<p>Hi. I'm a rising senior next year considering applying early to either Princeton or Stanford as an East Asian Studies major (China concentration, from more of an economic/political perspective than a humanistic one, though I am interested in the latter). I plan to do at least some study abroad in my time at college, and the quality of their china program is very important to me. Any advice? I'll be visiting both schools later this month but I really want to figure out which school is academically better suited to my interests before I visit, so that I won't be as influenced by my aesthetic attachment to either campus.</p>
<p>Also, can you give me a feel as to the overall environment and atmosphere? I'm not exactly sure about the eating club scene at Princeton, but I also worry that the strength of the engineering program at Stanford has detracted from its reputation in other areas. Oh, and I go to phillips exeter, so it doesn't make a difference to me whether the school is ED or EA since the college office will make me enroll if I'm accepted early regardless of policy.</p>
<p>1). ED is more forgiving
2.) It's the second or third best IVY
3). Most importantly: You won't be competing with me and the others on this board for SCEA.</p>
<p>I believe Stanford's Econ department is one of the strongest with several Nobel prize winner, and have symbolic systems as a major.</p>
<h1>1 is the most important though. The fact that ED is more forgiving helps your cause since they know you will attend, which improves its statistics.</h1>
<p>It will cater to your every whims. If you want to, you can go study abroad in Beijing through Stanford's overseas studies program and study post-Mao economic reforms and how it shapes China's industrial power. Whatever your heart desires. They give research money out so generously. That's what I've been told. As long as you have a proposal and a faculty member, anything's possible.</p>
<p>Stanford is strong in several departments: psychology, economics, human biology, engineering, creative writing, etc.</p>
<p>What other school can boast of an engineering department as strong as its humanities department?</p>
<p>I love the people at Stanford. When I was at MIT CPW, I felt very humbled to be surrounded by geniuses. You know, your average IMO/IBO/IChO participant, RSI kids, INTEL/SW finalists. But at Stanford, I felt grateful to be surrounded by so much passion.</p>
<p>are you saying stanford didn't really exhibit that, or are you saying that those students were of those qualifications, but just didn't intimidate you due to their attitude?</p>
<p>If you want to study East Asian stuff, Penn would have a particularly strong problem (by reputation at least). But Stanford & Princeton would have good ones as well.</p>
<p>Stanford economics is the best outside of Chicago and Harvard.</p>
<p>What do you mean with "Oh, and I go to phillips exeter, so it doesn't make a difference to me whether the school is ED or EA since the college office will make me enroll if I'm accepted early regardless of policy."
I'm confused cause SCEA is non-binding</p>
<p>Well, the college office encourages us to enroll at our early action school even though it's nonbinding. The philosophy is that we've already been accepted to our first choice school, so there's no reason to apply to more schools and hog up slots. It's not required obviously; but most people abide by it for the sake of being fair. If i were accepted EA I would not apply anywhere else.</p>
<p>What if your first choice offered you decent but not great financial aid. Wouldn't wanna see if other schools might do better? Or is that not a major issue?</p>
<p>My school has that policy also, expect it IS required that you attend your early school, whether it be EA or ED. </p>
<p>Princeton has a fantastic econ department--it is the #1 major there. But if you wanted to study abroad...it doesn't happen much there, as junior papers make it inconvenient. The best way to decide is to visit both schools.</p>
<p>As someone who got into both P'ton and Stanford RD, I feel somewhat qualified to tell you that it's not worth committing yourself to Princeton ahead of time. Although both are technically 'academic jock schools', they have very different cultures. Princeton in particular has strong currents of anti-intellectualism and jingoism that you may wish to be aware of before making a possible irrevocable RD decision.
Princeton in particular has a reputation for having the same (low) admit rate but admitting a different (perhaps inferior?) pool of students.</p>
<p>None of this is to malign Princeton (I chose Stanfordia for the weather), but weigh what you will do with great care. Do not make a decision based simply on tactical machinations</p>
<p>
[quote]
Princeton in particular has strong currents of anti-intellectualism and jingoism that you may wish to be aware of before making a possible irrevocable RD decision.
Princeton in particular has a reputation for having the same (low) admit rate but admitting a different (perhaps inferior?) pool of students.
[/quote]
I'm curious where you get this from. The low admit rate/different pool is leftover from Fred Hargadon who was Dean of Admissions.....and at Stanford before Princeton. But where do you get the jingoism?</p>
<p>Study abroad isn't a big factor on either campus like it is at schools like Northwestern and Darthmouth, I think. </p>
<p>As for the "anti-intellectualism and jingoism" I think that's just flatly false. As for the comment about the pool of RD students, Princeton under their new Adcom chief is going for the same top students HSY is. To be admitted to Princeton RD is \a big deal.</p>
<p>I get it from visiting, talking to students at princeton, talking to former princeton students (including family members), talking to princeton professors.
I'm not making an absolute statement. But compared to Stanford (or Yale for that matter), I stand behind my statement. If it sounds extreme, it is solely to lift it up into relief juxtaposed to Stanford.</p>
<p>jingoism: "extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism." (dictionary.com)</p>
<p>are you sure you're using the right word here, iki? because this is a fairly heady charge. let me say this, although anecdotally: i'm a bit closer to the princeton scene than you are, having ACCEPTED its RD offer, and i have seen almost nothing of the sort at princeton. in fact, polls by the daily princetonian over the last couple of years show princeton students to be more liberal and more anti-war than their counterparts elsewhere. for example, a mere 28% of princeton students expressed approval of president bush's performance in a 2003 poll, while 61% of college students at large did. this is, of course, an imperfect proxy for campus "jingoism," but it certainly doesn't confirm the presence of any "strong currents" of the stuff at princeton. remember, this is the university that produced james madison, woodrow wilson, norman thomas, JFK (dropped out with health issues and later transferred to harvard) and ralph nader, among others, whose current faculty includes paul krugman, cornel west, and sean wilentz, and whose informal motto is "in the nation's service and in the service of all nations."</p>
<p>In the context of their school, they are most definitely jingoistic. Don't limit yourselves to a Westfalian paradigm, and assume that the patria can also be a non-nation state (i.e. a college...). If you accepted the RD offer (I almost did too), perhaps you remember the scene from a musical they played at Admit Weekend the refrain of which was effectively "You've gotten into/You're at Princeton; You've got it made! YAY Yay Yay Ra Ra Ra." Perhaps this was but a scene from a larger musical; and perhaps within that musical it assumed an ironic nature. But no such irony was evident when we saw it.</p>
<p>The same attitude to the school (and again, I'm not talking about national politics) manifested itself in many students (and students who were to attend in the c/o 2009). Finally, I know many alums who have such an attitude. The only school with more rabid followers is ND (maybe). (Witness Princeton's highest alum giving rate by far).</p>
<p>Finally, let me point out that this isn't necessarily a negative per se. I liked it at first - I want to attend a school with strong spirit, a sense of belonging, pride. I can become chauvinistic at times myself.</p>
<p>But not all people have as bellicose and affirmation-seeking personality as I. Hence, traits that I may have like, others might characterize as jingoistic (patria qua scola), chauvinist etc...</p>
<p>If it matters to you, I've heard Princeton is GENEROUS with financial aid. I don't know about Stanford, though. If it is me, I will have applied early to the school that would give me the least amount of debt.</p>