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<blockquote> <p>At that level of prestige is it really necessary to get into a p***ing match about who has more presidents or sc justices?<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Of course it's not "necessary," but it's all in good fun. And besides, someone asked.</p>
<p>I would say Harvard has an edge in science, especially at the undergraduate level: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060159004-post48.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060159004-post48.html</a></p>
<p>The OP is still here, despite rumors to the contrary!</p>
<p>If nothing else, it's been very interesting!</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>any resolution from the OP?</p>
<p>NAS membership is a distinction measure of faculty. Havard has most national academy of science members among USA universities, with 167 NAS members in total. Part of the reason is that Harvard is huge in terms of its faculty size, with 10,000 faculty members. Stanford has about 1800 faculty members, with 128 in NAS, #2 in USA.</p>
<p>Here are the breakdown of NAS membership in different areas (not complete). see National</a> Academy of Sciences:</p>
<p>math: Harvard (9 members), Stanford (5 members)
applied math: Harvard (1), Stanford (7)
physics: Harvard (8), Stanford (12)
chemistry: Harvard (12), Stanford (14)
geology: Harvard (5), Stanford (4)
computer science: Harvard (3), Stanford (4)
economics: Harvard (6), Stanford (5)
genetics: Harvard (2), Stanford (11)
biochemistry: Harvard (11), Stanford (5)</p>
<p>D would not step on Harvard's soil when we were in Boston last week. "Mom, you hafta be kidding - this is where all the <em>perfect</em> people go! We do not belong here!" Took care of two tourists wandering around Harvard's campus. However, when I was visiting a potential collaborator at Stanford, D felt at ease. Hmmm. West coast syndrome?</p>
<p>OP, let your D decide. I'm going to let mine have the last word, otherwise, she will remind me of my "bad" influence every time a small thing goes wrong.</p>
<p>I would just love for my D to choose Stanford but alas she is just not biting. She is deciding between H and a very nice scholarship at Vandy. We cannot budge her from these two - husband and I are very big on Princeton - every parents dream school where you just know they will be loved and cared for with great tenderness. H is just hard, hard, hard for certain kids to turn down, I think. The more they hear about how tough it is the more they want to go there.</p>
<p>The kids who are like that mammall, the ones who the more they hear how tough it is the more they want to go there, they are the kids who adore Harvard. She will be fine:). More than fine. She probably doesn't want the great tenderness.....some kids really don't like it. Good for her. Even me the Princeton advocate, I really mean it. Good for her.</p>
<p>Mammall and Alu: "The more they hear about how tough it is, the more they want to go there." </p>
<p>I have never heard any student express that point of view. Harvard is perceived as "tougher" than Y or P or S or fill-in-the-blank with your favorite super-selective? In what sense? The academic sense? The social sense? Every H student my son has spoken with -- not to mention every H partisan on CC -- tries mightily to dispel the notion that "swim with the sharks" is the prevailing mentality at H. Can you elaborate?</p>
<p>I have observed that Harvard chooses kids who like to compete, and kids who choose Harvard back and are happy there like to compete. This doesn't mean at all that they are mean or cutthroat. And for some kids they compete only with themselves or their own idea of excellence. But they like competition, they thrive in it. Again, not evil competition. </p>
<p>It IS like swimming with the sharks, only all the sharks like it there. The creatures that don't like it are the tuna:). Hmm. That makes my family the tuna type. And I don't mean to imply that any kids at Harvard turn on the other kids. I guess that's a bad metaphor.</p>
<p>Oh well. Tuna are quite lovely swimming in schools, light glinting off their bodies. I love the Monterey Bay Aquarium....</p>
<p>BTW, disclaimer. My dataset is maybe 10-15 kids. That's it. So not at all exhaustive.</p>
<p>Ah, thanks for that explanation, Alu.</p>
<p>I will go with the idea that many Harvard kids do compete with themselves or their own idea of excellence. However, rest assured that not all of the kids who competed in high school compete once at Harvard. There are some that are more than happy to kick back a bit and go with the flow.</p>
<p>I'll add that the kids really don't compete with one another; they never ask one another what a test grade is or share GPAs. At least not the kids I've met.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>...this is where all the <em>perfect</em> people go! <<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Hardly. I know one Harvard student real well and a bunch of others in passing, and none of them are perfect nor even "perfect." </p>
<p>If I were sum up Harvard students as a group, I would say they are nearly all smart, hard-working, articulate, and witty, but certainly not perfect (and not sharks either).</p>
<p>Oh, my quickly dashed off post came off with the wrong meaning. By "hard" at Harvard, I didn't mean academically more rigorous. I meant all the publicity regarding the depressed students and lack of social life. There is quite a bit of that out there and my D did take note of it (read the whole Crimson series) but at some point the negative press just started to make her defensive of the school. And then it began to feel like her school.</p>
<p>Anyway, the final button hasn't been pressed - who knows what she'll tell me tomorrow. But I sense we might have closure on this. It's going to be expensive but I am glad. Although, I will always be sad over the missed chance to visit Palo Alto often.</p>
<p>CC parent posters are so darn smart - they catch everything!</p>
<p>D HAS CHOSEN STANFORD OVER HARVARD!!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions, etc. D believes she will fit in better at Stanford, and really misses California. She is competitive, but only with herself. And Stanford offers her more academic options (i.e. the amazing marine science facility in Monterey) than does Harvard. </p>
<p>Another note: I want to make sure you all understand that D feels very "humbled" to have been given this choice. She never felt "entitled" to an acceptance from any school, and was genuinely moved to tears by her acceptances. </p>
<p>I say this because after spending so much time on CC, I am still surprised (and put off) by the posters who feel they (or their child) were unfairly rejected from a specific college. We always told D there were no guarantees and she should not rely on an acceptance from any particular college. We have two other kids who may never set foot in a top tier school. I think parents and students should stop focusing so much on manipulating their academics and other experiences in order to get admitted to a particular college, and instead, do their best while still doing what makes them happy. Maybe Adcoms are getting smarter at spotting the prestige-mongers among their applicants.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your daughter, cgarret! Sounds like she made the perfect choice for her.</p>
<p>Well done, cgarrett and D! I wish her a wonderful four years at Stanford.</p>
<p>Cgarrett, I'm not suprised, and I'm sure she made the right choice for her. Nice for you too, that she won't be so far away.</p>
<p>Cgarrett:</p>
<p>It looks like your D chose the best college for her. Now she and you can relax! Congrats to her and her family.</p>
<p>Congratulations & welcome to California. Stanford is fine school.</p>