<p>I am deciding between Stanford and Princeton, and for a variety of reasons am leaning towards Princeton. I love its unique academic experience and the extracurriculur life as well.</p>
<p>However, one question gives me pause -- Where is Princeton going? The acceptance rate this year was equal to Columbia's, and higher than the rest of HYP. The yield is uncertain. Wall Street is no longer such a prime destination, although it appears that the graduates are more strongly considering grad school. So, is Princeton's reputation sustainable and here to stay? Or is HYS the new HYP? </p>
<p>This may seem petty, but I think that the student body and faculty are a huge part of why I was so impressed with Princeton. If the school is losing its prestige, then the top students and faculty may gravitate to the other top schools. Is Princeton slowly becoming just another Ivy/top school? </p>
<p>Does anyone have any insight on this? Thanks!</p>
<p>But that still doesn’t make it relevant to anything in my question. It’s not a measure of cross-admit statistics, and the latest data I have on that issue is that Stanford has a statistically insignificant edge over Princeton.</p>
<p>I’m wondering about the issue in a much more general sense.</p>
<p>Stanford’s admit rate is ~7%, even though Stanford is much bigger school than Princeton.
People want to be at Stanford and there must be good reason for it…</p>
<p>No reasons are given in the survey. It could be the weather. It could be the laid-back feel. It could be that the rate is deflated because so many Californians apply, which has no real comparable situation on the East Coast because there are so many top schools. It could be because Stanford is better. I’m looking to find the reason; I already know that Stanford got more apps than Princeton.</p>
<p>When Princeton did away with ED and did not go to SCEA, its acceptance rate was bound to climb a little bit compared to schools which still have an early option (which is pretty much all the Ivies except for Harvard, Stanford and almost every other top school). While there are many of us who do volunteer work for Princeton who did not agree with the decision that Princeton made, I personally do not think that the decrease in yield is reflective of a lack of strength in the school, in the students who attend the school or of the reputation of the school or anything. Rather, it is simply a result of not being able to lock in kids early (ED) or have a self-identified group of kids who chose Princeton over other top schools (EA). However, since I also believe that there are many more qualified students than those accepted by any of the top schools, I think that Princeton still winds up with kids who are the equal of those who attend Harvard, Yale, Stanford etc.</p>
<p>As to the school itself, I believe that it is stronger than ever. The academic strength of the school is superb and Pres. Tilghman has expanded options in the arts (creation of an arts neighborhood, the Princeton atelier etc.), as well as the sciences (new buildings and programs). I honestly think that Princeton is a very well-balanced school in terms of output. Yes, there are many who want to go to Wall Street, but there are also equal numbers of Teach for America applicants, pre-med and pre-law students, Woody Woo graduates who want to work in Washington, artists, and students who go to Princeton in Asia or Princeton in Africa. </p>
<p>Princeton has intensely loyal alumni (which will not change I believe) and has an enormous endowment (although one that has obviously decreased this year just like other schools). It will continue to put resources into attracting top faculty and I have seen no evidence of any drop in anything, including reputation. The undergraduate education really cannot be surpassed and the students are well-balanced, nice, smart and very very happy. I don’t think that you need to worry about choosing Princeton–it will continue to attract the best and be considered one of the best.</p>
<p>The faculty at Princeton continues to improve. For them living in a pretty town only an hour from NYC is a huge draw. The investment in facilities is unparalleled. The perceived slip in selectivity is just that, a perception. Harvard and Princeton both dropped EA/ED but Harvard came out with new financial aid. That pumped their applications up. Princeton is also slowly but surely increasing class size. That drops yield until the applying population is absorbed. I see Princeton as in fact increasing its academic focus, becoming a place like Yale in the suburbs, or University of Chicago where fun DOESN’T go to die. Undergraduate endowment is still highest per capita. Plus my kids, both very different, adore it::). If you prefer Princeton to Stanford there is no downside. Now, if you preferred Stanford, I would say go there. Between these two it is about your happiness. Your future is fine.</p>
<p>Yes. There are three enormous advantages that Princeton is going to retain for at least this generation: (1) By far the strongest alumni support/community among the super-elite schools. (2) By far the largest endowment per student. Other universities have larger endowments overall, but lots of those endowments are tied to their professional schools. That’s not irrelevant to students – it makes the universities as a whole more vibrant. But at Princeton substantially all of the resources are devoted to stuff that improves undergraduate education (including, of course, having great grad students in areas that undergraduates study). (3) A really good location. Harvard has Cambridge, and Columbia has the Upper West Side, but lots of people prefer the kind of charming, ritzy suburb that Princeton is (and Palo Alto, too). For the time being, the Boston-Washington corridor (really Portland - Richmond, or something like that) is still the spinal cord of the nation. Princeton is not only driving distance from all of it, it’s accessible by public transportation from all of it. I would hazard a guess that Princeton is closer on average to more top-20 per capita income counties than any other university.</p>
<p>In addition to that, of somewhat less importance is the fact that Princeton (along with the other Ivies) faces less competition from public institutions than Stanford does. Rutgers, SUNYs, Penn State don’t have anything like the cachet of Berkeley or UCLA.</p>
<p>On the other hand, it is decades since orange and black was not a dorky color combination. Eventually, that’s got to erode support for Princeton.</p>
<p>Jomjom, you are always cite that ridiculous study that’s not actually based on real cross-admits. Here’s a newsletter from Stanford’s Faculty Senate showing how far from reality that study can be. In particular, note that last year, Stanford and Yale won/loss equal number of cross admits while Princeton actually won MORE admits from Stanford. </p>
That source doesn’t say that the majority of people that got into both P and S choose P. It says that more people chose Princeton than last year, because more people got into P. It doesn’t give the cross-admit yield rate.</p>
<p>This is exactly why Harvard & Stanford are soooo SPECIAL. Princeton is just one of ‘every other top school’
This is Wrong. Most of the Harvard endowments are for Faculty of Arts and Sciences ( including Harvard College) and Harvard has higher endowment per undergrad student.</p>
<p>Princeton also announced $5 billion endowment loss from $16 bill to $11 bil… Harvard lost $8 bil from 36bil to $28bil. NOw Harvard’s endowment per student is much higher. [</p>
<p>
Princeton’s alumni network is limited to small (boutique-like) financial firms only.
Princeton’s Legal, Medical, Business, Technology alumni networks are very weak because they don’t have professional schools and graduate schools are very small.</p>
<p>Technology alumni networks are weak? Google CEO Eric Schmidt, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos are all Princeton grads. UNDERgrads. For those of you who like your tech cutting edge, ever heard of Pandora Radio? Yeah? CEO - Princeton. </p>
<p>In your haste to try and bash Princeton, you misunderstood what I said. Stanford has a SCEA option–it is the same as every other top school except Princeton and Harvard. </p>
<p>I have never said that Harvard does not win the cross-admit battle with Princeton–it does, just as it wins the cross-admit battle with every other school. Where we differ is that you seem to feel that makes Harvard a better school, because you equate yield and acceptance rates with better. I don’t believe that is the case. I think that Harvard and Princeton are equals, just as I believe that Yale and Stanford are also equals with Harvard and Princeton–terrific academic schools with wonderful students who will have great opportunities in life.</p>
<p>You have been shown to be wrong on the endowment–Harvard has said that its endowment for the FAS covers FAS undergrads, grad, students, extension students etc. There is really no way to break it down the way you are doing.</p>
<p>Finally, I believe that you are a high school student–is that true? Even if you are in college, you have no basis for your silly and unsubstantiated claim about Princeton’s alumni network. </p>
<p>Like most of the other posters here, I would prefer that you take your lightweight, biased and frankly inaccurate arguments elsewhere, but if not, I guess that I will continue to point out some of your more glaring misstatements.</p>
<p>This is very funny. So these are the BEST Princeton alumni in ‘’‘Technology’‘’ field ?
Google was founded by Stanford graduates by the way…</p>
<p>Here are true technology firms founded by Stanford, Harvard graduates…like Google, Hewlett Packard, Yahoo, Microsoft, FaceBook… …etc</p>
<p>Do you know what Sillicon Valley is ?</p>
<p>So you are considering Amazon and Ebay as technology firm…</p>
<p>And not all of Princeton’s endowments are for Undergraduates… Significant portions are for administrations, office of the president, professional schools such as Architecture, Woodrow schools… etc </p>
<p>Princeton Alumni network in Law, Medicine, Business are very weak because many princeton graduate could not get into top Medical, Law and business schools …</p>