<p>I'm currently deciding to apply among the four choices and I'm hoping to eliminate at least two of them since my list of colleges is too large atm (12). Can people name the pros/cons for each college? I plan to major in either a biology/chemistry related field or maybe engineering.</p>
<p>PS. I'm new to collegeconfidential :D</p>
<p>If you need more info just ask.</p>
<p>Princeton has a beautiful campus. It is suburban and has about 1hr to either NYC or Philly. It does not have Greek life and replaces this with eating clubs which add to a Princeton experience. </p>
<p>Yale is beautiful as well but is not in the safest area. New Haven is getting better safety wise but is still not safe. Yales coolest thing for me is the housing system. You get sorted into houses like in hogwarts!</p>
<p>Columbia has the best location but has a very strict core curriculum. It’s campus is nice but is also smaller and more urban than the others. </p>
<p>Stanford is beautiful in a California way. It is in a decent location. </p>
<p>If I were you I’d eliminate Columbia and Stanford. Question: why are you scaling down your list?</p>
<p>EDIT: for your major, do the opposite of what I say above. Yes to Stanford and Columbia, no to the other two.</p>
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<p>Why Columbia? For engineering, Stanford and Princeton are the clear best two. For bio/chem, they’re all pretty great - I don’t think the differences amount to much. Really, all four schools are fantastic in their own individual way but appeal to different types of individuals. Have you visited them all? Some love Columbia being in the middle of NYC and others hate it. Some love the California sun and more suburban feel of Stanford and others not so much. It’s really personal preference. People on this site can give their own opinions but ultimately it’s up to you where you think you’d be happiest. It’s obviously very competitive to get into any of these four institutions as well. Good luck!</p>
<p>^ agreed. If you’re going to eliminate two of them, it should be Yale and Columbia, but again it all comes down to personal preference, which will be far more important than the quality of biology/chemistry/whatever.</p>
<p>If you’re going for environment, then Stanford is the place to be.
California is amazing.</p>
<p>^Btw ‘Phantasmagoric’, I love your name!</p>
<p>would anyone mind giving similar advice for a prospective international relations/political science undergrad? i live right by stanford, but don’t want to rule it out quite yet. columbia sounds amazing…?</p>
<p>If you’re gunning for international relations/political science, then all 4 are extremely strong and may be the be the absolute best in these areas sans Harvard. I would rank them as 1.) Yale, 2.) Princeton, 3.) Stanford and 4.) Columbia but really any of them will be perfectly fine. Yale is probably the most politically active of the bunch, Princeton has Woody Woo which you can look into, Stanford has an incredible faculty but is probably the least politically active of the bunch and Columbia has all of the resources of NYC at its disposal which gives ample opportunities for year-long internships.</p>
<p>I would lean Yale if I were you though. The residential system is absolutely incredible.</p>
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<ol>
<li>Stanford = Princeton</li>
<li>Yale = Columbia</li>
</ol>
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<ol>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Columbia = Stanford</li>
</ol>
<p>I just want to point out that, of all the colleges listed here, Yale is the only one that makes Princeton Review’s list of top 10 happiest colleges. (I think. Correct me if I’m wrong. :P)</p>
<p>^ Stanford’s currently ranked #2 or 3, in the past #1 for happiest students. Stanford’s also the only one of those listed that makes the top 20 for best quality of life (and #3 for best classroom experience, though Princeton is #10).</p>