Help deciding between Stanford, Brown, Yale, and Princeton (Early Admission)

[ezbreezy]

<p>The beauty of Stanford is that it looks beyond SAT scores. Stanford has arguably the most holistic admissions process of any school in the country. As a result, Stanford offers an extremely multi-faceted and diverse environment where the students are equally capable in and out of the classroom.</p>

[ezbreezy]

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Brown also has ‘the happiest students’.

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<p>Any survey that attempts to rank student bodies by “happiness” is suspect. That said, Stanford ranks in the top ten for “happiest students,” according to Princeton Review. But take this with a grain of salt.</p>

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Brown has a better emphasis on undergraduate education than does Stanford.

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<p>This is one of the worst fallacies on CC. The idea is that universities with higher graduate rankings have less undergraduate “emphasis.” But there is little to no correlation between the two. Just because Brown has weaker graduate programs doesn’t mean it has more of an undergraduate focus.</p>

[ezbreezy]

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@Dad2

Sounds like a popularity contest: these schools have relatively little in common except being reasonably to very well-known. They range from urban (e.g. Yale) to suburban (Stanford, Princeton), strong undergraduate emphasis (Princeton) to little undergraduate emphasis (Harvard), academically top flight (Yale) to **academically so-so (Brown). **

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<p>Sorry your kid was rejected from Brown…</p>

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@Dad2

Famous does not equate with “elite” (e.g. Paris Hilton is famous). Nor does an acceptance rate cut-off, as there is often self-selection of particularly talented students applying to, say, Swarthmore, U. Chicago or MIT. I think peer assessment is probably the closest to the truth, i.e. what is “elite” to those who actually know higher education (college presidents, admissions officers, etc.). Using these criteria, Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, Harvard, Yale are certainly more “elite” than Brown…

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065702820-post11.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065702820-post11.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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@Dad2

1. If so insecure that you need to be in the “Ivy League” and lack other options and/or 2) Want open curriculum (i.e. no requirement to actually get a rigorous and rounded liberal arts education- can avoid all math/science or conversely humanities, etc.) or 3) Are offered a full scholarship. But beware: notorious for “Tufts Syndrome”: **over-qualified applicants who ultimately attend more academically selective schools absolutely cannot count on being accepted at Brown. **

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065253340-post14.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065253340-post14.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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@Dad2

You sound like a strong applicant, certainly more than qualified to excel at Brown; **B. is highly unpredictable, however, whether it’s “Tuft’s syndrome” <a href=“i.e.%20snubbing%20students%20who%20they%20predict%20will%20go%20elsewhere”>/B</a> or being tough on certain high schools and being cozy with others depending on historic yield, etc.

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065078066-post2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065078066-post2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[ezbreezy]

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@Dad2

The foregoing vitriol aside, all lurkers on CC need to realize that those who are unhappy (situationally or with life in general) are more apt to take the time to post and get undue attention

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065678396-post27.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065678396-post27.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>This is hilarious, especially in light of my immediately prior post.</p>

[ezbreezy]

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@Dad2

S. is a very solid school but considerably over-hyped- if you are a strong enough applicant to be on the S. wait-list, you have likely been accepted at an equivalent or superior undergraduate institution and should really get excited about enrolling there.

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065029901-post144.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065029901-post144.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Looks like your kid was rejected at Stanford too. That explains why you’re always posting snide remarks on the Stanford board.</p>