<p>Will Harvard have to get used to being the nation's perennial #2 ???
Will Harvard students have to go through life wearing "Stanford S#cks" sweatshirts and talking about how nobody they know at Stanford is happy?</p>
<p>According to recent announcements, Stanford's applications soared again this year, to over 42,000, while Harvard's contracted a bit to just over 34,000 for an incoming class of roughly the same size. Stanford's admit rate has fallen to 5.0%, or almost 20% lower than Harvard's 5.9%, which even rose a touch this year. </p>
<p>And, of course, Stanford alums have been showering money on their alma mater -- giving substantially more money to their school than Harvard's similarly sized alumni corps for many years running now.</p>
<p>I have seen the future, and it ain't on the muddy banks of the Charles.</p>
<p>I guess this makes Yale the new Princeton .......</p>
No. but shallow outsiders who examine the “decline” of A over B over C and are USNWR obsessed will always be here to stay. If you think a single person actually associated with any of those illustrious schools gives a rat’s behind about the 1-2-3-4 rankings (especially based on admit rate), you’re out to lunch. </p>
<p>This kind of attitude brings enormous (and unwarranted) pain upon many HS students and their families. It’s sheer idiocy. Pfft…</p>
<p>I’m not who these people to whom you refer actually are. Perhaps those who didn’t receive a spot at any of these three globally-elite institutions?</p>
<p>The only demographic that cares about whether stanford is better than harvard or yale is that which spends its saturday mornings on college confidential. Employers? Nope! Laymen? Nope! Grad schools? Nope! </p>
<p>It’s you and you alone.</p>
<p>Also, ranking schools by acceptance rate is dumb. Everyone in california applies to stanford; believe me, I know. I’m willing to bet that the pool is slightly more watered down than that of Harvard and especially that of Yale.</p>
<p>@MikeNY5. I understand you are from New York and you disagree with the OP…but, let’s not insult the bright students of California who apply to Stanford…after all…it is an extremely large state with an extremely large population…
</p>
<p>…because those SAME students are the ones who apply to your future school (yale) along with other schools in the same athletic league (and Y, H, P, M covet these students)…let’s not have sour grapes…it’s unbecoming.</p>
<p>…the reason why so many of the TOP students from not only California and the rest of the country and the world apply to Stanford is because it provides TOP programs in humanities/social sciences along with TOP engineering/CS/STEM programs plus TOP programs in athletics…all in beautiful Palo Alto in the sought after Bay area…no other school has this combination right now…</p>
<p>…some schools are very strong in the humanities/social sciences but not so much in the engineering/CS/STEM…</p>
<p>…some schools are very strong in the engineering/CS/STEM but not so much in the humanities/social sciences…</p>
<p>…some schools are very strong in athletic programs but average in the academic programs…</p>
<p>…think for a moment…because you sound like the OP…</p>
<p>I think we should give OP a break. The post was very Tongue-in-cheek . I found it amusing. Lets face facts…sunny CA vs cold gloomy Mass. Given the choice I choose CA baby! They are all amazing schools who cares if they are 1-2-3-4-5. All the students at those schools are the best and the brightest. Anyone that is pained by where their school is ranked in the top 20 really needs a reality check! </p>
<p>Well, I did think it was interesting how in Harvard’s press release they talked about the RD admission rate. Didn’t they normally just talk about overall rate? Why break it out this year?</p>
<p>@Gravitas2, I am actually from California, despite my username. Many, many of my friends applied to stanford and they clearly were not qualified.</p>
<p>Am I saying that it’s not as good as HY? Of course not. That’s stupid. My point is that basing any sort of ranking off of acceptance rates is dumb.</p>
<p>And sour grapes? I have none. I only applied to H and Y… they were the best fits for me. Y gave me more aid, so Y it is. Good day!</p>
<p>The admit rate is a silly measure and only a proxy for interest. </p>
<p>If next year 5000 left-handed, GPA 2.5, sat 1800 tuba players all decide to apply voila: The overall admittance rate would go down (they can take only so many tuba players)Similarly if 5000 people who were long shots decide not to apply next year the admittance rate goes up. </p>
<p>Neither of those scenarios says anything at all about the quality of education nor the odds of a highly qualified candidate getting in. </p>
<p>Mike…Stanford accepts your back-handed complement. But, you have to acknowledge that many of the top engineering/CS students who would only apply to MIT/Caltech/Carnegie Mellon/Harvey Mudds of the world would also apply to Stanford and not to Y or H…and those top humanities/social science types who apply to H, Y, Pomona, etc would also apply to Stanford but not to MIT/Caltech…and those top scholar-athletes (potential Olympic medal/professional sports level) who would be applying to USC, Michigan, Florida etc would also apply to Stanford but not to H,Y etc…</p>
<p>…this is why Stanford’s numbers will continue to swell…and it doesn’t hurt that it’s located in the Bay area…</p>
<p>…and to the OP: don’t worry Stanford and Harvard have such an incestuous relationship at all levels of academia, funding, professional and graduate schools, venture capital, investment banking, technology entrepreneurs…that, it will be hard to really separate them today and in the future…</p>
<p>Let me first say this: I am not insulting stanford. It’s clearly a top school in the world and will be for a long time.</p>
<p>However, you’re assuming that H and Y are going to be stagnant for the next 20 years. Yale just spent $2B (!!!) improving its sciences, and I’m sure that harvard is doing something similar. Also, HY are the two richest schools in the world. They will be fine with regard to science.</p>
<p>You know what? I just started a college. It’s in my basement and it’s called the Dan Stearns Institute of Technology (DSIT). I got 2 applicants and I didn’t take either one! MY admissions rate is 0.0%! So eat it, Stanford, DSIT is the most selective college in the world now. </p>
<p>Sorry, Fluffy University has you beat. We had 2 applicants and we sent rejection letters to 4 people. So I think that counts as a negative acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Also, the ROI of Fluffy U is infinite since there is no cost to attend.</p>
<p>^^^ I am from Mass! That is my quote. The pretty foliage does not outweigh the long gloomy winters. It has been too long and too cold this year. Enough already! </p>
<p>Similar to Cambridge and Oxford in England, I think Harvard and Stanford are at the top of the top schools in US, Depending on what a student wants to major (or financial package), he or she may prefer one school over the other. </p>
<p>Though interesting enough, a high school’s college counselor said that these top colleges (admission offices) “are like little kids” do care about their admit rates very much. So it is no surprise that a school would want to win at its admission rate (whatever breakdown) or yield rate or both. The best way to increase the yield rate is to increase the number of accepted students in the early round (Most likely those students would not bother to apply to other schools and if they do, only 1-2 very top schools. And their chances to getting admitted to another college is hence very small). </p>
Fall is the best season and Mass has gorgeous Autumns that California can only dimly imagine!</p>