First of all, I am extremely honored to be accepted to these two schools.
I have looked through CC a lot to see old topics on how people would choose Princeton or Harvard. However, it didn’t give me any clue. I think my problem is that I haven’t figured out what I want to pursue with my CS degree: specialist, manager, researcher, etc. There are tons of options, and for now I care most about some of the following features and would appreciate if you can tell me which school has an edge and why.
Quality of education (depth and breadth of CS program)
Summer internship opportunities (how heavy is the recruitment?)
Social scene (is the atmosphere friendly?)
For now I am leaning towards databases or AI since it would help me apply not only my knowledge in CS, but also from math, linguistics, statistics, etc. Therefore, I wonder how successfully you can combine those fields.
4) Interdisciplinary approach to CS
I think I shouldn’t care much about what I would do after college yet since I think both schools will provide me with amazing opportunities. So yeah, I would like to ask you to focus primarily on the undergraduate education.
I’ll let others speak for the relative differences between the two CS programs. Princeton has been historically strong, while the Harvard program is growing fast. I’m sure you find great opportunities at either school.
It is possible to concentrate jointly in Computer Science and another field. However a joint concentration is not a “double major.” The two fields must overlap in a way that will enable the candidate to write a senior thesis acceptable to both departments. Most joint concentrations with Computer Science are with Mathematics, though other combinations are possible. See the Fields of Concentration for more information.
Good luck with your decision! I don’t think you could go wrong at either school. They are very different places - if I was in your situation, I would pay more attention to the college as a whole than the details of the CS program, unless you are certain you will study CS, and your interest in CS is already focused on an area where one of the schools is clearly stronger.
Son freshman at pton now. Last year same situation. He got in pton scea then harvard rd. Hard decisión but either one is great. He thought best pton undergrad then hopefully harvard grad. No regrets and he loves pton. It is more intense and he struggles with just getting a 3.5gpa. He says at harvard he could study less and get a higher gpa, at least that is the reputation. He studies about 5-6 hours a day. Much smaller undergrad and more personal attention and resources. If u plan on going to grad school anyway, pton much more undergrad bases. Another point is most students switch majors.again no wrong choices for my son pton offered more $ even though we live abroad and everyone here knows harvard not that many have heard of pton.