Actually all the Ivies, Stanford, UChicago and probably a few others all meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. They all are a little different on how they figure it with Princeton being the most generous, then Harvard, with Yale, and UChicago and the rest of the Ivies about the same. If admitted to more than one they will usually match the best offer.
The definition of demonstrated need varies from school to school though, in some cases substantially.
Perhaps we can all agree to disagree.
For every point in favor of Stanford - yield rates, admit rates, strengths in engineering, sports and entrepreneurship, more Turing award winners, etc. there are other points in favor of H/Y/P - strengths in the arts, higher test scores and graduation rates, larger endowments, financial aid for international students, undergraduate focus, more Nobel Laureates, Fields Medallists or Presidents etc.
People weigh different factors differently. Just because you think it’s crystal clear that University A trumps College B doesn’t mean that a majority of people necessarily have to agree with you.
actually Stanford faculty have won more Nobel Prizes since 2000 than any other university in the world.
personally I think it’s SMH these days…
Stanford is an FBS power 5 conference school… and its athletic dept has been the most dominant athletic dept in the country the last 22 years.
athletics bring down Stanford’s grad rates and test scores
Caltech and Chicago both of which place the least emphasis on sports have higher test scores than any ivy
just saying
Yes, having a good sports program brings Stanford’s test scores and grad rates down, but you’ve completely missed my point there.
For some people who value being surrounded by high academic achievers and don’t want too many jocks, Caltech and Chicago might be indeed be marginally better choices for them. Similarly, those who value having peers who are great at athletics might prefer Stanford. What I’m trying to say is that different people have different ideas about what makes the ‘best’ college.
Expecting your personal opinion to be the one shared by everyone else is myopic.
Like I have said before, if you were to do a blind test for the entering class of the top 10 schools, I doubt anyone could tell the difference between the classes. IOW you couldn’t tell me based on just the scores/grades/essays (without any geographic info because a good chunk of Stanford acceptees are from CA) which class belonged to which school. Maybe even the top 20.
Just as a point of fact sbballer, last time I looked, SAT scores at both Harvard and Yale are marginally higher than at Chicago. That was comparing Common Data Set numbers from H and Y with Big Future numbers from Chicago. Last I looked Chicago does not release CDS data publicly. You may be right about CalTech though.
@reuynshard But surely you agree that at Stanford you find not only top athletes but also (and actually primarily) super impressive academic achievers and special kids with really unique academic accomplishments.
@bluewater2015 you are right HYPS have in general the most generous financial aid. Probably MIT comes a bit after. The other ivies, Chicago, Duke do not that kind of endowment to really match HYPS.
@bluewater2015 you can spend a lot of time correcting the many confidently-stated errors in the posts of a certain fake-until-proven-otherwise Stanford student. I do it for the high school students who don’t know better and might actually believe them.
Here is a link for you to look at:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/10-colleges-with-the-highest-sat-scores
Just so you know it shows UChicago as #1, not that it really matters.
@Penn95 Of course, but if being in a place where virtually everyone is an academic high achiever is important to you, then yes, Caltech might indeed be the best choice.
Thanks CU123, DeepBlue86 and Penn95.
That link is interesting on the SAT scores and maybe it’s changed since I last looked. Though the fact that it doesn’t show Yale in the top 10 makes me wonder if the data are correct . . .
Who knows…Cal Tech and Stanford don’t either which makes me wonder if they think California is going to fall into the Pacific or they asked each school to provide the numbers and Yale, Stanford and Cal Tech blew them off or they have that east coast bias or UChicago is well represented on the senior staff of USNWR or…
Yeah, that US News list has a bunch of holes…
This is much better:
http://www.businessinsider.com/colleges-that-accept-students-with-the-highest-sat-scores-2016-8
If you don’t want to read the whole article:
- Caltech - 1534 average
- UChicago
- MIT
- Harvard
- Yale
- Princeton
- Vanderbilt
- Washington U
- Columbia
- Stanford
- Northwestern
- Pomona, Rice
- Notre Dame
- Dartmouth
- Duke
- Penn
- Williams
- Amherst
- CMU
- Tufts
- Brown - 1425 average
What that tells me:
- There are a ton of high-scoring kids
- Some schools are more holistic than others
- But wait… where’s Mudd? I thought they were up there…
I think the average football player at Stanford scored approximately 1000 on the SAT. Christian McCaffrey scored a whopping 24 on the ACT. I certainly wouldn’t want my kids taking any classes with football players at Stanford. I would hope kids go to college for academic reasons. The Ivy league sets academic standards for athletes which is truly refreshing.
Never heard of student-athlete? What’s wrong with going to school and playing a major D1 sport? Stanford has won the Directors Cup every year since 1993-94. Stanford competes at the highest level of college sports.
Alternative Facts: Christian McCaffrey’s ACT score came from a USC forum, unless it’s published somewhere where you can point me to it.
Alternative Facts 2: You think the average SAT score for a Stanford football player is 1,000? Show me where you got that #.
“The price of athletics at Stanford | Stanford Daily
Stanford Daily › 2015/02/22 Looking at the Stanford recruitment class of 2009 (this year was quite typical in terms of test scores), the median football player who reported scores got an 1800 out of 2400 on the SAT.”
7-8 years ago is a long time.