<p>Stanford:
1) Better weather
2) Better sports
3) More school spirit and sense of community</p>
<p>Harvard:
1) If you truly care about creating a huge network of associations that will help you throughout your life, the east coast is the way to go. Furthermore, Harvard has an excellent network of alumni that will certainly help out students and graduates in their endeavors.
2) Location: Cambridge/Boston offers many more service, work, and cultural experiences than Stanford/Palo Alto. Boston is in fact one of the historic towns in the nation.
3) Harvard is ranked 1st in nearly all national and international university rankings. On a superficial level, would you rather be a part of the "Number 1" university, or a "Number 2"?
4) Harvard better prepares you for the real world (my subjective opinion).
5) The Harvard name is definitely more magnetic than Stanford's on a national and global level.</p>
<p>Regarding recruiting and medical school admissions...</p>
<p>Consulting or I-bank: They recruit heavily at both H and S. No difference.</p>
<p>Medical school: I've seen the complete data for both schools, and they are very difficult to interpret (e.g. (a) sometimes reported as "% students getting into any medical school" -- a virtually meaningless statistic that, FWIW, is equal for S and H; and (b) corrupted by many issues involving state residency and geographic bias issues). There is no difference between the schools. Anybody who claims to know more, or to make more detailed conclusions based on claiming to know about "the statistics," probably has no idea what they're talking about.</p>
<p>Bottom line = you will be absolutely fine from a "career" or "future" standpoint regardless of whether you're at S or H. Go where you think you'd feel more comfortable, and enjoy your time there.</p>
<p>P.S. IMO (as somebody with degrees from both schools, and who has had many close relatives attend both), you should completely disregard the "advice" in the post immediately above. No offense intended to that poster.</p>
<p>I just wanted to add all those who say Harvard engineering is not that good, how is taking classes at arguably the best engineering school in the nation (MIT) through cross-registration a negative?</p>
<p>No one here says it's negative. But cross-registering a few classes at MIT is not the same thing as getting a degree from MIT. The OP is planning to major in chemE and econ. Harvard pretty much has no chemE courses to take. It's not like Harvard has a lower-ranked program; it simply doesn't have it. Isn't that enough to make Stanford the obvious choice? I must be missing something. :)</p>
<p>I am planning to major in ChemEng and to tell you the truth I researched a lot on which universities offer great ChemEng options and I can tell you for sure that Stanford has one of the best in the country while Harvard's engineering department is not really that well known. I say go to Stanford if your seriously considering engineering! And don't forget Stanford also has an amazing econ department!!!
PS: I might be a bit biased because I am going to Stanford.</p>
<p>hey, just go to duke if you got in there too. it's cooler (uh.. not biased at all).</p>
<p>i live in new jersey and i know from a prestige standpoint, if that matters at all to you, harvard gets the nod over here for the most part.. if you plan on living/working on the east coast.. then again in cali it's probably stanford.. you can't really lose, just flip a coin.</p>
<p>Stanford has one of the top two ChemE programs in the country. Harvard wouldn't even rank in the top 15. Stanford's econ department is also in the top 5. The quantitative emphasis, as well as the MS&E major, will serve your engineering background well. </p>
<p>Harvard may or may not have more "prestige" overall, but you certainly can't argue that its engineering program has more prestige, even on the East Coast.</p>
<p>Harvard wouldn't be ranked anywhere actually because the engineering department doesn't seem to have any chemE courses. There are a little bit of civil and mechanical engg and quite a few EE/Comp related courses, just no chemE.</p>
<p>Are you really arguing that Harvard is twice the size of Stanford? Considering that some say Stanford is "spread out," Harvard must be twice as worse, then!</p>
<p>Don't believe anything you read in Wikapedia. I'd go more by the Harvard Website, and the Stanford website - to both of which I have provided links.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the Harvard-affiliated hospitals are not included, while the Stanford acreage does include the hospital.</p>
<p>wow, thats really kind of annoying Byerly. How long did it take you to find a number that fit your goal? Why not compare wikipedia to wikipedia, or USNews to USNews. Oh wait. Because that would be the truth.</p>
<p>No one is denying that Stanford has a spacious campus.</p>
<p>And I certainly do not maintain that above a certain level a larger campus is inherently better. </p>
<p>But the undeniable fact that the "real" campus area is larger at Harvard than it is at Stanford, primarily due to the fact that it is a somewhat larger, more complex operation.</p>
<p>Everyone, Byerly is right.
Byerly, you have once again proved Harvard's superiority to Stanford.
All of us here on the Stanford board defer to your great wisdom. A wisdom which, no doubt, allows you to fit in perfectly with the others at Harvard. We are humbled by your prescence, and Salute you, O great Harvard person.</p>