Stanford...Yale? Yale...Stanford?? Anything Goes!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
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<p>I was recently very fortunate to be admitted to Stanford SCEA, and then even more lucky to receive a likely letter from Yale, my two top choice schools!</p>

<p>I thought it would be easy to choose Stanford, my number one pick and my dream school for a long time, but now the choice has become unclear. So please, help me and future applicants, future students in my situation, and maybe even yourself in the process.</p>

<p>Stanford or Yale??? What's good, what's bad???</p>

<p>Anything goes. I want to hear anecdotes, rumors, feelings, guesses, statistics, quotes, pictures, ANYTHING that can help with the decision.</p>

<p>About me: Prospective Econ major (if a school lets me take as few math classes for this as possible that's a plus).</p>

<p>What I like about Stanford more than Yale: Sports, Weather, Laid-back, Cultural</p>

<p>What I like about Yale more than Stanford: Tradition, Administration-Student Cooperation, Housing System</p>

<p>Tie: Academics, Surrounding Location</p>

<p>I've read all of the other threads on this issue, but I want more meat. The good and the bad on both schools! Thanks for helping out!</p>

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<p>First of all, congratulations. I have no direct knowledge on life at either school but I do know what i would do if I was in your shoes. Obviously I would visit both campuses and get a feel for the place. Talk with current students who you trust to give accurate information. After that, just go with your gut. This is a difficult, but incredible choice to have!</p>

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<p>See long discussion already:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/618239-stanford-yale.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/618239-stanford-yale.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>I would second supereagle10's advice: visit both campuses.</p>

<p>Congratulations too! I've heard that mostly athletes get likely letters, and since I didn't see anything about athletics in your post I am assuming you got a likely letter based on some other merit, which is really impressive!</p>

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<p>I was accepted early to Stanford, but I also sent in an application to Yale. But, after having visited Stanford, talking to other admits and whatnot, I realized that it's the place for me and I'd go there, even if accepted to Yale (which I also loved). Now, this is just my personal preference and you might choose differently but Stanford and Yale are very different in many respects and I think making a side-by-side comparison would be good. </p>

<p>Geographical Location: Do you prefer west coast or east coast? Do you live closer to one school or the other? Would you like to live within driving distance of your school or do you not mind taking a plane? (If both schools are equidistant from you, this might not be much of a concern). I personally live about an hour and a half from Yale and to get to Stanford requires a 6 hour plane ride. Although Yale is much more convienient, for me personally, college is about broadening your horizons and going away to college seems exciting and different. </p>

<p>Location Part 2: Do you prefer a small urban environment, or an upscale suburb? New Haven is a bit grungy, but it undoubtedly is a pretty bustling area and there are sure to be fun clubs and restaurants and bars to go to. Palo Alto also has really good restaurants and bars and whatnot but it is definitely a lot less "active" in a sense. It isn't a college town and it can get pretty pricey (while we were there my parents dragged me to an open house in Palo Alto. It was this dinkey little place but it went for $1.8 Million. Sheesh.) Lastly, Yale is a couple of hours from both Boston and NYC, while Stanford is 30 minutes from San Fransisco. </p>

<p>Campus: Stanford is very spanish styled, with many buildings made of sandstone and red-tiled roofs. Yale is overwhelmingly gothic and looks very midieval. I find both to be beautiful, but some might hate one style and love the other or vice versa. Furthermore, Yale is relatively compact at around 300 acres. It's pretty easy to walk around. Stanford is sprawling and has over 8,000 acres of land (although not all of these acres are part of the main campus). You <em>will</em> need a bike or skateboard or w/e to get around. You'll get tired of walking everywhere really quickly. Lastly, Stanford is a bubble, whereas Yale is integrated into the city of New Haven. This means that at Yale, you'll have campus buildings and city buildings next to eachother, streets will bisect campus in every which way and direction, etc. Stanford is more of an enclosed community that isn't technically even in Palo Alto, but rather next to it. Stanford students like sticking to the grounds and don't leave campus as much as at other schools. But, to make up for it, Stanford has a lot of stuff on campus to make it feel like you're not closed-in. Like, they have their own pizza parlor, Jamba Juice, barbor shop, MALL (yes Stanford owns it's own mall), horse ranch, golf course, etc. </p>

<p>Academics: Stanford and Yale are nearly identically strong academically. Stanford has some advantages, while Yale has others. If you're interested in the arts, or music, theatre, drama, etc Yale seems like a better place to go. If you like engineering, science, etc Stanford has an edge (although Yale has been trying to improve its science department lately and it is quite good). In other areas like history, political science, Literature, foreign languages, etc I think the two are equal and you won't notice much of a difference at one or the other. </p>

<p>Students: Stanford students seem more laid-back and chill. All the sunshine really does affect your mood. Yale students seem more "busy." When I visited Yale, the students all seemed like they had some grand destination they were headed for. Stanford was a bit more relaxed (I think these feelings I got were also affected by the bustling nature of the city where Yale is and the suburban atmosphere at Stanford). At Yale also, it seemed like there were a lot of people around. Stanford seemed dead a lot of the time. There's thousands of students and yet only a hundred or so seemed out and about at any one time. Both Yale and Stanford students are incredibly smart and passionate but I do feel as though the stereotype that Stanford students don't like to show it is in at least partially true. And the stereotype that Yale students are elitist I feel is also a bit true (although remember that these are stereotypes and can't possibly be reflective of the student body as a whole.) Wherever you end up, you WILL find your niche. </p>

<p>I can't think of any more comparisons right now, but I hope this helped!</p>

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<p>just so you know... im pretty positive almost all upper division economic classes require some extra math classes.</p>

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<p>Hippo724 couldnt of said it any better</p>

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<p>At Yale you could have less competition in math, i.e., they are not as strong as Stanford. Don't go there now to visit Yale because it is winter, you could get a bad feeling about the school.</p>

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<p>if having less math is really important it's worth mentioning that econ majors at stanford have to take math 51 (linear algebra and multivariable calculus) which is considered a pretty difficult math class. on the other hand it's only ten weeks long and stanford is worth it.</p>

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<p>bump! which would/did you choose and why???</p>

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<p>bump! 10char</p>

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<p>I've told you before, but Stanford's econ department is very mathy. Just looking at the description of Yale's econ major, I can guarantee you that it will be easier to avoid math at Yale, since apparently they have different tracks that you can take (a more qualitative track for the math-averse and a more quantitative one for the math-inclined), and you don't even need to take math higher than single variable calculus if you don't want to. At Stanford, you don't have that option. Everyone who majors in econ HAS to take linear algebra/multivariable calculus, and has to take the extremely math-centric econ core, which can be quite painful if you're not good at math.</p>

<p>However, you definitely should not base your decision on this alone. I hate/am very bad at math, and definitely am not pleased with how mathy the econ department is here, but I still love Stanford and wouldn't want to be anywhere else. (Yale was one of my top choices too when applying to college, but Stanford was my number one.) You might even decide to not major in econ later, so basing your decision just on the econ departments is not a good idea. (Are you interested in any other majors? Maybe you should find out information about other departments too.) Definitely visit both schools though, and talk to a lot of people to make an informed decision.</p>

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<p>Deal with the math =] seriously...engineering or economics with less math can get sketchy and annoying. Seeing the ideas in math in action should interest you to a slight degree at least. Just try not to get intimidated by it.</p>

<p>Agree with above - go to your overall dream school if you can, and <em>especially</em> do not avoid it because the econ department has more math...econ grad schools will want even more math than required above, and as an econ major in general, it's very healthy to get that exposure. G'luck!</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I've told you before, but Stanford's econ department is very mathy. Just looking at the description of Yale's econ major, I can guarantee you that it will be easier to avoid math at Yale, since apparently they have different tracks that you can take (a more qualitative track for the math-averse and a more quantitative one for the math-inclined), and you don't even need to take math higher than single variable calculus if you don't want to. At Stanford, you don't have that option. Everyone who majors in econ HAS to take linear algebra/multivariable calculus, and has to take the extremely math-centric econ core, which can be quite painful if you're not good at math.

[/quote]
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<p>I don't consider myself a math person. I don't really get it, I have nightmares about summation notation, etc. And the first day I stepped foot into Econ 50 and saw the way the prof wrote down everything (numbers and symbols) I was worried. But you get used to it. And once you get passed the core (5 courses), you can pretty much get through the whole rest of the major without really doing any math.</p>

<p>Yes, you do have to a take a relatively advanced calc course, but if you're smart enough to get into Stanford and get a likely letter from Yale, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to handle it. The only math you'll need to remember from it is how to take partial derivatives, and that's easier (in my eyes) than most of high school calculus. The rest of the math related stuff you'll see is fairly basic; there's just a lot of symbols, variables and what not, it looks complicated, but it really isn't.</p>

<p>All that aside though, don't pick between schools based on whatever major you think you're going to be going in to. As in, don't let it factor in to your decision at all. I guarantee you it will change. Pick a school based on the people you meet while visiting, student life, rumors (though to a lesser degree...but they're usually true in part, so they have their uses), etc. Don't worry about your major until the day you step foot on campus as a freshman at the very earliest, and even then in most cases you should just forget about it until sophomore year. What college you decide to go to is far too important a choice to be swayed by something that won't be true 4 years down the line.</p>

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<p>"s in, don't let it factor in to your decision at all. I guarantee you it will change. Pick a school based on the people you meet while visiting, student life, rumors (though to a lesser degree...but they're usually true in part, so they have their uses), etc."</p>

<p>That's going too far, I think. How good a school's programs are in my area of study probably would matter to me. For instance, if I had a strong preference for engineering, I would at least <em>factor</em> that in favor of Stanford. You can't be sure, but hey, you can't be sure of <em>anything</em> really. Taking an educated guess is a good idea, though I agree letting a math requirement or two turn one away from a school entirely when major could easily change within a year is a bad idea.</p>

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<p>I think that you are in the wrong thread to ask this question. You should go to Harvard, MIT and Princeton threads to ask the same question, and you may get an obvious answer. I am probably the only one on this thread to tell you to go to Yale, based on what you said.</p>

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<p>If there's any class you want to avoid at Stanford it would be IHUM and PWR not Math 51 lol. I'll be here with a much longer posting perhaps later tonight or tomorrow, but it won't be telling you to choose Stanford (or Yale for that matter).</p>

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<p>ohhhhh i'm excited for the post!</p>

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<p>Stanford wins, hands down.</p>

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<p>Tyler, they are at the midterm right now. You have to wait. My understanding is that math 51 is relatively easy, and math 52 is not so. Did you mention that you will not get any finaid from either Yale or Stanford? It indicates to me that Stanford gave you the offer while preparing to battle other schools where the money is not an issue, and you will not pick one due to finaid.</p>