I’ve been admitted SCEA to Princeton and am now basically waiting on MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley. I would drop everything to go to MIT or Cal, but it’s the Princeton vs Stanford question I’m conflicted about. I plan to go to grad school eventually.
These are my main pros of each college.
Stanford - Great research if you can get it, in Silicon Valley so more tech opportunities
Princeton - Emphasis on undergrads, beautiful and historic campus
Can someone weigh in with their opinions?
What does your heart say? Your avatar is interesting.
Until you get into Stanford (which has under a 5% acceptance rate) it is a moot point. Wait until you have all your options (you may get into MIT or Cal) and then decide.
Congrats on the Princeton acceptance.
(You put your question under Ivy League but Stanford is not an Ivy League school)
@AboutTheSame Yeah… As soon as I got into Princeton I was so hyped I changed my avatar to what it is now, but I got some time to cool off and now I’m rationally weighing the rest of my options.
Honestly? My heart says Princeton. I did research at Stanford and wasn’t particularly blown away. The problem is a) I haven’t visited Princeton b) I don’t know if going to Princeton is going to come off as bad when I inevitably apply for tech jobs.
@happy1 Thank you! And that’s absolutely true. I’ll bother you again when those two decisions come out. ?
Good luck with your other decisions… with the Princeton acceptance in hand you are already in fantastic shape.
If you have any doubts about where to attend in the end you can try to revisit your top couple of schools during accepted student day. But when the time comes to decide I’d go with your gut as they are all outstanding schools.
Regarding first job out of college, would you be more interested in Wall Street or a little startup?
Since you have been accepted to Princeton, the answer at this point is easy.
@ucbalumnus Neither actually. My parents had rough experiences with startups, and I’ve never been into Wall Street. My dream is either to work at Boston Dynamics (robotics) or at FAANG.
@Publisher Sorry if I’m being obtuse, but do you mean go with Princeton?
Yes, go with Princeton. Stanford’s admit rate is so low that it is best to appreciate what you have at this point.
If you are accepted to other schools, such as MIT or Stanford, then it would be reasonable to discuss your options.
Congratulations on your acceptance to Princeton !
@Publisher Understood and thank you! Sage advice, I’ll try to not get twisted up over those three now. If I get another acceptance (or more! ?) I’ll revisit this.
Time to enjoy & celebrate ! Congratulations !
We visited Princeton and loved it. We live near Stanford and love it. Totally different venues and culture. Both are outstanding choices. Good luck and congrats!
One last thing, you do realize that 4 of the 5 FAANG stocks are HQ’ed in the vicinity of Stanford.
A few years old, but…
Great article dated April 25, 2017 reflecting a study of employment during 2016 & the first 2 months of 2017.
The top 25 schools which placed undergraduate & graduate tech workers at Silicon Valleys largest employers are:
UCal-Berkeley
Stanford
Carnegie Mellon Univ.
USC
Univ. of Texas at Austin
Georgia Tech
Illinois
San Jose State
UC-San Diego
Arizona State University
Univ. of Michigan
UCLA
NC State
CalPoly
Cornell
Univ. of Waterloo
Texas A&M
University of Washington
Purdue
MIT
Santa Clara
University of Phoenix
UC-Santa Barbara
UC-Davis
Penn State
You really need to visit Princeton. Sample of one, but my daughter [accepted to Dartmouth and Harvard] did not even want to apply after visiting. It has its own vibe, as does Stanford of course, but, as a Cal Bear, I’ll be silent on that score. 
That’s tough. Since my son wasn’t interested in CS, the decision was very easy. Having visited Princeton during the Preview Day sealed the deal for good right on the spot. By far the best campus we’ve visited. In fact, the word “campus” originated at Princeton.
Wait until all the results are in. Just by the fact that you’ve been admitted to Princeton doesn’t mean you’d get into Berkeley or MIT or Stanford or anywhere else – and vice versa. Once the results are in, compare the FA offers; they don’t necessarily come close to one another and that could make you tilt your decision one way or the other. Do the Preview or Admitted Day for all the schools that admitted you. For CS, of course, Berkeley and Stanford do very well in job placements, but I haven’t heard of any Princeton CS graduates subsisting on food stamps, either. Go with your guts, provided all FA being pretty equal or a non-factor.
The schools on you list have very different cultures, so if you can visit that may help (assuming you get additional acceptances). Our S currently at Stanford CS so I found your assessment of research there interesting. S has been involved in research at one of Stanford’s AI labs since his freshman year summer with increasing responsibilities. He’s been a contributor to 3 papers published at major AI conferences (with another that was just submitted). As far as internships, he’s had 4 (counting this summer that he’s already committed to). One was at a FAANG which hires broadly, but the other three were at SV startups (one a unicorn) that hire mostly from area schools. Interestingly, all his internships came about via networking as opposed to the resume upload route.
FAANG are well known enough that you can apply from anywhere.