Princeton. Go with the vibe.
Time demand for your sport will be higher at Stanford if that matters…as well as travel I assume.
SuzyQ- a poster asked OP “which coach do you like better?” Perhaps the OP should be aware that this is an public forum and be careful what opinions, thoughts or information is shared when readers may be able to identify OP. 
@cllgerower1999 looking at it objectively I think Stanford has the edge here. Better athletics, better STEM/CS programs, better weather and it is an overall stronger university that provides the whole gamut of resources due to its strong grad schools.
That said, if your heart is at Princeton for any reason (change of scenery, like he team/coach better etc) you should go for it. At this level the differences are small. Plus as you said Princeton’s undergrad focus is amazing.
I would say one thing to think about is the role of Athletics at each school. Obviously Stanford is the most successful Division I athletics in the country and there are some consequences tied to that. There are ‘classes’ for each Varsity sport. Will you be expected to max out the 8 credits available in ATHLETIC 28? Will your Athletic Advisor steer you to easier courses and easier majors so you can focus more on rowing? Is having access to less rigorous courses important because I believe you’ll find more at Stanford than you will at Princeton. All Princeton UGs have to do research and produce a Thesis along with other papers to build up to that. Is that something that appeals to you or not?
@strawberry2000 what is your intended major?
I think objectively Stanford has the edge. better athletics, better weather, overall stronger school with more resources available because it has top grad schools (say you wanna do research at the medical school/hospital or the business school, or take a law or business class etc). Also for practically all majors Stanford is just as good or stronger than Princeton.
Most importantly, since you gel much better with the coach and team at Stanford I dont see why you wouldn’t go there.
All that said, you cannot go wrong with either choice.
Since you stated that your decision comes down to “athlete life vs. school life,” some questions for you to ask yourself:
Regarding athletic life:
How significant is being an athlete in your life, i.e., is it just for college, post-college, perhaps Olympics, etc.? In other words, is it a short-term or a long-term goal?
Will you be an average or top contributor at P, at S?
Have you done any research on which college supports athletes better adapt to rigorous academic environment? What are their graduation success rate like? (These are available from their respective athletic depts.)
Regarding academic life:
Do you prefer a larger school setting or a smaller LAC-like school? For comparison, Stanford has about 2,000 more undergrad students than Princeton, which has about 5,200. Stanford’s grad student population is about 11,000 whereas Princeton’s grad student population is about half of its undergrad population at 2,700. Stanford has Med, Law and Business schools. By institutional design, Princeton doesn’t. There are pros and cons to either environment, and it’s up to each individual student preference.
What do you intend to major in? Which school has greater strength in your area of academic interest? What resources does each school have for assisting you towards your career path given your major?
What pedagogical style do you prefer? Princeton has the Preceptorial Method which is a modified Oxford tutorial learning environment with 5:1 student-teacher ratio. I’m not as familiar with Stanford’s pedagogical methods, so I’ll leave that for other knowledgeable folks to contribute here.
Princeton has residential college (6) system, and each college where you’d be housed is staffed by 1) the college dean, 2) director of studies, 3) faculty advisers, 4) peer academic advisers and 5) director of student life, a staff member dedicated to support your health and well being. Again, I’m not familiar with Stanford counterpart to this so I’ll leave this up to others to contribute here.
You can’t go wrong with either of these great institutions. However, they’re very different in culture and experience, so do make a wise decision based on YOUR personality and needs. One big mistake I’ve seen so many young students make is going with what their peers think are a greater choice when instead they need to really dig into their self-knowledge of who they’re and what they want to accomplish in life. In other words, DON’T go with either the Ivy hype or the Stanford hype. Go with what’d fulfill your life in the long run.
What I said in the other similar thread for the Rower trying to decide:
I would say one thing to think about is the role of Athletics at each school. Obviously Stanford is the most successful Division I athletics in the country and there are some consequences tied to that. There are ‘classes’ for each Varsity sport. Will you be expected to max out the 8 credits available in ATHLETIC 28? Will your Athletic Advisor steer you to easier courses and easier majors so you can focus more on rowing? Is having access to less rigorous courses important because I believe you’ll find more at Stanford than you will at Princeton. All Princeton UGs have to do research and produce a Thesis along with other papers to build up to that. Is that something that appeals to you or not?
I think that one thing that is always asked of an Athlete is would you be happy at the school if you were injured and could no longer participate in your sport or if the current coach left?
How about this? Princeton is in a beautiful little Hamlet of a town about an hour+ train ride away from the big cities of NYC and Philly. Stanford is a humongous urban campus about 30-45 minutes from San Jose and San Francisco. And for what its worth the building activity on the Peninsula near and around Palo Alto is crazy. Google’s and Facebook’s campuses are unbelievably large and growing larger by the minute in the towns surrounding Palo Alto (Mountain View and Menlo Park).
Yesterday, while watching the Eagles-49ers (in Philly) game, and then little bit of the Washington-Dallas (near DC) football games, it was raining hard. I went for a run in my shorts and tank and enjoyed a cup of coffee in my backyard. 
What a wonderful decision you have in front of you. Both outstanding schools and campuses. Best of luck.
How could you have been accepted by both this early in the cycle? Did you commit to both coaches in order to get their support? Did you submit two SCEA/REA applications? I’m confused.
In any event, my son was recruited by both and chose Princeton. There will be a lot of athletes at either school, with more at Stanford but perhaps a higher percentage of the student body at Princeton. Other than weather and your perception of your fit with the coach and team, I think the biggest difference is that, in contrast to Stanford’s special academic hand holding of its athletes, Princeton tries to treat its student/athletes as students first and athletes second.
Both great choices, obviously. I believe the numbers show that a high percentage of cross admits (~70 to 75% last time I looked) choose Stanford over Princeton, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the right choice for you. Stanford certainly has a lot of advantages, especially if you’re interested in a career in Silicon Valley after graduation.
A couple of points that may swing in favor of Princeton - one, as someone noted above, Princeton’s campus has more of a classic college feel, in my opinion. And since you’re an athlete, one other thing to consider is that there’s likely to be more travel (plane rides rather than bus rides) and midweek competition at Stanford, as the conference schools (Pac 12 or MPSF, depending on sport) are much more spread out geographically for Stanford than in the Ivy League.
One of my co-workers went to Yale and Stanford and he would tell you that the whole “Eating Club” scene can be minefield to navigate at Princeton. Although as a rower/athlete, maybe that’s not an issue.
don’t base your decision on the coach you like the best, as they have a way of taking other jobs or getting canned. Go to the school you like the most.
Especially assistant coaches.
Great documentary .https://www.netflix.com/title/80167684 …or available on PBS
@CrewDad Thank you for sharing the documentary!
Both great schools. Keep in mind, despite what @sherpa would like to believe, there is no more"special academic handholding" at Stanford than at Princeton. Geez. Even Heisman hopeful Bryce Love is a serious student - premed majoring in Human Biology, doing research in one of the top stem cell labs in the world. Academics are paramount in all the sports.
Stanford! We have a friend from TX on the football team and he is loving the athletics and the academics. He is really happy with the school. He is a premed.
For premed it is also important to think about grade inflation. Stanford has more grade inflation than Princeton. Also in term of research opportunities that many premeds need for med school apps Stanford has more to offer.
one misconception is that Stanford is laid back… it’s not. In fact I would argue it’s more rigorous academically than the ivies in terms of jamming in a semester’s worth of content into a quarter system. You have midterms every week and coupled with the demands of athletics it’s a tougher combo to handle at a place like Stanford compared to Princeton.
@Penn95
Grad inflation is the least of worries.
D1 rowing is almost a year-around sport. Doing extensive research while competing in and traveling to regattas and practicing 5-7 days/week during the spring, winter and fall is extremely difficult, if not almost impossible.
I realize that research is important when applying to med school. However, I sometimes wonder how important when compared to GPA, MCAT, recommendation letters and reputation of undergrad institution .
I hired a crew coach who had rowed in the first boat at an Ivy. Although he had a mechanical engineering degree, a few years post graduation he decided he wanted to be a physician. During the time he coached for our program, he took bio and organic chem the local university and did research. He commented a number of times that had he been required to spend significant amounts of time doing research as an undergrad, rowing would not have been possible.
His MCAT scores were outstanding, but his research wasn’t what most would have considered impressive…at all.
He wasn’t accepted at the top schools he applied to. However, he was accepted at a respectable med school.
Nate’s bio is impressive.
http://www.rowingrecruiting.com/2015/10/finding-the-balance-between-student-and-athlete-at-elite-schools/