<p>I already know about the 7% stanford rate over the 9-10% Princeton admit rate, but might this also be true? SAT scores, for example, are greater in which?</p>
<p>Also, another said that the education I would receive in Princeton would be WAY better than the one at Stanford. How true again?</p>
<p>BTW I already accepted Stanford's offer of admission. Just wondering.</p>
<p>The acceptance rates are noticeable. Here are two possible reasons for Stanford’s lower admit rate:</p>
<p>1) SCEA draws some applicants who might have applied to Princeton/Harvard ED/EA
2) Stanford has 35% of its applicant pool coming from California, which depresses its acceptance rate significantly. Most universities have many applicants from their home state, but having Cali as yours obviously boosts application numbers</p>
<p>SAT Scores:</p>
<p>[Princeton</a> University | Admission Statistics](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/]Princeton”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/)</p>
<p>[Applicant</a> Profile : Stanford University](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/basics/selection/profile.html]Applicant”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/basics/selection/profile.html)</p>
<p>It looks like Princeton’s might have slightly higher floors, but IDK.</p>
<p>Honestly, they are both about the same in prestige/selectivity.</p>
<p>This is a splitting hairs argument if I ever saw one. Woodfich, many congrats. My S will test the SCEA gauntlet this fall.</p>
<p>Why would anyone quibble over miniscule differences between the average SAT scores and percentage of applicants accepted by these two schools? Do you think the Princeton first-years who scored a 1580 on their SAT (M&CR) snub the 25% of their class who failed to achieve a 1390? You don’t need to answer that question.</p>
<p>@Baelor, you said “1) SCEA draws some applicants who might have applied to Princeton/Harvard ED/EA”</p>
<p>i thought with SCEA and ED, you’re not allowed to apply anywhere else early? correct me if i’m wrong…</p>
<p>“1) SCEA draws some applicants who might have applied to Princeton/Harvard ED/EA”</p>
<p>seriously, SCEA admitted only around 660 students or something, that is not a significant number that could be added to Princeton’s applicant pool (also considering that many of those accepted in SCEA still apply to other top colleges since it is not binding and also considering that not all of the SCEA admits were going to apply to Princeton in the first place.).</p>
<p>^Woodfich, actually Early applications to Stanford AND Yale surged when HP eliminated their early programs.</p>
<p>And the point is that there may not have been 5,000 applicants at all (and not 30,000) had the students who like HP better been able to get into those schools early. It’s not just about the 600 early admits, it’s about the whole early applicant pool.</p>
<p>I dont believe this at all. I just enrolled at Stanford after rejecting Harvard. I know plenty of fellow peers who got into harvard and princton who didn’t get into Stanford. All of these schools have ridiculously low acceptance rates, I think harvard and Stanford have the lowest tho. Stanford got more applicants this year than harvard did. </p>
<p>The’re both hard to get into.</p>
<p>Yeah in terms of acceptance rates and SAT scores the differences between the two are trivial. </p>
<p>When your teacher said that you would receive a much better education at Princeton, he/she was probably saying that because Princeton is much more undergrad focused than Stanford is. I know I’m going to get super-flamed for saying this on the Stanford thread but I’m saying what I think is true. At Stanford, you’re going to have a lot of intro classes that are taught by TAs rather than professors. Many of the top professors at Stanford barely even spend any time in the classroom. They are either conducting research or somewhere else giving lectures or doing other work. The same is true with Harvard; it is not undergrad oriented. This is unheard of at Princeton. You will not have classes taught by TAs there. You will have classes taught by professors with TAs assisting, as they are supposed to.
That being said HYPSM graduates probably have an equal playing field when looking for jobs or internships because all are prestigious schools so some people don’t care that Stanford isn’t as undergrad focused as Princeton or Yale.</p>
<p>Note: I do not go to Princeton. I am not going to go to Princeton. I also believe that Stanford is just about the best graduate school for any field related to math, science, or engineering.</p>
<p>@mathlete1106, make sure what you claimed is true. I don’t believe any classes are taught by TAs at Stanford, and Yale does, per an admission officer at Yale.</p>
<p>Eh, in an attempt to empathize where your teacher was coming from, and that’s not the first time I heard someone say something along those lines…</p>
<p>On my visits to Stanford and Yale, the average Yale student seemed much more intellectually oriented and academically apt than the average Stanford student. Both were ridiculously smart. But Stanford seems more bent on selecting students who have a cool or interesting passion about them then those who are OMGEXCEPTIONALLY bright. </p>
<p>Not passing judgement on one over the other. But I don’t think you could distinguish between the average Stanford student and the top 50% Cal or UCLA student in the classroom. </p>
<p>Stanford is still more awesome though, just for other reasons.</p>
<p>@Tyler09, sorry to see you not in Stanford. I tried not to influence your decision before, but I wanted you come to Stanford for a good reason: try to enter the high tech world after Stanford. Most of others just try to get HYP education. Was Stanford your second choice? What about other schools?</p>
<p>So, according to your logic, Tyler09, Berkeley and UCLA have together found 25,000 students–almost all from California–who are on the level of the average Stanford student… right. It’s hard enough for Stanford to find them, so I don’t see how Cal and UCLA would be able to do it, in such numbers.</p>
<p>^^ Top 50% might be pushing it. If I were to be completely honest, the average Stanford student is probably a pretty good student, and the average Cal or LA student is probably not that great. </p>
<p>What Tyler might mean is that the average Stanford student need not be a ballistic intellectual. Whether the average Yale student is or not, I don’t know. But if I were to be objective, the students at my school who went to Harvard were probably the most intellectual of the ones who went to HYPS. The students who went to Stanford probably had something going for them, but it wasn’t something traditional that I could spot in all cases. </p>
<p>Nothing wrong with this. Plenty of ballistically intellectual students do go to Stanford and every other good school too.</p>
<p>At Stanford, you’re going to have a lot of intro classes that are taught by TAs rather than professors. Many of the top professors at Stanford barely even spend any time in the classroom. They are either conducting research or somewhere else giving lectures or doing other work. The same is true with Harvard; it is not undergrad oriented</p>
<p>This may be true at Harvard, but not really so at Stanford. First off, Stanford offers 100-200 seminars for freshmen and sophomores capped at around 15 students that are exclusively taught by professors, not TAs. Second, although I am not yet a student at Stanford, the general consensus amongst undergrads there (freshmen in particular) is that having a TA teach a course is rare. Most classes, including freshmen ones are taught exclusively by professors and TAs tend to only be in charge of leading supplementary sections for the larger classes that need to be broken up. Also, according to Stanford statistics, 75% of classes have less than 20 students and the student:faculty ratio is about 6-7:1</p>
<p>Courses will be taught by teaching staff who are not professors (Postdocs), but not graduate students, who are usually referred as TAs.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, as long as professors teach some of the more advanced courses, why is it a concern if postdocs and grad students teach intro classes? Let alone professors, to a Stanford math graduate student (to take my favorite example), material in intro classes is trivial, and a grad student, who’ll eventually apply for postdoc positions, likely would jump at a chance to put another teaching of a solid coures on the resume. And, at that, would probably try to do a good job. Professors at Stanford, like those at my home school Berkeley, likely are most often hired because they are brilliant minds, not for their immense teaching credentials, and may not care as much. At best, they will be interested in encouraging talented Stanford X, Y, Z majors (of their field of specialty) once they reach the appropriate level, and certainly I think a minority would be interested in teaching the courses that I think could be relegated to TA’s. </p>
<p>As Hippo points out, a majority of courses are taught by professors anyway. I don’t see the issue. There may be other aspects to Princeton or something that make it seem very undergraduate focused, but I’m not sure what that means, and until someone qualifies, I will have a hard time understanding complaints about a lack of undergraduate focus.</p>
<p>In response to Hippo’s post:</p>
<p>This past year, Stanford offered more than 200 introductory seminars (capped at 16, but the overwhelming majority have far fewer). I’ve never heard of a TA or postdoc teaching a course–they will lead section, but never (to my knowledge) actually be the lecturer. Even in intro physics or math classes, professors, not TAs, teach the material.</p>
<p>Also, the statistics say that 75% of Stanford’s courses have fewer than 15 students, 4% over 100, and only 2% over 120. Large lectures are always supplemented with small discussions, though I have had classes with 15 or so students in the class and they still held sections.</p>
<p>mathboy, I think the top 40% Cal students are just about as talented as the
Stanford students. </p>
<p>Imagine how that would help boost Berkeley’s image if only those top 40% were admitted.</p>
<p>And, yes, the general student body of Stanford is equally as excellent as that of Princeton’s.</p>
<p>If you check the instructors of math51 and math52, they are all postdocs.</p>