<p>I just got admitted by these 2 wonderful schools and am doing tons of research on where to go. But the general comments on these schools do tend to contradict each other and I am getting a bit overwhelmed with all the points I need to focus on, so I thought I'd post some info about myself and ask for everyone's opinion.</p>
<p>I am an international student, and although I did not apply for FA I am no means rich. I come from a middle-class family, and have spent most of my life in warm harbor cities.</p>
<p>I am not sure of my main academic interest, but am looking into Literature, History, Communication and Economics. For my career I am wavering between a) going into journalism then perhaps law school and b) finance. </p>
<p>I am quite chill haha, and I love to socialize. The main thing I look for in a university is diversity of opportunities. I have also been admitted by Columbia and although I love NYC, I don't believe its overall academic quality/rigor is on par with Stanford and Princeton.</p>
<p>My main concern with Princeton is its competitive and academic-oriented atmosphere, and its rumored "snobbiness" (eating clubs).</p>
<p>My main concern with Stanford is that its humanities/social sciences might tend to be weaker than Pton and its job placement in law and finance might be weaker too.</p>
<p>Between Stanford and Princeton, I would not worry about academic rigor. Look at the environment and what meets your needs in terms of opportunities–internships, social, professional networking, etc.</p>
<p>A Pulitzer Prize-winner who writes for the New Yorker and author of 29 books John McPhee '53 said he is pleased with the journalism programs growth since his days as a student in the 1950s, when creative fiction was the only writing course offered. As a practitioner of nonfictional writing, Im really quite interested in the fact that this subject has ten professors coming to teach it now, he said, adding that not having a certificate gives the program a sort of flexibility and variety. He noted that the greatest strength of the journalism program comes from the individual professors who create courses with their own unique writing experience in mind. Evan Thomas, editor-at-large for Newsweek who as written seven books and over 100 cover stories on national and international news is also on on the faculty. The professors of journalism are practicing journalists from publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, and the International Herald Tribune. See: [Princeton</a> University Council of the Humanities](<a href=“http://humanities.princeton.edu/courses/fall2011/jrn/]Princeton”>http://humanities.princeton.edu/courses/fall2011/jrn/) </p>
<p>Founded in 1900 The University Press Club selects undergraduates to write paid article about Princeton for newspapers including the New York Times, The Newark Star-Ledger, The Trentonian, The Times of Trenton, and university publications. Former members are a who’s who of the publishing world including magazine founders, editor in chiefs and presidential speech writers. The web site The Ink is a blog of the press club’s articles. See: [The</a> Ink](<a href=“http://www.universitypressclub.com/]The”>http://www.universitypressclub.com/) </p>
<p>Graduates of the Bendheim Center for finance are sought after by Wall Street. See: [Bendheim</a> Center for Finance - Bendheim Center for Finance - Princeton University](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/bcf/]Bendheim”>Princeton's Bendheim Center for Finance) If you are mathematically inclined the Operations Research and Financing Engineering has become one of the most popular majors on campus. See: [Operations</a> Research and Financial Engineering | Engineering for Business, Commerce and Industry](<a href=“http://orfe.princeton.edu/]Operations”>http://orfe.princeton.edu/) </p>
<p>My main concern with Princeton is its competitive and academic-oriented atmosphere, and its rumored “snobbiness” (eating clubs). </p>
<p>The reputation for snobbiness started with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels. The novels were written 100 years ago. It is an outdated rumor. Half of the eating clubs are sign in clubs which means if you want to join the club you simply sign in and you are a member. How can that be snobby? At most college campuses fraternities develop a reputation for attracting certain students. Similarly the selective clubs at Princeton are based around student activities. Football and lacrosse players gravitate to one club and music, fine art, and theater students gravitate to another club. Money has little affect on the club you join. Scholarships cover the cost of joining a club. Unlike fraternities students do not live in the clubs and all clubs are coed. Most Princeton alumni prefer the eating club system to fraternities and sororities and consider the time they spent in their club to be a memorable part of their Princeton experience.</p>
<p>Students from other universities complain that the eating clubs are snobby when they are denied admission after attending a football or basketball game. The clubs restrict admission to the clubs because they are legally required to do so. Club presidents can and have been arrested when the club has served an under age minor. If you were a club president would you risk going to jail because the club allowed, for example, an under age Univ. Of Penn student to have a drink in your club? A Princeton ID is your access to the clubs.</p>
<p>Eiswein, I hope that I have earned a little credibility with you for accuracy. I believe I responded to your questions on alumni interviews.</p>
<p>Stanford is the dream school ! Go for It ! It is excellent at all the points (academics/fun/sports…) and It has the most beautiful campus (in my eyes)</p>
<p>Really? What makes you say that? Harvard, Princeton, and Wharton are the top three places you can go for finance, and Princeton’s proximity to New York is a HUGE plus. Not to mention Princeton’s basically the most well connected school you can go to since the alumni are so enthusiastic about helping other Princetonians (as evidence I will cite our 60% donation rate).</p>
<p>Wow. I had no idea Princeton’s Comp Lit program was so highly thought of now. The department chair was one of my first professors. She’s fantastic.</p>
<p>For history, in the S-rank Princeton is 1-4, Stanford is 9-21. In the R-rank, Princeton is 2-12, and Stanford is 2-10. (essentially the same)</p>
<p>For econ, in the S-rank Princeton is 2-4, Stanford is 7-12. In the R-rank, Princeton is 4-8, Stanford is 5-12. (slight edge to Princeton)</p>
<p>For communication, Stanford is 1 across the board, Princeton unranked.</p>
<p>This doesn’t tell a *very *different story from what you posted (because the differences found in the rankings you posted are negligible anyway), but those are not the NRC rankings.</p>
<p>(for those who are unfamiliar with how the new NRC rankings work, all rankings are reported as a range within a 90% interval of confidence, so a rank of 2-5 means that in in 90% of the cases, the department ranks within that range. The S-rank is a measure of quality based on attributes that faculty say are important, and the R-rank is essentially a measure of reputation, inferred by properties found in programs that faculty deem exemplary. Both are recognized as equally valid by the NRC committee. But the rankings are always stated as fluid ranges.)</p>
<p>edit:</p>
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</p>
<p>The poster stated his opinion and you even contradict that? (He even said “in my eyes”)</p>
<p>Believe it or not, many people don’t fall head over heels for Princeton’s buildings, in the same way you don’t fall for Stanford’s. ;)</p>
<p>I was curious about what lists of “most beautiful campuses” have been compiled. I thought it was funny that the first image that popped up, in the first list I came across, was of Stanford. So Jossito is not too far off. :p</p>
<p>Princeton’s there too of course. I think at these kinds of schools, none are “more” beautiful than others, and none are more widely acknowledged as such than others. Of course, there are people who think MIT’s campus is beautiful too. ;)</p>
<p>and, yes the top ten rankings that I posted were used to show that Princeton and Standard are relatively close in these rankings.</p>
<p>as an example, you posted this:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As you can see here, the blended ranking result shows new 5/95 ranges for each university:</p>
<p>
Comparative Literature
1-5 Princeton
1-7 Harvard
1-7 Stanford
1-7 UC Berkeley
1-8 UMCP
3-9 Duke
3-9 Yale
4-11 Brown
6-12 Penn
8-16 NYU
by the way, interestingly, if "Research Productivity" is also given a "5" high priority (along with the s and r ranking priorities), the following would result:
Comparative Literature
1-5 Princeton
1-7 Stanford
1-7 UC Berkeley
1-8 Yale
3-11 Brown
3-11 UMCP
3-11 Harvard
4-12 Chicago
4-12 Penn
5-12 Duke
<p>phanta, I am sorry, but maybe I missed it. Can you please copy/paste my post where I stated that I didn’t think that Stanford had a beautiful campus?</p>
<p>and Princeton’s Shea Rowing Center located on the beautiful 1 1/2 mile Lake Carnegie owned by Princeton and located right next to the Main Campus:</p>
<p>That’s what I was saying–yes, I’m aware you can use PhDs.org to come up with a specific ranking, but it’s not right to pass it off as the NRC rankings (which intentionally state them as ranges, and that site is to just help tailor the data to your own ranking. FWIW, this is something I’ve said in many threads before, not just here).</p>
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<p>I was kidding around–seriously, calm down. (I was more amused that you actually contradicted an opinion of someone who also said “in my eyes.”)</p>
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<p>Well, yes, in the opinion of *every *person, it’s not the same. One glance at them and you can tell they’re two different buildings. ;)</p>
<p>But it’s not the opinion of “most people” that that building, or Princeton in general, is more beautiful. Again, you’ll probably find just as many people who say the same of Stanford as of Princeton. You’re splitting hairs, really.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m completely turned off by Princeton’s architecture (too New England/brick-y/faux Oxbridge), and would dislike a hugely prominent chapel on my campus. But that doesn’t mean other people don’t think it’s the most beautiful campus in the world. All this is true of Stanford as well; some don’t like it, some do. edit: I’ll add that I look for more in the beauty of a campus than just pretty buildings; also important are the natural setting (Stanford’s famous for its little nature groves nestled between buildings), continuity in aesthetics, organization of the buildings, layout of the campus, pathways that take you through the most aesthetically pleasing angles, and entryways (no other college has such a view of their campus as the view of Stanford coming down Palm Drive).</p>
<p>FWIW, when you search “most beautiful college campuses” in google, you get the link I posted above, and then:</p>
<p>I’m not trying to “prove” one is more beautiful than the other, rather that your perception that more people find Princeton’s campus the most beautiful (over Stanford’s) is skewed. I wouldn’t say the same of Stanford, either, as other lists show Princeton above Stanford.</p>
<p>ha!, now this is getting really funny. If Princeton’s buildings are much prettier than Stanford’s then the grounds beat it by a factor of ten.</p>
<p>the “little natural groves” at Stanford that you speak of are mostly dirt with a couple of trees that have dry leaves. The pathways are mostly made out of asphalt (seriously, I always wondered why Stanford, such a wealthy university has so much asphalt in its grounds). The beautiful “Lake Lagunita” has been dried up for decades…etc etc etc</p>
<p>^ I’m beginning to think you spent at best a few minutes on Stanford’s campus.</p>
<p>I’ve spent time on both, and again, in my opinion, Stanford’s grounds beat Princeton’s by a long shot. And “mostly dirt with a couple of trees that have dry leaves”? </p>
<p>Pathways are generally made from cement, brick, cobblestones, etc. The streets are, of course, made of asphalt.</p>
<p>Lake Lagunita has not been “dried for decades”–they stopped filling it in 2000 (because of an endangered species), though it fills up partially every year from the rains.</p>
<p>And again, I look for many other factors, like building organization and campus layout. Stanford’s is very logical: a main quad (mostly humanities and social sciences) surrounded by smaller quads connected by pathways, each one with a different focus. Other buildings are clustered around these quads and also follow the focus, making distinct “academic precincts” on campus.</p>
<p>It’s like you’re not even attempting to be evenhanded. Or to acknowledge that everyone else’s opinion of beauty is not necessarily the same as yours.</p>
<p>(Is this what Princeton students are resorting to to get students to attend? I mean, I know the yield sucks at Princeton, and Stanford takes 2/3 of the cross-admits, but come on, this is just sad.)</p>
<p>Stanford’s campus is arid and uniform (and insufferable in the summer). Princeton is gorgeous and green (except in the winter). California is great, but the Princeton campus has it hands-down (especially if you like gothic and colonial architecture as opposed to adobe and mediterranean tile).</p>
Thank you again for those informative links.</p>![http://www.ronsaari.com/stockImages/newJersey/PrincetonBlairHallInSnowM.jpg[/url]](http://www.ronsaari.com/stockImages/newJersey/PrincetonBlairHallInSnowM.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
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