I was lucky enough to get into both but I’m having a hard time deciding which one to choose! I’m not sure exactly what I want to study. If anyone has any advice, I would love to hear it!
Can you show us your stats and EC’s?
I would suggest looking up both schools, asking current students about the schools, and/or going on accepted student tours to both. This may give you a better idea of the community at both schools, as well as which you would prefer to go to for the next four years. Congratulations on your acceptances!
Thank you for your advice! Much appreciated.
If you don’t mind sharing, what were your ECs? Congrats!!!
I’d choose Stanford because of location, opportunities, and student life.
I would perfer Harvard just because of their extremely extensive alumni network. Stanford is more well-known for its engineering programs while Harvard is known for their liberal art programs. Harvard has better architectures (I might be biased since I liked the old-style buildings), and the east coast just have more to offer (except maybe not if you are interested in computer sciences).
Stanford is an excellent comprehensive university with strong departments across the liberal arts and sciences. At the graduate level, for example, it is ranked very highly for psychology, sociology, English literature, anthropology, religion, and history, as well as chemistry, biology, earth sciences, and physics. Quite frankly, you could probably pick a program at random and if Stanford has one in that field, it’s probably great to excellent.
I wouldn’t say that the East Coast has more to offer. It completely depends on what you’re looking for. But a Stanford graduate could easily move to the East Coast after graduation, if she wanted (and vice versa).
Harvard has a big alumni network (over 370,000 living alumni) but Stanford’s is pretty big too (over 220,000 living alumni), and they have a pretty expansive network in all 50 states, DC, and 158 countries worldwide.
I think it’s really up to what you prefer. They are both pretty much equal in prestige. Personally, I would choose Stanford. San Francisco and the surrounding area is a business hub. You have Apple in Cupertino. You have Google in Mountain View. You have Facebook in Menlo Park. There are many, many others. The opportunities are pretty much endless.
In my opinion, this should be an easy decision. The school environments are quite different as are the locations & the cultures. Without more information, only the OP can answer this question.
My real concern is why didn’t the OP share more information about desired course of study & preferences.
I would choose stanford because of the beautiful weather at California on top of the extensive opportunities, the area being a business hub. Especially considering that they are pretty similar in prestige and education level
Stanford.