Stanford vs. Harvard vs. Yale

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

Hi everybody!

I am very humbled and blessed to be accepted into Harvard last month and received my Yale and Stanford likely letters yesterday! As a first-generation college student, having this opportunity is something I never dreamed of and I am so grateful. Even though the turnaround is very quick, I am having a lot of difficulty thinking about which school would be the best for me. There have been other Stanford vs. Harvard threads, but I think your opinions should be based on each student’s goals, interests, etc. I will try to explain this as best as I can.

I am hoping to become a pediatrician in developing countries with a big focus on global health, education, and policy. My dream school has always been Stanford, but ever since I was a non-finalist for Questbridge, I rethought everything and thought if I could get into anywhere, it would be Harvard. Harvard is very prestigious and is strong across the board and probably has the best in biology and public health programs for HYS. There are many opportunities for undergrads to get involved.

However, Harvard is known to not be as strong in undergraduate teaching as Stanford and Yale. I thrive off of intriguing and charismatic teaching and having a more even number of undergraduates and grad at Y and S is appealing to me. I am also very passionate in urban affairs and health and being in Cambridge and having a larger city in Boston nearby allows me to really develop this focus and help underprivileged youth in MA. Yale is similar with New Haven, and Stanford is a little more distant from the bigger cities (SJ, SF). However, I love to go outside in anytime I can (hiking, soccer, running) and Boston doesn’t have the best climate as compared to more moderate Stanford. I know it shouldn’t be a big deal, but that is something important to me. Harvard and Yale are also relatively closer to home since I am from the Mid-Atlantic and my parents want for me to stay relatively close to home just in case anything happens since I am their only child. I love to explore and start fresh but my family is very important to me.

Stanford and Boston to an extent intrigue me as they have their respective Vietnamese student associations but also are situated in areas with high Vietnamese populations. My heritage is very important to me, and I haven’t been able to do much while living in the Mid-Atlantic, so having that around me and being able to contribute more would be great pluses. They all have wonderful service opportunities. I also do not thrive off of pressure, and I’ve heard contradictory things about this but I’ve generally heard that the competition at Harvard can be very cutthroat and that many lower-income urban students like me have had a hard time adjusting to the elitism and prep environment (at Yale too). Stanford and Yale (to an extent) seem to be more collaborative and subjectively, have more school spirit. Stanford has amazing athletics that I want to participate and attend as much as possible and the general vibe of being more relaxed on the Farm in the California sun is very idealized but appealing to me. I also am not a frat type of guy at all, so I am still wondering where it is not that big of a presence on campus.

I have visited Stanford and will visit Harvard this weekend. Yale is on the horizon too, and I know these visits are a big deal!

Finances are extremely important, but luckily, due to these school’s generous financial aid programs, the only costs I will have to pay will be through summer and term-time work. If i am misinformed in any of my judgements, please let me know! I hope it’s not too mumbled jumbled. I will be very grateful to hear your guys thoughts! Again, I am so fortunate and lucky to be in this situation.

2

If you want to be doctor and don’t plan to ever change your mind - Yale
If you are ambivalent and want to explore choices - Stanford.

3

Go to Harvard!

4

The Harvard name brand outweighs everything else.

5

Dang dude I just want to say congrats, that’s insane!

All three of these universities are huge names so I don’t think that should be a factor in your decision. Based on what you wrote I would be leaning towards Stanford.

6

Addendum to my earlier comment. I have a senior at Stanford who will be starting medical school in fall and so I have some bias. I have been following the admissions at various schools she interviewed at to see who gets in. The best example for college admission comparison is Michigan and you can check out the tracker on the right side.

https://medicine.umich.edu/medschool/education/md-program/md-admissions

Yale provides great training for premeds and many of them choose to do MD/PhD instead of MD.

Harvard yields the most medical school interviews/admissions provided you have done well there. If you do poorly, you may need to wait out more years and build your resume.
Stanford will help you do well whichever field you end up choosing. I think you want to go to Stanford if you want to give up your comfort zone of east coast and family.

7

^ I’m not sure why you think Yale is superior to Stanford for premed. It’s a competitive path in general, but there are outstanding resources available at both places.

8

I don’t believe there is an issue with preparation, only institutional negligence in terms of encouragement to become doctors. There was a statistic at one time that 70-80% of students who start as premeds at S find something else to do. You might say that is a choice but choices are based opportunities and sometimes kids find better things to do at S? I see most kids going to Y as premeds getting there because there is underlying structure to push them along towards that goal.

9

Is it necessarily a bad thing to find better things to do?

10

As Asian you will have a hard time not to choose harvard or yale, especially you will have the pressure from the people around you. My son was under great pressure and made the decision on his own to go to stanford. Now he is full time at google/stanford mba/ stanford ms in cs at the same time. I’m not sure what could happen if he had gone to yale…

Anyway, congrats! There should not be a wrong choice, only different one.

11

First, congratulations on your acceptances! My son had to choose between these three schools (and two others) last spring; though his intended major was different (computer science) and he was not a first-generation college student, some of his experiences this year (from my perspective as a parent) may be instructive.

As a high school senior, you will probably feel that this is the most difficult, life-changing decision you will ever make—one that will determine the entire course not only of the next four years but of your entire life. And in many ways, this is true; in others, though, it isn’t.

These three schools have more commonalities than differences—they’re all large, prestigious universities with exceptionally talented students and faculty, and you’ll get a first-rate education at any of them. Assuming you do well, you should have your pick of medical schools. There will be more opportunities than you could ever take advantage of at any of them to further your career as a pre-med undergraduate.

My son ended up choosing Stanford for several reasons, but the most important at the time was its reputation in computer science and location in Silicon Valley. He also preferred the weather and liked that Stanford was close to home (Southern California). The choice was very difficult for him (and for us); though he isn’t prone to regret, I am and often wondered whether he’d made the right decision.

He has now been at Stanford for four months. What we’ve found is that certain things ended up being much more important than we anticipated: location, general atmosphere, and weather. These sound like trivial things, ones that shouldn’t, for example, have the same import as a school’s reputation in a particular field. But they can be the ones that end up affecting your life the most as a college student.

There hasn’t been a single moment when any of us weren’t happy he chose Stanford on those dimensions. The location closer to home has been much more useful than we anticipated and helped ease his transition to college. Stanford’s general atmosphere is very open, laid back, friendly, and diverse—for my son, it’s been a nice continuation of a similar atmosphere he enjoyed in his very diverse public high school here. As for the weather, on numerous occasions he’s mentioned how much he likes it and how glad he is not to be trudging through snow and ice on the East Coast. Palo Alto is a bit chillier and rainier than Southern California, but he can’t really complain!

On the other hand, when it comes to his prospective computer science major and being located in the heart of Silicon Valley, that hasn’t mattered (at least not yet). For one thing, like many first-year students, he’s experiencing some doubt about his academic direction and is no longer sure it will include computer science. This was a surprise to all of us, though it really shouldn’t have been, since apparently 50 percent of incoming students in college change their minds about their choice of major.

Although there have already been countless opportunities to take advantage of Silicon Valley as a Stanford “techie,” my son has been too busy with other things (taking classes, making friends, pursuing his own nonacademic interests, etc.) to avail himself of them. That could change in the future, but it might not.

The other fields he’s currently considering majoring in have excellent reputations at Stanford, but I’m not sure these departments are any better there than at Harvard or Yale—in fact, one probably isn’t quite as good as its counterpart at Harvard. Does he care, and do we care? No. Why not? Because college is so much more than the reputation of individual programs—it’s a whole lifestyle and environment you become part of, for better or for worse, the moment you arrive in the fall.

Has he found nirvana at Stanford since arriving, just like all the brochures (not just from Stanford but from every school) seem to promise? No—he’s had his share of difficulties and unhappy moments there, like everyone. But he’s been 100 percent satisfied with his choice, and he’s very grateful that it’s more of a “fun” college atmosphere than may exist elsewhere. He’s said several times that he may well eventually end up working or going to grad school on the East Coast, but for now he’s really happy to be at Stanford and in sunny California close to home.

So I would advise you to think hard about the entire “package” each of these places offers you. Don’t worry about academic reputation in one field or another (unless it’s notably bad) or whether one school will give you a better chance of getting into med school than another. Think about what you want the next four years to be like on a day-to-day basis. Med school (or grad school) will be a grind, but college shouldn’t be—at least not completely. If weather and enjoying the outdoors is important to you, pay attention to that—try to imagine how it will be living in Palo Alto (Stanford, actually) versus Cambridge or New Haven. Think about whether you’d prefer the quarter system (Stanford) or semester system (Harvard and Yale)—there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Look more closely at the course requirements (and ways of fulfilling them) and see whether you’d find them too restrictive.

As for the frat scene at Stanford, from what my son (who definitely does not fit the frat guy stereotype) reports, it’s fine—very open and friendly, and many students, including him, take advantage of their parties every weekend. There’s no pressure to do so, though, and many other socializing options exist.

Stanford also has endless opportunities to be involved in athletics, as a participant, spectator, or both. But I’m sure that’s true of Harvard and Yale as well.

Anyway, good luck with your decision. Go to the various local receptions the schools offer, talk to alumni and current students, attend the admitted students events if you’re still undecided by then, and then make your choice. As I’ve said, in the end any one of them will be fine academically and launch you toward med school (or whatever else you decide on), but your day-to-day life will be quite different at each of them.

12

Do these schools have accepted student days like most schools?

13

All of the Ivy schools and Stanford have admitted days. However OP seems to be visiting the schools before the admitted days.

14

@planner - what a lovely, thorough, and thoughtful post you provided for @phanp16 !

I totally agree with the emphasis on “fit.” Too many aspects of that cannot be adjusted for. I really have nothing to add to what @planner said, but I will suggest you go check the weather forecast for this week for Boston and for Palo Alto. :wink: We spent a couple of years living abroad in a very cold climate, and it impacted me for more than I imagined it would.

My ds has thoroughly enjoyed attending athletic events at Stanford, particularly football games.

I don’t know if this site is super up-to-date or not, but if you scroll down you will find lots of good “scoop” on what life is like at Stanford.

Good luck in your decision and rest-assured that there are no bad choices here!

http://unofficial.stanford.edu

15

Thanks, @Hoggirl! We too have spent more than enough years in much colder climates, which really affects not only how much time you spend outside but also how much motivation you have to go do anything that involves braving the elements. It’s a lot simpler to throw on a sweatshirt in January and head over to a talk or movie across campus than to put on a down jacket, boots, gloves, etc., and trudge across snow and ice.

16

I think the biggest difference is that with some notable exceptions, the faculty at Harvard simply do not care that much about teaching undergraduates. I think Harvard is an outlier in this respect. As a result, many of the Harvard students eventually self-select into extracurricular activities. The Harvard Crimson is great, as are the theater groups and others. There is a seminar freshman year at Harvard, but after that many of the undergraduates get discouraged by the faculty’s attitude. Obviously, there are exceptions.

Let me cite one example. I know a kid who majored in Social Studies at Harvard. This is an elite major where admissions is restricted. (I know someone who was rejected years ago and he is a very smart guy.) There is a core class that everyone in Social Studies must take in their sophomore year. The year this kid was taking the course it was taught by a graduate student! The key course in an elite major! This is just one reason among several that this kid told me that if he had to do it over again he would not go to Harvard.

Another example. I know a faculty member at Yale Law School. She has been on the admission committee there for years. She told me it has always struck her how few of the Harvard applicants have Harvard faculty writing recommendations for them. It is often a grad student who was a TA in course. She said the comparison with those who were Yale undergraduates is striking. (She did not go to either school, so I assume she is unbiased.) Many more of them have recommendations from full-time faculty members.

When my son was looking at schools, he had no interest in Harvard even though many kids from his school went there. He said, “Everyone wants to go there, but no one likes it once they get there.” I’ve have heard similar statements from others over the years. The prestige of Harvard is great, but the experience once you get there can leave much to desire. Again, I’m sure there are exceptions. I’ve heard that some of the smaller majors can be better.

Yale versus Stanford is more interesting. My son really liked the house system at Yale. I think it clearly dominates the living situation at Stanford, especially after freshman year. There is the difference between New Haven and Palo Alto. Apples versus oranges. You can’t say that one is better than the other–contrary to what native Californians will tell you about the weather. Stanford is clearly much stronger than Yale (or Harvard for that matter) in engineering, including computer science. Stanford is somewhat stronger than Yale in the sciences, although if all of you want is medical school it probably doesn’t matter. (I think Stanford and Harvard have equally strong faculties in the sciences.) Yale and Stanford are pretty similar in the arts and humanities. Yale has stronger theater.

As my son is at Stanford, I know more about that school. I will say that his experience there has been extraordinary. Great classes from great teachers. I don’t think there is a single class that he has taken that he would not take in retrospect. He is also doing research with a full professor in his major area of study. Many of the departments have summer research programs where you get paid to help a professor to do research and to do your own research as well. Wish there was such a program when I was a student!

I agree with Planner that there is an openness and irreverence to Stanford.

Hope this helps.

17

I am partial to Stanford, but you can’t go wrong at any of the three. Go to each, take your time soaking up the place and the people, and within a week of sleeping on it, you will know where you belong.

18

http://saigonecho.us/index.php/news/special-news/73-the-vietnamese-population-in-the-united-states

Based on the importance of Vietnamese population and medical centers, Houston seems to be one of the cities in the bullseye, along with LA and San Jose.

So based on the criteria you shared, Rice, USC and Stanford would seem to be strong fits for you.

19

@phanp16 It may be interesting for you to post a similar thread in the Harvard and Yale pages, where people may know more about those schools. Everyone here has good insight, but it seems people know more about Stanford than the other schools in general.

20

^ He did that at the same time that he originally posted here.