@junior1818, DS was considering doing a double major (CS and Math) with an MS/BS in CS, but recently decided that an MS/BS in CS alone made more sense for him. My understanding is that double majors are common. The MS/BS and double majors result in fewer electives in your courseload, but that’s not a negative for some people.
My Yalie kid’s freshman year roommate majored in econ and took pre-med courses and then went on to med school.
One of my kid’s friends graduated with a BS/MS in biology and a BA/MA in economics. Not many people can pull that off, but she did.
I actually think–odd as it may seem at first glance–that it’s a bit easier to pull off a double major when the two subjects fall into different groups for distributional requirements.
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I understand that this thread is just about a Stanford vs Yale, but since the conversation has moved to both weather and dorms vs. residential colleges, I will point out that Rice is one choice that has both warm weather and an excellent residential college system. Not relevant for this OP, but I know others peruse these boards and future students may want to consider Rice as an opportunity if they are top students that like those things about Yale and Stanford. Lots of double major students at Rice as well.
@junior1818 At Stanford, it’s very easy, and lots of people do it—often with very different majors. (Stanford even has a more formalized double-major program, CS + X—with X being one of many fields in the humanities, such as English or Linguistics.) It does take more planning and leave you with fewer electives outside of your majors, but double majors are very popular. Also, if you change your mind, either with a double major or just a regular one, it’s not a big deal—you can easily change it whenever you want to, even more than once, as long as you eventually accrue the courses and credits for a degree. You might want to take a look at this site, which lists the actual courses real Stanford students have taken over their years there in a variety of majors. Not every Stanford student’s “journey” is listed—making your courses available to this site is voluntary—but there are a lot of them, and if you click on the Biology link, you’ll see that several students who provided their data have double majored:
echoing @denydenzig
Very true. At Stanford you move dorms every year. Assignments are done through a complicated lottery/priority process. Students form strong bonds during the freshman year, and this gets broken as they split and move around starting the sophomore year. You will hear a lot of students say that the best time they had was during the freshman year. This does have an impact on the happiness and well being of students in the upperclassman years.
@Planner CS+X has been a failure, it may not be offered for long.
Stanford has become too techie (CS+Engineering). There is a lack of respect among students for the humanities and the social sciences. There is a blog from a current student discussing this. You can google it “Cath in College W for Wisdom”
@CA94309 Stanford is not too techie. Techier than Yale, Harvard, Princeton, yes definitely, but over 50% of the students last year were enrolled in non-STEM majors. Also STEM does not include only comp sci/tech so the kids who are majoring in something not directly related to tech is higher than 50%.Some lack of respect for humanities and (some) social sciences is a universal phenomenon, not a Stanford phenomenon. With over 50% of the students studying something other than STEM, I don’t think the issue is worse than most other places. Stanford has some of the very best social sciences and humanities departments in the country and students recognize that.
Why are you saying that CS+X has been a failure?
Not hard at all - it’s generally easy to change majors, declare major(s) and take whichever courses you like (as long as you have the prereqs or permission of the prof). Even with the more unit-heavy majors many students still find time to explore other areas.
Don’t fully agree with this - many students “draw” (go through the lottery) in groups with their friends so that they can live together. You can choose to remain together as a group if that’s what you prefer. You can also stay in the same dorm if you pre-assign or if it’s not a more competitive dorm to live in (or not an all-frosh etc dorm).
@Penn95 The data seems to suggest otherwise: http://stanfordvisualized.soraven.com/
Of the 10 most popular majors at Stanford, 8 are STEM majors, and the number of kids majoring in something non-STEM is lesser than 30%. English, Poli Sci and History barely make it at #13, #14 and #15.
The link @reuynshard provided uses data up to 2014. The most up-to-date data is: https://registrar.stanford.edu/everyone/enrollment-statistics/enrollment-statistics-2016-17/school-engineering-enrollment-2016-17
% of Stanford students majoring in CS is now 17%. With a few other CS-related majors (such as Symbolic System) in School of Humanities and Sciences, this broader sense of CS % is about 25%. Overall % majoring in STEM is greater than 50%.
In contrast, % majoring in all humanities has reduced to around 15% at Stanford.
For the OP, % majoring in Economics is now about 3% (130/4000) at Stanford. At HYP, % majoring in Economics are about 10-15%.
@CA94309 You don’t have to switch dorms every year—there are some options (FroSoCo, Greek houses, or pre-assignment) that allow you to be in the same house for two years. And I agree with @Lagging that many students “draw” together in groups. Also, not everyone forms their strongest connections freshman year—my son didn’t and now has a close group of friends he met in his second-year dorm (along with those he’s kept in touch with from freshman year). That said, I still strongly feel that Yale’s residential colleges are a better option, especially on large, spread-out campuses.
Regarding non-tech students, I don’t think there’s a lack of respect for students in the humanities and social sciences at Stanford—quite the opposite! Though Stanford does have a techie atmosphere, many tech students double major or minor in a non-tech field or have very strong non-tech ECs. To my knowledge, my son hasn’t encountered a single tech student who doesn’t have a strong non-tech interest. I wouldn’t go by one person’s blog—prospective students should visit Stanford and talk to as many students as they can before forming their own opinions.
As for CS+X being a failure, I haven’t heard anything about that. I do know that my son considered that option but decided against it because he wanted to have space for more electives. He also wanted more freedom in the “X” field—there were some courses that interested him a lot, and others that didn’t. So he’s sort of going to be an unofficial CS+X student, if there is such a thing, by majoring in CS and taking quite a few select courses in a non-tech field (but not the particular ones, distribution-wise, that would amount to a double major or even the minor).
@reuynshard @prof2dad I was looking at their common data set from last year where there is information about the breakdown of bachelors degrees conferred but i didn’t take into consideration the entry saying interdisciplinary studies. my bad.
The link @prof2dad provided is better. So about 65% of the students are in STEM. STEM includes more than just tech-related fields.
It is interesting to compare it with Yale where the most popular major seems to be history.
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/04/06/history-returns-to-the-top-major-for-class-of-2019/
At the end of the day the schools have different profiles but Stanford also have top offerings in social sciences and humanities.
I have not read all the posts (apologies).
These are two of the best colleges in the world, obviously.
I generally think that Stanford is stronger in some STEM fields – especially Engineering and CS – while Yale is stronger in some Humanities fields. Overall, I think they are pretty even, but an academic edge may be based on major. A counter to that is that majors with relatively few students (like a Hum major at Stanford or some STEM majors at Yale) might actually serve students well, as there is less competition for individual time with profs.
Obviously a major difference is environment: Stanford is the California Ivy, while Yale is in the northeast – weather, culture/vibe, some activities, and the look of things are all different. Stanford has D1 sports and a sporty culture, while Yale is old school Ivy. Dorm systems are different. Etc.
If cost is close, I’d choose based on fit. (pretty standard advice from me…)
I agree, but I’m not sure that the number of students in the major matters that much. DS was initially surprised at, and subsequently has benefitted from, the relatively few students going to office hours or otherwise engaging with their professors. He found that, as long as you’re genuinely interested (i.e., not just trying to cajole a grade change or extra time for an assignment), the professors are happy to engage.
I have no reason to suspect that this isn’t true at both (and most) schools/majors, but it has been very much the case in CS and Math courses at Yale.
Obviously Stanford bro! I might be biased considering that I’m a graduate student at Stanford. But I attended MIT before and during my time at MIT took cross-registered courses at Harvard… Stanford nowadays though is leading on my fronts and Being here in the middle of this data science boom which will impact every single field is a blessing…
prezbucky wrote:
A counter to that is that majors with relatively few students (like a Hum major at Stanford or some STEM majors at Yale) might actually serve students well, as there is less competition for individual time with profs.
I definitely agree with the statement. But while Stanford also does have top humanities departments (at the same level of even better than Yale’s on certain areas) , Yale does not have top STEM departments (at least not on a level comparable to Stanford’s).
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I have one kid at Stanford and the other at Yale. IMO there are a few myths being stated here. First, every significant finance firm recruits at Stanford. The future jobs are not just tech by any means. Palo Alto does not offer more to do than New Haven and almost no one goes to SF which is very far away and a car is needed. Stanford students are ambitious and do wear less clothing, but by no means is it a left leaning school. I agree with much of the above in that they feel very different. For me, I love Yale’s campus and college system but that is a very individualized pov. The quarterly system is an active one. ECs abound at each place. Unless one place has something that you want in particular that the other does not, trust me you will find some acceptable version. Bottom line: You will have to live there for 4 years. These two schools have such a different feel that I think you might find it easy to pick if you visit again.
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And financially both schools have issues when it comes to the higher income student.