Princeton vs. Yale vs. Stanford?

College Search & Selection
1

Hey everyone! This is my first ever CC post because I can usually find existing threads that apply to my questions but this one is a little bit more personal and specific to me.
This week, I was lucky enough to have been admitted to Princeton, Yale and Stanford, and as I was not expecting to get into any of them, I have no idea which to choose. I’m interested in Math and CS and I live in Cambridge, MA. Here are my impressions from what I’ve read and heard so far:

Princeton – In terms of math, Princeton is the place to be. It’s ranked #1 in math and has amazing faculty. Plus, it is right next to the Institute of Advanced Studies which has world renowned mathematicians. Princeton is also up there in computer science of course, and it seems to be more research geared than Stanford, which I have read is extremely heavily affected by the Silicon Valley industry culture. Socially however, I have heard that Princeton has a more competitive vibe because of the remnants of grade deflation, and the environment is definitely not laid back. Location wise, I don’t have any strong opinions except that I lived in Princeton for some time and so I still have many family friends in the area which could be nice if I need to get off campus for a little bit, and of course, it’s pretty close to home.

Stanford – Obviously, Stanford CS is amazing, but like I said before, the Silicon Valley industry culture is pretty prominent. Also, I have read quite a few articles that discuss the number of students who end up majoring in CS after entering Stanford for completely unrelated majors such as Linguistics. This means that the CS department is probably pretty competitive, and also quite large, decreasing the chances of me creating meaningful relationships with faculty. I don’t know too much about their math department, only that it’s pretty strong. Socially I also don’t know too much about Stanford, but I have heard that it’s more laid back and less preppy than Princeton and Yale. Also, it’s across the country from me which is a little bit scary but also exciting. One thing that I’m curious about is what people think about the quarter system?

Yale – Out of the three, academically, Yale is weakest in math and CS. However, they are currently trying to strengthen their CS department and so they are making new hires and pouring a lot of money into it. So, if there time to go to Yale for CS, it seems as though that time is now. Socially, I like Yale the most from what I’ve heard/read. It seems as though a lot of students are politically active and I really like the residential college system. It’s also only 2 hours away from Cambridge which I like.

Any advice anyone can give me is welcome. Thanks so much!

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First of all, congratulations! You must know that there are no wrong choices here - you can have a fantastic undergraduate education and experience at any one of these schools.

Please remember that as an undergrad, you are going for a holistic liberal arts and sciences education. Even if you are specifically interested in math and CS, you’ll take most of your classes outside of those departments. It seems like you are already, but be sure to consider the whole picture of the university and not just the CS and math departments.

Departmental rankings are really relevant to doctoral programs and research comparisons; that doesn’t mean that doesn’t trickle down in some fashion to undergrads, but they’re not perfectly correlated. Still, Yale has a very strong math department; according to the [url=<a href=“https://www.chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124743%5DNRC%5B/url”>https://www.chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124743]NRC[/url], it’s about on par with Stanford’s and perhaps a slight notch below Princeton’s.

I think that you can cultivate meaningful relationships with faculty at Stanford - there are lots of CS professors there, and not every student is going to be looking for close relationships with faculty members.