ewho says: “I don’t know where you got those data. None of them are true except Harvard’s yield is about 81%.”
You can look up yield data… Harvard is usually over 80% and Stanford is usually in the mid-70’s. As for cross-admit data, ask your son about his company’s search tool and google it ;). In cross-admit battles, students accepted to both Harvard and Stanford choose Harvard nearly 2-1. Those accepted to both Yale and Stanford split 50-50. Stanford beats Princeton 7-3, and Stanford beats MIT 2-1. There was an economics research paper on the subject (called “revealed preference ranking”) by Caroline Hoxby (curiously enough, formerly a professor at Harvard, but now at Stanford). There is a website (rhymes with smarchment) that has more up-to-date data. Honestly though, none of this should be taken so seriously…
Does that mean Harvard is better than Stanford? Absolutely not! For engineering, a student should definitely choose Stanford over Harvard. In all other areas, Stanford and Harvard are equals. I have known students who have turned down Harvard to go to Stanford and vice versa. Quality and prestige wise, they are equals. In some fields, Stanford is superior… in other, Harvard is.
In the grand scheme of things, the quality of the UNDERGRAD education is pretty similar at any school in the top 50 or even 100. For many students, smaller LACs would provide a better fit for their learning styles and helping them reach their potential.