<p>I just got admitted by these 2 wonderful schools and am doing tons of research on where to go. But the general comments on these schools do tend to contradict each other and I am getting a bit overwhelmed with all the points I need to focus on, so I thought I'd post some info about myself and ask for everyone's opinion.</p>
<p>I am an international student, and although I did not apply for FA I am no means rich. I come from a middle-class family, and have spent most of my life in warm harbor cities.</p>
<p>I am not sure of my main academic interest, but am looking into Literature, History, Communication and Economics. For my career I am wavering between a) going into journalism then perhaps law school and b) finance. </p>
<p>I am quite chill haha, and I love to socialize. The main thing I look for in a university is diversity of opportunities. I have also been admitted by Columbia and although I love NYC, I don't believe its overall academic quality/rigor is on par with Stanford and Princeton.</p>
<p>My main concern with Princeton is its competitive and academic-oriented atmosphere, and its rumored "snobbiness" (eating clubs).</p>
<p>My main concern with Stanford is that its humanities/social sciences might tend to be weaker than Pton and its job placement in law and finance might be weaker too.</p>
<p>Well, Princeton Professor Anthony Grafton praised Stanford’s interdepartmental collaboration in social sciences research in his October 26, 2009 editorial in “The Daily Princetonian” <a href=“http://www.dailyprince-tonian.com/2009/10/26/24264/[/url]”>http://www.dailyprince-tonian.com/2009/10/26/24264/</a>
Thus, I don’t think you need to worry about Stanford being weaker in the social sciences. It certainly isn’t weak in the field of psychology, for example.</p>
<p>Princeton’s proximity to New York might give it a slight advantage as far as recruitiing for jobs in finance, however Stanford isn’t overlooked by recruiters. My son, who graduated from an Ivy, was flown to San Francisco for a banking interview, so I would imagine the reverse happens too. Princeton doesn’t have a law school, but Stanford’s is one of the best in the country. I don’t know about law school placement, however.</p>
<p>If you are “chill” and are accustomed to warm harbor cities, then I think you’d feel more at home socially at Stanford. However, college is a time to explore new things, so that might be a reason to choose a different environment. Still, my daughter experienced the eating club thing first hand and was disgusted by the snobbery: bouncers at the door with a list of who may be admitted to the clubs, certain clubs only being the province of students whose parents were multimillionaires, etc. My guess is that you’d find the afmosphere at Princeton to be more intellectual, however.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, every ranking of disciplines out there either puts Stanford and Princeton on par with each other for social sciences and humanities, or Stanford ahead. A small sampling:</p>
<p>[ARWU</a> FIELD 2010 Social Sciences<a href=“Stanford%20#3,%20Princeton%20#7”>/url</a></p>
<p>For the disciplines relevant to you, Stanford and Princeton are always tied or essentially tied (one might be a hair ahead of the other in a certain ranking), except for communication, which Princeton doesn’t have.</p>
<p>It was strange to hear the claim that Stanford wouldn’t measure up in social sciences, which it’s well-known for. (In the NRC ranking, the most reputable of all of them, Stanford, Harvard, and Berkeley tied for first in social sciences, Princeton a few places behind.)</p>
<p>edit: as for law/finance placement, while I haven’t seen any data on Stanford, I’m pretty sure that it does well. Remember that you don’t have to go to New York to do that. Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Los Angeles… all are hubs of finance, entrepreneurship, etc. Also, according to this</p>
<p>Stanford produces a slightly higher # of future MBA/JD/MD students than Princeton, though a lower proportion since Stanford’s larger (so Princeton is #3, Stanford #4). That may or may not be a bad thing; it’s good because it does well, but bad because it means more of the student body is pre-professional, which for many students is annoying.</p>
<p>At any rate, none of the differences you’re afraid of actually exist. So for you it’s really going to come down to fit and which one you can see yourself at for four years.</p>
<p>San Francisco and LA have tons of jobs in the finance industry, not to mention that it is common for NYC companies to fly students out to New York for interviews or to host interviews on campus. Name any top finance firm, and they will recruit Stanford students. I don’t know as much about law though. I’m sure both have very comparable job placement rates in finance. Although if you would much prefer to intern on the east coast versus out west, than that would be a bump in Princeton’s favor. Stanford students often get internships out east, although that generally entails being away from most of one’s friends for the summer, so it’s not that popular. </p>
<p>I’m not sure Stanford is inferior to Princeton in humanities and social sciences, but even if it were, I’d argue at the undergrad level that a “fit” is more important (provided the two were on similar ground, which I think they definitely are). </p>
<p>I think whatever school you end up at you’ll do more than fine in the long run. So I’d ask myself which is more affordable and which will give me the most rewarding undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>Mostly I post on the Princeton forum since S1 is a happy freshman there. However, S2 loved his visit to Stanford this past March so I have been poking around a bit in this forum.</p>
<p>A poster above had a daughter “who was disgusted by the snobbery of the eating clubs”. I just wanted to say that I think this is a gross misrepresentation of the system. Please take the time to learn more about them if you are considering Princeton. </p>
<p>Princeton and Stanford are both great schools. You can’t go wrong either way. You should choose what feel right to you.</p>
<p>I don’t think that it’s a misrepresentation of the clubs. Sure, many have a different opinion, but since many people think that of the clubs, including current students, it can’t be a “misrepresentation.”</p>
<p>I turned down Princeton in part because of institutions like eating clubs (and because of institutions like Stanford :))–and yes, I did look quite a bit into them, but when you hear students themselves complain about the clubs’ perpetuation of elitism, divisiveness, etc. constantly, you can’t help but feel like it’s the last bastion of Princeton’s rich-white-protestant history.</p>
<p>^ the link you posted isn’t working (looks like CC deleted the thread), but the other thread you posted in the Princeton forum had the same lists you posted above.</p>
<p>That’s why I called the poster out on trying to pass off his own rankings as the NRC. The ones he posted were tailored to what he likes (which is what phds.org allows you to do), using data from the NRC rankings. But they are not NRC, and it’s disingenuous to call them that.</p>
<p>As I said in that thread:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you want to see the real rankings, you can access them here:</p>
<p>As you implied, Stanford and Princeton are equal for those disciplines, including history (Stanford and Princeton are tied for #1 in history in the US News ranking), although Princeton doesn’t have communication.</p>
<p>@Phanta: I think my link is working…are you referring to the link I posted before I edited my post? In that case, thanks for pointing out the problem! I was indeed misled.</p>
<p>Eis, you are lucky/talented to be presented with these two options. Everyone’s being very tactful regarding what they say about these two schools here but at the risk of summoning the flame throwers:</p>
<p>Stanford or Princeton? Are you kidding? The joy and beauty of living in Calif’s Bay Area v living in New Jersey? The attractive and diverse student body at Stanford v elitist plain vanilla Princeton? Modern energetic vibe v old school gothic?</p>
<p>Forget the rankings, think about where you’ll be living for four years - Stanford.</p>
<p>Eiswein, for finance on Wall Street and with the better Investment Banking firms, Stanford is good but not at the level of the top tier and this could be because of its location on the west coast.</p>
<p>The top tier is Harvard, Wharton and Princeton</p>
<p>and here are the NRC departmental rankings for Comparative Literature, History and Economics. As you can see, Princeton is ranked higher than Stanford in all three, but the difference is not too significant in 2 of the fields:</p>
<p>COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1—Princeton
2—Harvard 3—Stanford
4—Berkeley
5—U. of Maryland
6—Duke
7—Yale
8—Brown
9—Penn
10—NYU</p>
<p>HISTORY 1—Princeton
2—Harvard
3—Princeton (different department)
4—JHU
5—U. of Chicago
6—Columbia
7—Harvard (different department)
8—Penn 9—Stanford
10–Berkeley</p>
<p>ECONOMICS
1—Harvard
2—MIT
3—U. of Chicago 4—Princeton
5—Berkeley
6—Harvard (different department) 7—Stanford
8—Cal Tech
9—Yale
10–NYU</p>
<p>Granted, half of that is CS, but still, these rankings suck. They hardly apply to anything. Besides, most of these rankings are evaluative of the Doctorate programs at those schools. At least, more focused on their research, not really the quality of the UG education.</p>
<p>^^^^DarkDwarf, oh, ok…then why don’t YOU supply us with any type of comparison for the undergraduate departments of History, Economics and Comparitive Literature…</p>
<p>I wouldn’t waste time nitpicking the nuances in arbitrary NRC rankings in Humanities/Social Science courses between the schools because in the end, how you deeply you discuss Nietzsche (forgive the oversimplification) plays a minor role in the kind of work you’re interested in post-grad. Since you’re interested in journalism and law, think about which school provides more opportunities/points of entry into these fields. These include academic crossovers into these fields (professors, courses), companies that operate in the surrounding area, internship availability, and professional journalism/law clubs at these schools.</p>
<p>Since you are chill and love to socialize, Stanford and Silicon Valley seem like a better fit.</p>
<p>When looking at the eating clubs/social climbing of Princeton, I think there is really no contest. I think the social climbing aspect is the biggest turn off from the big name ivies. Stanford is probably the best school for someone who is “chill and social.” Stanford and Princeton are pretty comparable academically in the social sciences, so where would you want to spend the next four years of your life? A lot of people have the sentiment that it is nice to say you went to Princeton, but not nice to actually go there. Go to Stanford, you’ll enjoy it a lot more. xD</p>