),while Stanford has only 54. Not bad for Stanford though, as the only other school that has more IOM membership is UCSF. </p>
<p>Harvard is also clearly better in political science, pure math, and some arts programs.</p>
<p>Harvard has 167 faculty members in the national academy of science (#1 in USA), while Stanford has 128 (#2 in USA). Harvard has more, but Harvard is much bigger than Stanford in terms of the faculty size.</p>
<p>Historically, Harvard's faculty has won more Nobel prize than any other place in the world. But right now, Stanford has 16 living Nobel prize winners in its faculty, more than any other place in the world.</p>
<p>Harvard and Stanford have the best professional schools in US. According to US News 2009 ranking, Harvard is #1 in bussiness, #2 in law, #1 in medicine, #6 in education , and #22 in engineering, while Stanford is #1 in business, #2 in law, #8 in medicine, #1 in education, and #2 in engineering.</p>
<p>In conclusion, Harvard and Stanford are about equal. Neither has a clear advantage over the other. Saying Stanford was not even remotely as good as Harvard is baseless and laughable.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>John Steinbeck attended Stanford.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>I'll see your John Steinbeck and raise you a Henry David Thoreau, a Norman Mailer, a Michael Crichton, and a Scott Turow.</p>
<p>You do NOT want to get into a Distinguished Alumni fight with Harvard. You will lose:</p>
<p>List</a> of Harvard University people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
<p>I think Grace Slick went to Stanford.</p>
<p>How much more distinguished can you get:).</p>
<p>Oh come on. If you liked Harvard enough to apply and you got in, you should go. All my friends at Stanford would rather be at Harvard, but they didn't get in. If you go to Stanford, you'll get to meet them:-)</p>
<p>Alumother -- I think Grace Slick grew up in Palo Alto (or somewhere on the Peninsula), but I don't think she went to Stanford. Bobby Weir and Joan Baez, too.</p>
<p>I actually had a friend at Stanford who had a minor rock-star career. But she was pretty unusual there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
All my friends at Stanford would rather be at Harvard, but they didn't get in.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Probably not all of them, but the majority of them. For every 100 students admitted to both Stanford and Harvard, 27 would choose Stanford and 73 would choose Harvard:</p>
<p>The</a> New York Times > Week in Review > Image > Collegiate Matchups: Predicting Student Choices</p>