Princeton vs. Stanford

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>phanta, I spent 4 years at Princeton and 2 years at Stanford.</p>

<p>As I stated before, Stanford has a beautiful campus, but again no where near Princeton’s - and part of it is the desire for Stanford to use asphalt in most of the walkways and general grounds - compared to Princeton’s stoned and cobblestone walkways and grass. This, of course, could be that there are about 20,000 students at Stanford v. 7,500 at Princeton. Due to the drier weather at Stanford, the vegetation is minor compared to Princeton. In addition there are busy streets through much of the campus, which are mixed in with parking lots - something that you just don’t see at Princeton.</p>

<p>this gives you an example of the dryness that can be observed at Stanford most of the year:</p>

<p><a href=“http://ralf.zenfolio.com/california/stanford_university/h18db4915#h18db4915[/url]”>http://ralf.zenfolio.com/california/stanford_university/h18db4915#h18db4915&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>so please, stop with the personal insults</p>

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<p>I’ve been to Stanford many times because a close relative went to Stanford. Princeton’s buildings are definitely nicer looking, sorry. In the fall, there is probably no place in the United States more beautiful than Princeton.</p>

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<p>I have several friends whose kids are in Stanford. The alumni network cannot compare to Princeton’s.</p>

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<p>Having had a daughter who completed Stanford in 09 and numerous friends of hers who completed or are now at Princeton I can say that the issues you are comparing are not as insignificant as # of trees, pavement, or buildings. As a young college student what you benefit from most is relationships with professors, establishing your direction through involvement with campus gov’t, internships, research, or mentoring during a seminar in your major or your own advisor.
Make no mistake; Stanford is a monster research institution. lower division classes in many majors tend to be quite huge; taught sometimes by profs,(when they are not on their book tour) and most often relationships with T.A’s are the best you can hope for.
My daughters boyfriend was on of the last and smallest graduates of comparative lit…last I heard they were not going to offer it as a major.? Its a withering department as of 09’
The weather is fabulous however, the campus very diverse, and there is many more things outdoorsy to focus on and de-stress in the environment. Hiking , the coast, weekend ski trips, backpacking, a jaunt to SF. Sailing, kayaking…fabulous rec facilities, and amazing sports.</p>

<p>My daughters friends at Princeton are far more into partying, boozing it up via the clubs
and it is a much more preppy , fashionista environment. My understanding is that the advising is more individualized, more personal, class size smaller, more grade inflation with less work than Stanford in most subjects.</p>

<p>Stanford does have a frosh soph seminar…where you will be with a core group in a smaller class for Num. topics. Nice try…but after that advising really seemed like a crap shoot. At Stanford you become a very small fish in pretty big pond of international
scholars. Princeton seems to focus more on the undergraduate experience.</p>

<p>If you are able to handle, mental health wise, the months of *** weather, and the lack of healthy weekend recreation …it seems like a better undergrad program for what you say your interests are.
Stanford is more focused on bio sciences, eng, and pre prof grad school programs.
There is somewhat of an option to design a integrative major at Stanford, very interesting if you are very self directed…but again a vague direction without a mentor or close advisor. GOOD luck…</p>

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<p>This, coming from the person who’s notorious in the Stanford forum for putting Stanford down constantly whenever he can. (I haven’t seen you say one single positive thing about Stanford in the time I’ve posted on this site. Many other posters have pointed out that you started doing this when your child didn’t get into Stanford, though I won’t go so far as to make that claim. You just don’t seem to like Stanford.)</p>

<p>japanoko,</p>

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<p>According to you and a subset of the population. Not according to a lot of other people (as evidenced by the lists that I posted earlier–what do you have to say about those?).</p>

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<p>“Drier weather”? When it’s next to the Bay and not far from the ocean? I have no idea how you can say it’s “minor” compared to Princeton–Stanford’s green year round. Princeton isn’t. And I really, really doubt that Princeton has more vegetation than Stanford.</p>

<p>How is that picture you linked to “dry”? The poor quality of the picture makes the sun glare. You won’t be able to convince anyone that Stanford is “dry”–every morning you wake up with fog on campus! It’s gone by 9 or 10am, but you can’t even bike to class early in the morning without getting mist on your glasses.</p>

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<p>Where have I personally insulted you? I’m simply saying that you keep asserting your personal opinion of beauty as fact. Now you’re making stuff up and won’t even make a *small *concession not in favor of Princeton. It really damages credibility when you can’t seem to try to be evenhanded.</p>

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<p>I live about 3 miles from Stanford, and my father was professor there until he retired. I went to Princeton, as did my 2 children. Northern California is infinitely more beautiful than any part of New Jersey. But Stanford’s campus, most likely in an admirable attempt to conserve water, uses A LOT of gravel, all over. And asphalt. So in terms of campus beauty? Princeton. Environment beauty? Stanford.</p>

<p>Now let’s talk education. Stanford is better if you know you want to go right away into a high tech startup. Or, for example, to work for Facebook:). But, if you want an intimate education, with a lot of one:one time with professors, go to Princeton. The East Coast is a little scary and formal, for us Californians, but Princeton is an extremely friendly place. Especially for extroverts, but even the introverts can usually find their cohort.</p>

<p>Have fun. It’s good to be young:).</p>

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<p>@Alumother</p>

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<p>I honestly can’t think of a single place on campus with gravel… so I google mapped it and couldn’t find any there either. Asphalt? Yes (mainly the streets). But no gravel.</p>

<p>@genevas</p>

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<p>Lower division classes at Princeton are, gasp, large too. But it’s completely wrong to say that classes are “sometimes” taught by professors–they are always taught by professors (by the way, Princeton professors go on “book tours” too–rather, every professor at research universities gets time off to focus on research). Or to say “most often relationships with T.A’s are the best you can hope for,” which suggests that students can’t get involved with professors. Quite the contrary: there’s nothing stopping students from doing so. Of course you can settle for a relationship with your TA; but if you want, it’s easy to get involved with a professor. Go to their office hours (there’s almost never anyone there). Set up an appointment with them. Ask them to do independent study with you for 1-4 units. Offer to help out with their research projects. Invite them to Faculty Dinner (which are held in every residence each quarter).</p>

<p>By the way, 75% of Stanford’s courses have fewer than 15 students, and less than 2% exceed 120 students.</p>

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<p>That’s completely false. Comparative literature is ranked in the top 5. It’s as strong as ever–and yes, it’s still going to be a major. (Where are you getting your facts??)</p>

<p>[Program</a> of Study | Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/DLCL/cgi-bin/web/dept/complit/programs]Program”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/DLCL/cgi-bin/web/dept/complit/programs)</p>

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<p>Isn’t Princeton known more for grade deflation? Stanford doesn’t have a policy of deflation. In fact, the most recent measure of GPAs at Stanford had the average at 3.55.</p>

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<p>Except it also comes out in the top 5 in the world for humanities and social sciences. The heart of the campus, the main quad, is home to the humanities and social sciences. Not to mention lots of other buildings on campus dedicated to them.</p>

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<p>And I think this is illustrative. In reality, you are not allowed to design your own major *without *the supervision of a faculty adviser, and you also have to get other faculty to sign off on your proposed plan of study.</p>

<p>Everyone is required to have a major adviser. If you do research, you are required to have a research adviser. Before you declare your major, you are assigned a faculty pre-major adviser. You also have your dorm staff, your resident fellow (a faculty who lives in-residence), your residence dean and your academic director (both of whom are in residence), a departmental adviser, and full-time advising staff in the office of Undergraduate Advising and Research, which will give you same-day or next-day service if you request a meeting. You can even walk-in if you want (but you might have to wait a few minutes).</p>

<p>Many of the things you say were true of Stanford a long time ago… when you typed “09,” was that a typo?</p>

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<p>geneves, good post</p>

<p>I had heard about this from several people during the last couple of years, but have not posted it on Collegeboard:</p>

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<p>this I have also heard of this, but completely opposite from what you are stating here:</p>

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<p>phanta, seriously?</p>

<p>are you kidding me?</p>

<p>this is simply the most completely false statement that has ever been written on college confidential and it has now become apparent that you have SPENT VERY VERY LITTLE TIME AT EITHER STANFORD OR PRINCETON…</p>

<p>Stanford is separated from the ocean by the mountains. It sometime goes about 8 months without rain at Stanford and during the summer and early fall it can get very dry and dusty on the campus.</p>

<p>At Princeton, the rain comes down year round, and, in fact, during the period that Stanford is the driest, June to October, Princeton is the wettest…</p>

<p>here you can see the average precipitation per month for Princeton and Stanford:</p>

<p><a href=“http://snipurl.com/27r0gv[/url]”>http://snipurl.com/27r0gv&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>on average Princeton is wetter than Stanford by 32 inches of rain, or almost 3 inches per month more - a very very very signficant amount.</p>

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<p>phanta are you kidding again?</p>

<p>why in the world would you EVER post such false statements knowing full well that you are going to be corrected with the FACTS.</p>

<p>and here are the FACTS, straight from Stanford, it is called the most recent common data set for 2010-11:</p>

<p>[Stanford</a> University: Common Data Set 2010-2011](<a href=“http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/2010.html#faculty]Stanford”>http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/2010.html#faculty)</p>

<p>and these facts are that Stanford only has 70% of its classes with under** 20 **students, let alone 75% of the classes with fewer than 15 students. The difference is signficant, because it puts Stanford behind YHP, the top LAC’s and most of the Ivy League.</p>

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<p>And you haven’t been spouting false statement after false statement?</p>

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<p>Really? Because according to this</p>

<p>[Palo</a> Alto, California - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Palo Alto, California - Wikipedia”>Palo Alto, California - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>there’s not one single month that doesn’t have measurable rain.</p>

<p>And I wasn’t saying that it rains more at Stanford–the mountains create a rain shadow so that it rains less. But it’s completely wrong to say that it’s “dry” at Stanford, as you did. That’s the point I was making. That has to be the most false statement I’ve seen–there’s no way that it could be “dry” when every day there’s a fog hanging over the grounds. (Your claims otherwise make me think you haven’t spent “2 years at Stanford.” And the maturity of your posts makes me think you are still a high school student.)</p>

<p>As for class size data, the 75% figure includes introductory seminars (administered by the VPUE, not the registrar, which compiles the data for the CDS). I know this because I used to work in the office that administers introductory seminars. ;)</p>

<p>The 75% figure is also what Stanford generally says in its literature, and since it’s always touting the introductory seminars, it makes sense that its statistics include them.</p>

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<p>phanta so now you are using a definition of classes differently from what the Common Data Set uses and the majority of institutions that are credible use? Are you now pulling a Columbia and Duke on the rest of College Confidential for Stanford?</p>

<p>the fact is that you used the very 75% in another thread a couple of hours ago and compared it to Harvey Mudd’s <20 classes, which was defined as per the Common Data set…knowingly using apples/oranges comparisons.</p>

<p>you just cannot get more sleazy than this, can you?</p>

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<p>phanton, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?</p>

<p>you look at the AVERAGE rainfall for each month and from this you state that </p>

<p>“there’s not one single month that doesn’t have measurable rain.”</p>

<p>how in the world can you possibly say this with a straight face?</p>

<p>regarding the 8 months, I can say this because it was during a period that I was there…</p>

<p>and again, please stop with your personal attacks…</p>

<p>your slimy posts that include nothing but false statements do not look good here…</p>

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<p>Phantom, huh?</p>

<p>are you now saying that fog hangs over the Stanford grounds every day of the year?</p>

<p>really?</p>

<p>do you realize how far off you are in this?</p>

<p>geesh…this is getting embarrassing for you</p>

<p>really embarrassing!</p>

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<p>phanta, actually THIS is what you said, exactly:</p>

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<p>and one by one I will again comment on:</p>

<p>““Drier weather”? When it’s next to the Bay and not far from the ocean? I have no idea how you can say it’s “minor” compared to Princeton” - THIS IS A FALSE STATEMENT</p>

<p>“Stanford’s green year round” -** THIS IS A FALSE STATEMENT**</p>

<p>“Princeton isn’t” - THIS IS A FALSE STATEMENT</p>

<p>“really doubt that Princeton has more vegetation than Stanford” - THIS IS A FALSE STATEMENT</p>

<p>and finally, the ultimate false statement by you:</p>

<p>“there’s not one single month that doesn’t have measurable rain”</p>

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<p>This topic is completely and utterly pointless, and I think any third party perspective will see that you’re being obstinate.</p>

<p>I’m done with discussing anything with you, for three reasons:</p>

<ol>
<li>You are completely illogical, won’t listen even to actual data, and are so blinded by your fanboy obsession with Princeton that you won’t even make a tiny concession not in Princeton’s favor.</li>
<li>You think it’s possible for an opinion (like the perception of beauty) to be “correct”–indeed you think that your opinion is fact</li>
<li>You are completely rude, don’t know how to conduct a civil discussion, and can’t resist hurling insults and backhanded patronizing comments. Every single thread I’ve seen you post in, I’ve watched you do this.</li>
</ol>

<p>By the way, conducting yourself like this does nothing more than make you look childish and likely turns people off to Princeton, so you might want to work on that. In the meantime, look again at the terms of service on this site regarding courtesy (before you’re banned).</p>

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<p>Haters gonna hate.</p>

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<p>but phanta, it is YOU that has been completely and totally illogical</p>

<p>It is YOU that has posted false and misleading messages on almost all of your recent posts - false statement after false statement after false statement after false statement after false statement</p>

<p>It is YOU that has failed to review the FACTS</p>

<p>It is YOU that has hurled the personal insults and attacks</p>

<p>don’t believe me?..I would be more than glad to cut and paste to prove my points</p>

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<p>I used to live in the Bay area. Very little if any rain between April and October.</p>

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<p>There is so gravel. It is yellow. Maybe it’s decomposed granite, technically, but it’s kind of like compacted dust. Don’t get me wrong, I love living out here. But the Stanford campus is not lush, per se, except the lawn out front, the Oval.</p>