Princeton's Future?

<p>I live in Silicon Valley. I am a Princeton alum. My father is a Stanford professor. My two kids were both accepted to Princeton and to Stanford. Both are at Princeton. As far as prestige, here’s the effect it has had on me. I am now a vice president at a startup. I was hired into high tech originally, despite 10 years out of the fulltime work force, precisely because my Princeton diploma looked good to the hiring VP at the time. I would say Stanford is more familiar, but Princeton actually has higher prestige. It’s like “Ah, Stanford,” and “Oooh, Princeton”. Don’t forget how many Harvard and Princeton and Cornell grads there are among the VCs and engineers out here. They LIKE the East Coast component. Now, a Stanford MBA or Masters in Comp Sci can’t be beat…</p>

<p>Thanks for the input.</p>

<p>Jomjom, even anecdotes are helpful. Statements that have no evidence of any kind are not.</p>

<p>Alumother. Are you working in a firm founded by Stanford graduate ?</p>

<p>alumother–</p>

<p>please don’t respond to zzgirl–based on certain posting similarities, it looks lilke zzgirl could be jomjom (or at least a close relation)</p>

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<p>You can do co-term to get BS/MS in CS in 5 years at Stanford. And you don’t have to apply for graduate school to get into the program at the end of junior year. Check it out for the procedures.</p>

<p>Haha. No. My firm is run by people with a)Ph.D. from Princeton, b) Bachelor’s from UC Santa Cruz c) Bachelor’s from San Jose State. Prestige is not all my friends. Not even close. Hard work and smarts beats prestige any day. Not even close. But if you WANT prestige, Princeton will give it to you even out here in the Wild West. Lots of it.</p>

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So what is the best way to get Stanford MBA or Stanford graduate degree???
Answer :: Stanford UG degree. </p>

<p>The part of Stanford UG’s prestige comes from the fact that they can get into top (stanford) grad schools like JD MD PhD MBA </p>

<p>I think Stanford engineering /cs master’s program admit 100% of Stanford UG. </p>

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Many tech firms are founded by Stanford Harvard graduates, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Hewlett Packard…etc. Stanford graduates won’t work as engineers and VCs. They will start their own company. </p>

<p>And Vice President at a start-up is really NOBODY. VP is kind of position for college graduate with 1-2 years of experience. I know hundreds of people who become VP 1-2 years after joining a start-up . </p>

<p>And no one believes that Princeton is more prestigious in California…</p>

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<p>Whoa. I don’t see you possessing anywhere near Alumother’s intelligence and maturity to even work for her. Talk about punching above your weight.</p>

<p>Oh dear. Youth. It’s OK screwitlah, thanks for the props. I’d type more but I am laughing too hard.</p>

<p>I picked Princeton – officially – when I realized that it was simply the better fit. Plus, here is how I viewed my concerns:</p>

<p>1) Acceptance rate differences: Pton did little to no outreach/PR compared to HYS, and additionally was increasing class size. Plus, it offered no early program and Harvard is Harvard. Finally, S is in Cali and draws almost a third of its applicants from there. Princeton apparently sent out emails to high PSAT scorers, so it looks like they’re trying to increase the applicant pool size as well.</p>

<p>2) Prestige factor. In all the places/areas in which I’m interested (East Coast, Europe), Princeton is clearly more prestigious. In addition, I don’t see this changing in the near future; both Stanford and Princeton are working on expanding the areas they are perceived as deficient in. Honestly, it seems that YPS all carry roughly the same amount of prestige overall in most areas.</p>

<p>3) Princeton going downhill. This is somewhat of a result of the first two points. But one of the other college counselors laughed at this idea. Enough said. Honestly, it just took awhile to realize that the school isn’t going to let itself go anywhere but up, and actually won handily against Stanford in last year’s cross-admit battles.</p>

<p>So, there it is. I’m ecstatic with my decision and have absolutely no regrets. I ordered my Pton sweatshirt through express mail tonight, and will get it on Thursday.</p>

<p>Congratulations on making your decision. Princeton is a wonderful place and based on your thoughtful and mature posts, it is lucky to get you.</p>

<p>Thank you. I am very excited – Although Stanford has many strong academic programs, WoodyWoo, Pton Math, and ORFE were very appealing. Plus, I appreciated the social atmosphere and even campus more. All in all, everything about Princeton was more in line with what I wanted (honestly); it just took awhile for me to realize it.</p>

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<p>That isn’t a surprise, though. I think Harvard is the only school than transcends any regional biases.</p>

<p>Also, congratulations Baelor. I’m glad you made the right decision for you, and I’m sure you’ll love Princeton when you are attending there.</p>

<p>Agree with midatl mom. Princeton is lucky to get you. Have a fantastic four years and in fourteen years, enjoy your 10th Reunion…</p>

<p>Oh, I will. One of my best friends is also going, and her excitement after the Preview weekend was what kicked me in gear this week – she was so unbelievably excited, she didn’t bother visiting some of her other schools and bought all the gear. She’s not even staying on Harvard’s waitlist (her former top choice).</p>

<p>I am very glad to hear that everyone accepts that Harvard is above Yale, Stanford, Princeton, etc …
People in Cambridge, MA , think that Princeton UPenn Cornell NYU etc. are all the same top prestigious schools.</p>

<p>LOL. I’m not arguing anything of that sort, jomjom.</p>

<p>Congrats to you, Baelor. Obviously I was trying to drag you back to Stanford, and Princeton’s win is Stanford’s loss. You will enjoy Princeton very much. Good luck.</p>

<p>I think there is a macro trend towards research universities, and for that Princeton will suffer in comparison to Stanford and the other Ivies with the full gamut of professional schools (biz, med, law being the holy trinity)…those schools being Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Penn…Cornell should count, but nah ;)</p>

<p>However within its niche of the liberal arts and sciences (particularly physics), Princeton will have a bright future indeed…indeed, it will probably be number one</p>

<p>Congrats on your decision. There really isn’t a wrong decision here. The only thing I might add is that Stanford grads (particularly the engineering students) tend to be more entrepreneurial in their thinking, since its built into the curriculum. So they’re less focused on their grades and more concerned about landing a spot at a top start-up firm after graduation or a summer internship than P grads.</p>