<p>When I visited Harvard and Yale the past week, it seems that most of the admitted students were going to choose either H or Y over P. </p>
<p>I'm curious to see if anyone who chose P over HY can explain why they did so. Anyone?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nber.org/papers/w10803.pdf?new_window=1[/url]”>http://www.nber.org/papers/w10803.pdf?new_window=1</a></p>
<p>Most top students choose Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Caltech, MIT over Princeton
Page 26</p>
<p>1 Harvard
2 Yale
3 Stanford
4 Cal Tech
5 MIT
6 Princeton
7 Brown
8 Columbia
9 Amherst</p>
<p>Harvard and Yale are more prestigious, although who cares because Princeton is just as good. It comes down to fit. Personally, I am a fan of Yale… everyone must make their choice based on fit.</p>
<p>If you want to get MD, PhD, JD after college, Princeton is NOT a good choice.
Very few Princeton graduates are enrolled at Harvard Yale Stanford Columbia, Law Med Business PhD programs…</p>
<p>@redvelvet - just a heads up (if you can’t already tell), jomjom is a ■■■■■, so just ignore his comments</p>
<p>@jomjom - my recent attendance to the Princeton Preview weekend proved to me that most of your comments on the Princeton forum, including the one above my post, are blatantly false</p>
<p>That’s funny, because most of the kids my pre-frosh met chose P over H and Y.</p>
<p>Main reasons they cited: felt safer on campus, students at P seemed to know their profs better than at Y or H (so profs could write more personalized and detailed recs for internships and grad schools), kids seemed sincerely friendly (some of the pre-frosh commented that Y seemed the friendliest at first, but it was so over-the-top that they felt “smothered.”</p>
<p>The thing to remember is that you can’t go wrong with any of these choices–the best one is the one that makes you feel more happy and comfortable.</p>
<p>
At Yale Law school last year, 90 are from Yale UG, 70 from Harvard UG, 33 from Stanford32 from Columbia … and … only 24 from Princeton</p>
<p>At Harvard Law, 300 students are from Harvard UG and about 50 from Princeton UG…</p>
<p>Stanford Law MEd Business PhD will NEVER admit more Princeton UG than Stanford UG</p>
<p>HYS UG have much higher chance of getting MD PhD JD MBA degrees from top grad school than Princeton UG… mainly because Princeton has no Med, Law, Business schools and tiny PhD program… and I think everyone agrees with this fact…</p>
<p>“HYS UG have much higher chance of getting MD PhD JD MBA degrees from top grad school than Princeton UG… mainly because Princeton has no Med, Law, Business schools and tiny PhD program… and I think everyone agrees with this fact…”</p>
<p>um… no</p>
<p>well usually ‘denial’ is the first stage…</p>
<p>and Here is the Yale Law School links…:
<a href=“http://www.yale.edu/bulletin/html/law/students.html[/url]”>http://www.yale.edu/bulletin/html/law/students.html</a></p>
<p>For Harvard Law school, only paper versions are available</p>
<p>^well, you’ve definitely hit the first stage</p>
<p>I’ve finally figured it out! Jomjom is really a Princeton supporter that wants to make Harvard supporters sound like idiots so that people choose Princeton over Harvard!</p>
<p>At this point, Jomjom has so discredited himself or herself with a lack of knowledge of Princeton (including his or her amazing belief that Princeton has medical, law and business schools–see: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062405687-post48.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062405687-post48.html</a> ) that there’s really no reason to respond. In fact, it has gone so far over the top that I now believe this might just be a high school student entertaining himself or herself in some sort of twisted way.</p>
<p>In response to Redvelvet’s question I would say this. At this level, the choice is almost never made on the basis of differences in the academics. All three (along with many others) are equally good choices in that regard, especially for undergraduates. I chose Princeton over both primarily because of my personal experiences visiting the three campuses and my interactions with students and professors at each. After those visits I felt drawn to Princeton. There is a historically long and deeply felt rivalry between Harvard and Yale. I found the comments of some students particularly at the latter to be somewhat off-putting in that regard. As other Princeton graduates have pointed out, Princeton doesn’t have a historical rival in this way. It has rivalries in particular sports (basketball with Penn and perhaps football with Harvard and Yale) but outside these shallow sorts of rivalries, there isn’t one school that Princeton considers its archrival. </p>
<p>Don’t confuse this with arrogance. It’s not that Princeton believes it is in a “league by itself.” Rather, it’s just that the institution is more inwardly focused, always trying to improve itself, not in comparison with some other institution but simply because it is trying to be the best version of “Princeton” that it can be and to make the decisions it believes are the right ones for it. Of course other institutions do this as well but I believe it is more true at Princeton and that it is something that helps maintain a clearer focus about its own future. </p>
<p>In some ways, Princeton is truly different from its peers. It is the only one of them that has made a firm decision to eschew professional education in the form of law, medical and business schools. This has caused Princeton to lose some opportunities and to have a slightly lower name recognition than some of its peers so there has been a price to pay. There is certainly nothing wrong with professional education (I chose Harvard for law school) but as an undergraduate there was something that appealed to me about an institution that was determined to stick to fundamental research in the humanities and sciences at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and to be so good at that research. (see: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062389021-post1.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062389021-post1.html</a> ) I knew that I would have a chance to attend another of these fine institutions for law school.</p>
<p>Here is the proof for Yale Law School
[Law</a> School Students](<a href=“http://www.yale.edu/bulletin/html/law/students.html]Law”>http://www.yale.edu/bulletin/html/law/students.html)</p>
<p><a href=“Princeton”>quote</a>as an undergraduate there was something that appealed to me about an institution that was determined to stick to fundamental research in the humanities and sciences at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and to be so good at that research. (see: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...021-post1.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...021-post1.html</a> ) I knew that I would have a chance to attend another of these fine institutions for law school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You will get good education at Princeton, but your chance of getting JD from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia etc… is not as high as Harvard, Yale, Stanford UGs.
because those Law schools will always admit their own UG the most…</p>
<p>I was waitlisted at Harvard and Stanford, but I did get into Duke, Berkeley and Cornell, but I’m choosing Princeton over all of them. Including Harvard, even if I get in. I’ve said it before, and will say it again: when comparing top schools like HYPSMC, there is little to no academic quality difference. Any ranking that says one school is better than another is subjective and arbitrary. That’s why some places list Princeton as number one, and others have them as 6th or 7th. Because in between those top schools (including Duke) the academic quality is pretty much all the same. </p>
<p>That’s why it comes down to fit. And that’s something jomjom will ever be able to argue or dispute. That’s why its so important that you visit at least once. If you are a Harvard-type student, then going to Princeton just because USNWR ranks it as Number 1 is stupid. If you are a Princeton-type student, then going to Harvard just because it has the most cross-admits enroll is equally stupid. The academic qualities of the respective schools are ultimately just about equal. So basing your decision on an arbitrary ranking system could potentially jeopardize your college career. Trust me, you will not live up to your potential no matter how hard you try if you go to a school that isn’t your ‘fit.’ You cannot and will not. I spent the past summer at Harvard’s Summer School Program. It’s campus was okay, the professors were excellent, but I decided then and there that I would never ever ever be able to spend four years in Cambridge. It’s just not for me. New Jersey - the entire state in general (barring Newark :P) - is more my type of place. It’s more quiet and conservative, and in general cleaner. Obviously, that’s not for everyone. And maybe, OP, it’s not for you. If I get into Harvard and go there, just because some random people on the internet deem it more ‘prestigious’, I’ll still get a good education. I won’t turn out badly. But I will not thrive in the same way that I would have had I gone to my ‘fit’ schools. So I sincerely hope that wherever you go - be it Harvard because you’re egocentric, Princeton because you’re a snobby socialite, Yale because you love ugly campuses and bad weather, or even Dartmouth because you abhor electricity, make sure you go there because of the campus and environment. Make sure you agree with the teaching philosophy - hands off (harvard) vs. hands on (princeton). Make sure you find the campus relatively okay, or at least that it’s negative sides are outweighed by all its other pluses. Make sure that there’s no doubt in your mind that you made the right decision because when you arrive on campus, it’s your home for the next four years. </p>
<p>I have a friend this year turning down MIT and Stanford for UT Dallas. Obviously, she’s bright and gifted. But Dallas gave her a great Fin-Aid offer and she just felt that she wouldn’t be able to thrive in the ‘choky’ MIT environment or the ‘too-lax’ Stanford campus. For her, Dallas was a happy medium and the environment issue actually outweighed her qualms about Dallas’s academic quality. Do I scorn her for it? Of course not - she made the right decision. And ultimately, you will have to as well.</p>
<p>Choose Princeton over Yale because it’s noticeably stronger in the hard sciences and engineering without being noticeably weaker elsewhere, or because Yale’s got kind of a “humanities school” feel to it, or because Yale kids are a little over-the-top (at least, that was the vibe I got at BDD), or because Princeton’s not in New Haven. Also Princeton has a reputation for unparalleled “undergrad focus,” which may or may not turn out to be a real advantage over Yale.</p>
<p>Choose Princeton over Harvard because the undergrad academics are stronger and the kids are substantially happier.</p>
<p>Or choose HY over Princeton because they honestly are marginally more prestigious, or because you hate the suburbs.</p>
<p>trominos, you are a student? Wise beyond your years you are…</p>
<p>Truth from t-san and trominos. Pick a school based on fit; simple as that. Honestly, I respect those people who can turn down the ivies and the big name schools, for it shows they actually went through the college process the right way. I would bet that those kids end up the happiest as well.</p>
<p>I’ll take Princeton over Harvard and Yale any day of the week for undergraduate. Princeton is basically a Liberal Arts University, it would be like matching up UC Berekly with Middlebury. Princeton is the richest (per student) school and offers the best undergraduate education. Harvard is the best graduate school in the country, Princeton is the best undergraduate.</p>
<p>Princeton vs MIT is a big issue for me, though. I keep hearing MIT has the best Economics program…</p>
<p>Jomjom is a ■■■■■ of sorts but it doesn’t mean his posts don’t have validity at all. There are distinct advantages to going to a university with strong professional schools in areas that one is interested in- e.g. UPenn pre-meds with the #3 med school next to the Quad; Columbia Law on the other side of Amsterdam Ave. which allows CC seniors to take a couple law school classes. Penn pre-meds have access to research opportunities at HUP/Children’s Hospital that would be more difficult to pursue at most other schools.</p>
<p>Princeton is quite a bit stronger than Yale in the natural sciences but slightly less renowned in the humanities. Yale has more prestige than Princeton owing to its professional schools, especially law.</p>
<p>MIT has the top economics department in the world, you can see on the econ job rumors blog where assistant faculty who have offers from several schools wind up. Both of the star recruits in the 2009 job market went to MIT this year.</p>