<p>coffeeaddict, that was amazing. I know which one worked it's magic on my daughter.</p>
<p>Advice: Attend Bulldog Days. Yes, go ahead and miss a few days of school. You've earned a break.</p>
<p>I would say Stanford, although it seems a good idea to ask specifically the teaching philosophies of the economics departments at both schools. I know they can vary between schools, as the differences between Northwestern's economics department and University of Chcago's amply illustrate.</p>
<p>I would think that Yale would probably serve your career interests better. I mean the Yale network IMO is stronger and more well developed. Because of the residential system it builds community, for example my interviewer and her husband both went to yale, got married in Battel Church, and are apart of the local alumni club in Houston. I don't know if Stanford has an alumni club of houston, but the Yale group seemed the most cohesive and connected, which will certainly help.</p>
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"Don't get me wrong, people seem to be impressed with both, but going to an Ivy is something that's universal, going to Stanford is something that really only matters on the West Coast (that's not to say Stanford isn't internationally renowned... I'm just saying amongst commonfolk, this is the case)."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't think this is true in all parts of the country. I live in Texas and the whole whole Ivy label really is not that great. I did not even know about Dartmouth and UPenn until the admission season, but I have known of Stanford. The northeast may be more concerned with the 8 schools more than other regions of the country.</p>
<p>I'm a Yale alum but was at Stanford often b/c of a GF. She was from CA so chose Stanford over Yale and other Ivies. When I would go to visit, I enjoyed the campus and was wildly envious of the weather and some of the near amenities of N California but that was about it. I felt my undergrad experience was far superior (my opinion only) to hers. Specifically (and others have mentioned this), the social aspect where I was easily able to form a large circle of life-long friends was very common at Y. Outside the greek system at Stanford, I didn't see this as readily. Yalies are known for their over the top loyalty to "mother Yale". Stanford grads don't seem (to me) to exhibit as much raw enthusiasm. Perhaps it's the "duck" syndrome someone mentioned for CA folks. I dunno.</p>
<p>I think the major issues: academic offerings, overall excellent institutional support -- are on par. I think now you're in the nice situation to see what "soft" issues you value more as a person. For me, I'm hugely social so Yale's offerings sated me well.</p>
<p>Tyler, on the basis of a few threads I have seen here, you seem like a super guy -- smart, centered, passionate, thoughtful. You really can't go wrong with your college choices. All of the colleges you are looking at have incredible resources and opportunities to offer you, more and better than you could find at any other institution, and more than you will possibly be able to pursue in four years. The opportunities at each may be slightly different, but I am confident you will sniff out what is cool and exciting at whatever college you wind up attending, and you will do that, and you will be excited and happy about it and glad you went there, not giving a thought to what you might have been doing elsewhere.</p>
<p>So . . . you don't have to overanalyze. Go with your gut. It will be fine. Flip a coin if you need to, or throw some darts, or cut cards. Whatever happens, your life will be different, but the outcome will be the same: great.</p>
<p>That said, there's one tiny corner of things you may want to explore further. I am a little chary of your statement that you plan to major in Economics, but want to take as few math courses as possible. At a high level, wherever you are, as currently practiced and as practiced for the foreseeable future, Econ = math. It is heavily math dependent, more so the deeper into the field you progress. Wanting to do Econ with minimal math is perilously close to wanting to be a crummy economist. Not a great ambition.</p>
<p>Now, I am uniquely unqualified to lecture you on this because I took a bunch of Econ courses in college without cracking a math book. I loved the concepts, thought the way of looking at the world was really interesting, it was great balance to my main area of study (literature and literary theory), and it signaled to potential employers that my feet were on the ground even if my head was in the clouds. But the more I understood, the more I wished I knew more math, was more facile with it.</p>
<p>If you look at top undergraduate econ programs, you may see some actual difference in their degree of mathiness. My impression is that Stanford and Chicago are at the mathiest end of the spectrum, and Yale isn't. I'm not certain about Harvard -- it may be somewhat double-tracked so that the potential grad students are math-immersed and the pre-laws aren't necessarily. (Yale is probably like that, too.)</p>