<p>I already have my preference. I want to take a tally of your guys' preferences between these 3 schools!</p>
<p>Just name which one you prefer with one to two sentence explanation :D thanks!!!!!! Pick based on the school as a whole, the name, etc</p>
<p>Princeton – provides strong sciences but a strong liberal arts background as well.</p>
<p>Son is choosing between Princeton & MIT. Tough choice but he is lucky to have it. He wants to study Computer Science but not necessarily be an engineer.</p>
<p>Also there seems to be a huge culture difference between the two schools. I get the impression after his revisits he will have a better feel for it.</p>
<p>Stanford. Well-rounded academics and athletics adds to the unique, laid-back atmosphere. Plus the California weather!</p>
<p>Princeton. All the cool kids are going.</p>
<p>^^Weather was a strike, not plus, for Stanford. To each his own, I suppose.</p>
<p>I’d pick Princeton. Then again, I prefer New Jersey over California since I’ve been living in California for so long. It really depends on a majority of personal factors including your major.</p>
<p>I’d pick MIT… but then again, I did pick MIT. (I actually didn’t apply to Princeton - I’m lurking in this thread because my brother just got in. Whooo!)</p>
<p>In all seriousness, though - it really depends what you’re looking for in a school. I love the nerd culture here (MIT), but that doesn’t mean that you’d like it - knowing nothing about you I can’t really tell you which school would be right for you. It also depends a lot on what you want to study.</p>
<p>@soomoo - studying computer science doesn’t mean you have to be an engineer. I definitely recommend MIT for CS (that’s what my degree is in. Well, one of them - I doubled in math). One thing that I think really doesn’t get mentioned enough during the college search process how often students from schools like MIT get recruited - for all kinds of [often really well-paying] jobs and internships (although software engineering is probably the biggest recruiter, Wall St. <em>loves</em> MIT CS grads, or at least they did before the economy crashed). I had no idea that any of this went on until I was already in college, and signed up for an on-campus Microsoft interview during my sophomore year… didn’t expect anything to come of it, but a few months later I was on a plane to Redmond for more interviews (and they put me up in a nice hotel and paid for food, too), and a week after that I had a summer job offer. The next summer, I went to Google. And summer internships like these (although not everybody goes to the big-name companies, of course) are pretty much the norm for MIT CS students, especially in the upper years. I can’t speak for Princeton, of course (and I’m sure they have recruiters too), but I don’t remember meeting any Princeton students at either company. Then again, I suspect that’s probably because there just aren’t that many Princeton CS students, not because they aren’t getting recruited.</p>
<p>We also have a really great undergraduate research program (UROP) where students can start researching for pay, credit, or as a volunteer as early as their first semester here. Profs are generally pretty open to working with students, even those w/ little experience (to them, it’s free/cheap labor + brownie points for helping out a student, so why not?) and there are tons of cool projects going on. A lot of students do UROPs the summer after their freshman year when most of them are still too inexperienced to get a corporate internship.</p>
<p>Anyways, apologies for totally pushing MIT in the Princeton thread, but you did ask, and I just had to get my two cents in. Good luck w/ whatever you decide! :-)</p>
<p>No to Stanford on a geographic basis. I’d never get used to the weather there. I need real winter.</p>
<p>I was originally planning to apply to Princeton, but I realized I was pretty certain about my major, and P didn’t have it, whereas MIT was highly ranked for it. So, on the basis of major, I did and would go with MIT.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Princeton doesn’t have a linguistics major? I had never noticed this before.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Lol wouldn’t this apply to Stanford as well?</p>
<p>I’m in the same position…and I’m edging towards Pton, simply because of its awesome undergraduate education, it’s location on the East Coast, and its proximity to NY/Philly (I plan to do engineering). But I’ll have to wait until the preview weekends to decide for sure.</p>
<p>Princeton. Best undergraduate education in the world. 'Nuff said.</p>
<p>This is tough for me because I applied to all three and only got into Princeton. But if I did get into all three, it would probably have been a decision between Stanford and Princeton. To me, Stanford and MIT are very similar in terms of their strengths academically, but Stanford has a much more appealing atmosphere. As for Princeton, I think the name might be worth a bit more than Stanford, but ultimately it depends on what you are going to school for. I would say visit both and whichever one makes you feel happier inside, choose that one.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not to the same degree. Stanford is still very techy in atmosphere, whereas Princeton has a techy subculture if you want to be part of it, but is still very liberal-curriculum-y in general. If you want to be surrounded by science 24/7, I would consider not attending Princeton. But it is certainly the most well-rounded of the three.</p>
<p>PRINCETON!!!</p>
<p>What a great dilemma to have.</p>
<p>Stanford. It was my dream school til I got rejected a couple of weeks ago.</p>
<p>-Grade inflation, great weather, laid back atmosphere (not super competitive), impressive sports, good diversity…what more could you want?</p>
<p>I had a similar choice years ago and chose Princeton (as a Chemical Engineer).</p>
<p>I would choose Princeton again with my eyes closed.</p>
<p>Great learning, friendships, social life and overall experience.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well rounded? No university in the world is more well-rounded than Stanford. Stanford has virtually all programs ranked in top 5, including humanities, social sciences, sciences, engineering, medical school, education school, business school, and law school. It is fair to say Stanford is even more well rounded than Harvard (relatively weak in engineering) and Berkeley (lack of medical school).</p>
<p>Ahhh, I love Stanford! It’s just as well rounded as Princeton so I consider the major trade off to be weather v. undergrad emphasis. I picked Princeton because I felt that Stanford was way too big for my taste but either should be great :D</p>
<p>Either Princeton or Stanford. I didn’t apply to Stanford because it’s too far, but I’ve been to California… and it is simply incredible. Princeton probably gets really cold. For that reason alone, I might just pick Stanford, because both schools are both incredible.</p>