I don’t mean to be pushy…and I get that prom is important…but I would absolutely go visit Harvard and MIT before you make this decision…they’re 15 mins away from each other…and you’ve been handed the opportunity of an academic dream…please please visit!
@yawninglion My stats are on the Stanford EA thread.
Stanford is the most complete university in the world. Harvard lacks Stanford’s engineering and tech… MIT lacks Stanford’s arts and humanities. Stanford tops all universities in selectivity and annual fund raising… has won more nobel prizes this century than any university or institute in the world. You can’t go wrong with MIT or Harvard … if engineering and you prefer the east coast… MIT… if more humanities… medicine go Harvard.
Harvard is the most well rounded university. It has the largest endowment. For the pure sciences Harvard is the bes. Stanford is much more bro centric than Harvard. Harvard doesnt put out lists of easy classes for its athletes and bros
lols… Stanford leads in many metrics and is the university of the future… Harvard is playing catch up along with the rest of the ivies… that’s reality
@proudparent26 Harvard is definitely not the most well-rounded university in the world. If there is any university that truly deserves that title then this is Stanford. It is super strong in virtually every single field which cannot be said about Harvard (or any other university really). Stanford is essentially a combination of Harvard & MIT.
What does bro-centric even mean? I don’t understand the point you are trying to make with the whole easy classes thing.
I agree that Stanford is the most well-rounded. I also really love Stanford’s athletic department. They actually compete and win titles, which can’t be said about Harvard and MIT.
Just came across this article from The Harvard Crimson: “Seeing Red: Stanford v. Harvard
A Cross-Country Battle over American Higher Education”
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/10/30/stanford-vs-harvard/
Stanford is on the quarter system versus the semester system for Harvard and MIT. This can have an impact on summer plans as well as course selections. Harvard does not really have any major greek life whereas Stanford does.
Some people at Stanford are not all that happy with greek life. I am sure there are some people who are very happy with it.
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2014/10/01/a-call-to-end-housed-greek-life-at-stanford/
You should definitely visit them to take them all in: you cannot truly comprehend the sights, aromas, sounds, and vibe of a place without being there.
These are all great schools, part of the HYPSM quintet (I might add Wiliams, Columbia and UChicago to make it an octet, but that’s me…), so prestige and opportunities are not really an issue, are they?
So how are they really different?
- Weather: Four seasons vs. one
- Social scene
- Culture and vibe
- Environment: urban vs. suburban
- Dorm arrangements/traditions
- Ease of access to public transit and closeness to stuff
- Academic differences:
- If you are unsure about your major, Harvard and Stanford likely hold a slight edge -- they're good in pretty much everything. But if you are certain that you want to go into STEM, I would give a slight edge to MIT. (unless you must become a CS entrepreneur in Silicon Valley...)
- Check to see which school has the highest percentage of undergrads (as part of total student population): you want profs, deans and staff to pay as much attention as possible to the undergrads, so the lower the percentage of grad students, the better. Bonus points to that school.
- Also check to see which school has the fewest TA-led discussions and labs. Bonus points to that school.
- I do think class size and prof availability matter, so check on those things too.
As long as you pick the school that fits you best academically and in the other aforementioned ways, you cannot go wrong.
A social aspect to consider is the House system at Harvard which engenders some pretty strong loyalty. At Stanford and MIT, people move from place to place like most other universities. Often the options for long lasting social bonds are supplanted by schools’ Greek systems.
My GF at Stanford was pretty much a nomad year to year and didn’t form strong ties like I did at Yale (whose Residential College system is similar to Harvard’s House system). This isn’t to say she didn’t get a fantastic education – she certainly did. But socially, I wouldn’t have traded my situation for hers at all.
Update to Lue’s comment about yield in tigger dad’s article post above… Stanford’s is higher now.
Admit Rate
Stanford University 5.0%
Harvard College 5.3%
Columbia University 6.1%
Yale College 6.5%
Princeton University 7.0%
Admit Yield
Stanford University 81.1%
Harvard University 80.0%
MIT 72.4%*
Yale University 71.7%*
Princeton University 68.6%
When I made the decision between Harvard and Stanford, the final tipping point was the values of the university. I preferred that Harvard did not privilege athletes over other students making contributions to the university. I also preferred that Harvard established a 100% inclusive housing system that eliminated self-segregation by race, social clubs, politics, etc. Students never decide whether other students get the housing they want. These aren’t objectively the RIGHT philosophies – they are just HANNA philosophies. That’s what making the right match is all about.
I’m looking through the Stanford Housing stuff this week, and it is a labyrinthine mess. One thing that had not jumped out at me in a cautionary sense, but rather one which might be fairly uniform and less than radical as I assume it happens this way at many universities, is the way decisions are made about who lives in what house.
In all the talk we’ve had here at CC about self-segregation on campuses, I guess I had not read into that process and selection method as anything akin to something so stark as segregation. But I’ll sit and think on it.
This is a very timely conversation, of course, and helps me greatly to guide my daughter.
The other way to look at it is that Stanford gives students more choice, which is true. Within official housing, there are ethnic theme houses that largely attract members of those ethnic groups, crunchy co-ops that largely attract hippies, frat houses where the frat guys live, etc. From my point of view, even if you want to live in general interest housing, you don’t get a cross-section of the population because many groups have separated themselves.
not sure what is meant by privileged over other students… other than having some Olympic athletes in your dorm I didn’t see much if any privilege. they were like any other students on campus. Stanford athletics competes at the most elite level of the NCAA and has been the top athletic program in the country for the past 20 years. Harvard does not.
that being said Harvard like most universities (and Stanford more so) with the exception of Caltech lowers its academic standards for athletics. basketball and football are prime examples.
it’s a matter of degree… Stanford is at one end of the spectrum and competes in a FBS power conference against the likes of UCLA and USC… with Caltech at the other. Harvard is somewhere in between.
IMO Harvard is at an advantage for not having top notch athletics for which they have to lower their standards
Harvard does lower academic standards for athletics… less so but don’t kid yourself… the SATs for the Harvard b ball team is lower than the average. Caltech does not.
“not sure what is meant by privileged over other students”
The non-need-based $240,000 scholarships? That’s what I mean. The ones that aren’t available for students with non-athletic talents even if they are singing leads at the Met.
that’s more a function of Pac 12 vs ivy league. Pac 12 and power conferences give out athletic scholarships.