<p>Recently I have received my likely from Yale and an acceptance from Stanford. I will be playing a sport in college and Yale is my dream school however Stanford is offering a 50% scholarship while Yale can't help me out financially. I'm struggling to make this decision because both of these schools are amazing, and while I feel that I fit in more at Yale during my visits.....a 50% scholarship is a ton of money. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>What are you interested in majoring in? And overall, you really can’t go wrong academically. If finances are important, you really can’t beat half off tuition to one of the best schools in the country. Ask yourself, is a slightly better fit at Yale worth $90,000 to you over 4 years?</p>
<p>I really have no idea what I want to study but the great thing about a liberal arts school is that I am allowed a bit more flexibility and time to figure that out. The generalization I have heard and witnessed a bit of is that Yale seems to foster a more intellectual student body as far as debate, conversation, and ambitions which I didn’t see at Stanford as much. I have trouble monetizing the schools because the short answer is that Yale isn’t $120,000 better than Stanford, but some of the things Yale offers like its housing system, tradition/history, and culture aren’t quantifiable. </p>
<p>It depends on your financial situation; if the aid is necessary, take it. If you have no problem paying for the Yale education, go for it. </p>
<p>I believe Yale meets full demonstrated need. I suspect your parents want you to go where you will be most fulfilled and best prepared to launch for a lifetime. Money is only one dimension. You have worked hard to deserve this chance. If your family can afford to take finances off the table, which they likely can, do it. Go where you best fit in. There will be trials and tribulations along your path, don’t purposely add to them. Set yourself up for success.</p>
<p>Go to Stanford. </p>
<p>If I were a high school senior planning to major in the Humanities or Social Sciences (with a few exceptions), I would prefer Yale, but no school is $120k better than Stanford. College isn’t worth all that. </p>
<p>Go where the fit is.</p>
<p>I’m guessing that the money matters more to you in concept than it does to your parents (since no Yale $) and apparently your parents are not pressing for Stanford. </p>
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I’m a firm believer that a student can be happy and fulfilled at practically any selective college. To quote Yale’s recently retired Admissions Director, Jeffrey Brenzel… <a href=“http://admissions.yale.edu/after-colleges-accept-you”>http://admissions.yale.edu/after-colleges-accept-you</a></p>
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Truthfully, my kids are at Yale and Harvard NOT because they believed HY were “the best” fit, but because both schools provided more financial aid than their peer institutions – specifically Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Williams and Pomona. Attending college is expensive. If money is a concern for your family, then graduating debt free – for both you and your parents – should be a top consideration. You can “set yourself up for success” at Stanford just as easily as you would at Yale. </p>
<p>If money is NOT an issue for your parents, then they could buy you a new car, a new wardrobe, and send you to Europe EVERY summer with the money they would saving by sending you to Stanford. And, hey . . . the weather is much nicer in California! With a son who is very happy at Yale, I say go to Stanford! </p>
<p>One additional note: As you are heading off to college to play a sport, if money is not an issue, which coach and team do you like the best? After all, you’ll be spending most of your non-academic time with those people.</p>
<p>Something does not sound right. How could you be accepted to Stanford in November? Did you verbally commit to both coaches and now shopping around? Or did you commit to Yale, got your Likely Letter but now Stanford offered you a spot and you are thinking to renege on Yale commitment?</p>
<p>^^ I agree. Most recruiting happens before the SCEA deadline, so it’s possible for an athlete who is being recruited to obtain multiple likely letters from colleges. However, an athlete considering multiple offers from SCEA schools, such as Stanford and Yale, needs to commit to one of them prior to the deadline. So OP . . . which college did you apply to SCEA?</p>
<p>I applied Yale EA but Stanford has an entirely different process for athlete admissions. </p>
<p>^^ I guess you didn’t read this: <a href=“http://admissions.yale.edu/faq/single-choice-early-action”>http://admissions.yale.edu/faq/single-choice-early-action</a>
So, even though Stanford has an entirely different process for athletic admissions, it was against Yale’s rules to apply to Yale and Stanford. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think you need to have a conversation with your guidance counselor, as you should withdraw one of your applications from consideration. @Sherpa has more knowledge about athletic recruiting than I do, maybe they can add to this discussion.</p></li>
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<p>^Easy there. Isn’t it possible that the Stanford interaction has involved conversations, or even correspondence, discussing likely outcomes if the OP were to apply RD? Nothing wrong with that.</p>
<p>Edit: on rereading the OP s/he does write “acceptance from Stanford”. So yes, that would seem not to be kosher.</p>
<p>I pose this question to those of you with much more experience: what generally happens in these situations? Shouldn’t the GC, whose office mailed transcripts and recs, have at least waved a warning flag at OP?</p>
<p>^^ That’s what I’m thinking as well. Usually guidance counselor’s don’t make this kind of error, so the outcome could possibly be hurtful to the applicant, guidance counselor, high school, and future applicants from the high school, which is why I suggested the OP have a conversation with their GC.</p>
<p>@gibby wrote
When I first read this, my reaction was: EXACTLY! This is the correct analysis.</p>
<p>On further reflection, though, I realize that it’s a little more complicated. As gibby correctly notes, it’s possible (but borderline unethical, IMO) for a recruited athlete to obtain multiple Likely Letters. But to do so they’d need to submit full applications to each of the target schools. Suppose an applicant wanted LLs from HYP, and wanted them all in October.</p>
<p>Could this be done? Yes. They’d need to submit full applications to each school, but none of them could be SCEA.</p>
<p>Can HYP all give October LLs based on an RD application? Yes.</p>
<p>Where it gets real fuzzy is the “needs to commit to one of them” part. They don’t need to commit to the school if they’re applying RD, but it’s unlikely a coach will recommend them for the LL without a commitment that they intent to attend.</p>
<p>The athlete could lie and commit to each of them or, in the case of a phenomenal, Olympic level recruit, they might get away with giving each coach an ultimatum, “I’m not sure yet if I want to attend HY or P, but if I don’t get a LL from your school, I’m crossing it off my list.”</p>
<p>Back to the OP’s situation: It appears they’ve violated Yale’s SCEA rules by also applying to Stanford. In any event, they’re both great schools. I’d advise Stanford at half price over full pay at Yale.</p>
<p>@sherpa, IANAL. OP applied EA to at least Yale, and quite possibly both schools. If OP applied EA to both schools, it would seem to me that the ethical thing would be to withdraw from both. </p>
<p>@IxnayBob - Re: IANAL, That was a new one for me. I had to google it. Would an appropriate response be “I am not ANAL either”? Lol</p>
<p>Edit to add: Withdrawing from both might be the proper legal thing but, IMO, the proper ethical thing would be to commit to one immediately and withdraw the other application. Both schools want this student and he wants at least one of them. I see no reason to make it a lose/lose/lose.</p>
<p>@sherpa, every time I type IANAL, my inner 5th grader giggles :)</p>
<p>As a practical matter, I take your point, but if OP applied to both EA, I have three objections:
- Whatever benefit a school gains from having Restricted Early Action applications was unilaterally taken away by OP. Whether the school’s benefit is material is not for me, or OP, to decide.</p>
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<li><p>Whatever benefit other applicants gave up by restricting themselves to following the rules were retained by OP. As an extreme case, what if an applicant applied to all Early Action schools simultaneously? How would you feel about him selecting one that he got into and withdrawing from all others?</p></li>
<li><p>Would both schools have wanted OP if they knew he could not, or would not, follow clear directions? In a holistic process, that fact might change my appraisal. To be honest, I think a school would be diminished by accepting a student who won’t or can’t stick to the rules. </p></li>
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<p>We will probably never know what really happened here, and your suggestion is probably right from a practical standpoint. I’m sorry to fall back on this, but sometimes it helps to ask “what if everyone did that?” The answer in that case differs. </p>
<p>OP, the above might seem harsh, and it assumes that you applied REA/SCEA to more than one school. </p>
<p>Regardless of the circumstances that lead up to this situation, a decision needs to be made ASAP.</p>
<p>Whatever decision the OP makes, s/he is going to anger a coach who thinks they have the kid in their pocket. That anger has the potential to spill over to the OP’s guidance counselor – who let the applicant apply to both colleges – and to future applicants from the high school. High schools have been blacklisted by colleges because of situations like this, so the OP needs to act immediately and delicately by withdrawing his or her application from one school. </p>
<p>As the OP only has a Likely Letter from Yale, it would make more sense to withdraw Yale’s application.</p>