<p>I am curious about which would you guys choose. I have posted this tread on Stanford's forum and all the replies there seem to " Stanford, for sure". So i want to hear opinions here. any suggestions?</p>
<p>wow, i'm in the same situation too. Yale has always been my first choice, but as an aspiring premed, I've heard Stanford's program is the top in the nation. On the other hand, I've lived in Cali (30 min away from Stanford) all my life, so I would like to experience the East Coast. I'm curious too to see if anyone has any suggestions.</p>
<p>I have the same question too!</p>
<p>I'll go read up on the answers on the Stanford board, but it would be great to hear input here too. I flipped a couple coins today but wasn't very happy with the results...</p>
<p>godamn i wish i had that choice.</p>
<p>Suninlights, your unhappiness with the coin flips should indicate your decision, then. </p>
<p>As for Stanford's premed program, it's very strong. Stanford offers both Biological Sciences and Human Biology majors, and undergraduate research is VERY prevalent and open to freshmen. And they do not try to "weed" out kids in orgo--it's a difficult course but not designed to flunk half the class--from what I hear.</p>
<p>try searching for last year's posts on this question - there were some really good comments about both schools on this option. here are just a few thoughts:</p>
<p>location - do you want an urban environment (New Haven is great if you're into the community service scene) or a campus that's a bit set back from activity (Stanford is near downtown palo alto, but just far enough away that it's sometimes too much trouble to leave campus)? My comment about New Haven is that people say it's awful, but I really don't think it is - there are these amazing secluded beautiful spots in the college courtyards and such, so if you want to totally cut yourself off from everything you can, but at the same time you're in the center of a lot of activity. Palo Alto is a little... um... too calm for me (maybe that's just 'coz I grew up there, though, I suppose). Both cities have easy access to a major city (NY or SF) by train.</p>
<p>curriculum - PLEASE don't choose your college based on which has the "better" premed program. Both schools get students into med schools at really high rates, and there are SO MANY MORE IMPORTANT THINGS that will affect your college experience. That being said, look at distributional requirements, courses offered in your prospective major, etc. and see what appeals to you.</p>
<p>I'll post more later (got to run to Yale's Relay for Life right now), but really, they're both amazing schools, just with very different characteristics... pick the one that you feel "fits" you best. I love Yale, but I do recognize that for some people, Stanford/etc. is a better place.</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask, but please do try searching for the old threads too.</p>
<p>(Oh, and if you're wondering, I go to Yale but I grew up near Stanford and have spent a lot of time on campus both during the school year and not. I definitely know more about Yale, but I can try to at least give you some comparative perspective...)</p>
<p>wrathofgod, I'd highly recommend you to seriously consider Yale. I know from personal experience that I've gained a whole new perspective on a lot of things since moving away from the bay area, and if yale has always been your first choice and you'd like to experience the East Coast, please don't let Stanford's reputation of having a better premed program turn you away. At this level, having a "better premed program" is just splitting hairs, and there are really other aspects of the college experience that should be much more important in making your final decision!</p>
<p>If I want to do business( or set up my own companies) in the future, will Stanford be a better choice?</p>
<p>athena_wiles, is there really a very strong anti-harvard sentiment at yale? rivalries are fine, but i don't want to spend four years listening to continuous harvard bashing. seems a waste of time</p>
<p>Yale has a much stronger premed program. In terms of acceptance rate into the nation's top medical schools, the top premed programs in the United States are Caltech, Yale and MIT. </p>
<p>Stanford ranks 10th after these three plus Amherst, Dartmouth, Harvard, Swarthmore, Princeton and Columbia.</p>
<p>One of Yale's strengths is that it pretty much has more scientific research expenditure per science major than any other university in the country, except Caltech. Undergrads can get a gig working in any of the top labs, if they want to.</p>
<p>A bizarre claim. Whatever it was based on (no links provided) it certainly wasn't based on THIS:</p>
<p>kerrykally - for that, yeah, I think Stanford might be better (if only because of Palo Alto/silicon valley's recent history of being a place for startups). I'm not sure, though - try contacting both schools and ask whether or not they have mentoring programs etc. On Yale's side, you might also want to see if the Yale Entrepreneurial Society (<a href="http://www.yes.yale.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.yes.yale.edu/</a>) can give you any info. I suspect there's an equivalent group at Stanford, but I don't know what it is off the top of my head and you'll probably need to do a bit of poking around to find it.</p>
<p>zirie - we goof off about the harvard-yale rivalry a lot, but it's not like a bitter "I HATE HARVARD" with a passion sort of thing. I don't think I've met anyone here who really hates Harvard, we just say we do because it's tradition ;) I can tell you, though, that when all the Harvard students were here for the Harvard-Yale game this year, my friends and I had a lot of fun hanging out with the Harvard students we were hosting, and we were all envious of aspects of each others' schools (we liked Boston, they liked our academic calendar, etc.) and we got along just fine. So no, I wouldn't say there's a "very strong anti-harvard sentiment at yale" - to me at least it feels like it's much more of a running joke, and while it gets waaaaaay too prevalent/really old around the time of the Game every year, most of the time you don't notice it too much.</p>
<p>Byerly, stop posting that terribly biased and methodologically-poor link and passing it off as real data.</p>
<p>What about Williams? Which would you choose among the three( Yale, Stan, and Williams)? I would like to hear ANY opinion.</p>
<p>It's hard to match the culture, opportunities and academics of Stanford. Students are indeed happy.</p>
<p>Yale places students in internships on both coasts & everywhere in between, as does Stanford!</p>
<p>zephyr - you might be right, but I could just as easily say that it's hard to match the culture, opportunities, and academics of Yale as well. Students are happy here too :) It really all depends on your perspective!</p>
<p>Really, I mean, at this level, comparing schools is just splitting hairs. They're both amazing. Really.</p>
<p>hey, im also a yalie from palo alto who <em>strongly</em> considered stanford. if youre lucky enough to have to choose between both schools, make sure you take a few things into account:
1) WEATHER: do you like seasons? sunshine? snow? surfing? its apples and oranges, so think hard about what youre used to and what you can take.
2) CAMPUS LOOK AND SIZE: yale is compact and antique-styled, stanford is large and sprawling, and most buildings look fairly modern. at yale, you can walk from one end of campus to the other in about 20 minutes, while at stanford you pretty much need a bike or car to get around.
3) HOUSING SYSTEM: as you pretty much all know, yale has its famous residential colleges, a great streamlined housing system thats intimate but not too restrictive. at stanford, its pretty much a melee where youre drawing with the WHOLE SCHOOL for housing. most of my friends at stanford cite that as a major drawback.
4) ACADEMIC CALENDAR: quarter or semester? three terms a year or two? at stanford you pretty much either have midterms or finals every two-three weeks, while yale is much more spaced out. also, do you want to start in sept. and end in june or start in august and end in may?
5) SURROUNDINGS: palo alto is a quiet, safe town but the area has lots of opportunities for high-tech work. new haven is big and mostly ghetto but the area around yale is pretty spic and span, and caters to the college very well. its about comparable how often i would get up to the respective big city (sf or ny), though ny definitely has more attractions.
those are the main hard differences i can think of right now. in terms of people, everyone says stanford is this and that and yale is this and that, but its all just generalizations. youll find diverse, interesting, sometimes snobby people of all stripes at both places. sometimes i wish i had gone to stanford when its freezing cold and i get homesick, but by and large im glad i came here. happy hunting, collegekids!</p>
<p>Actually, New Haven is the wealthiest city in the United States, when you consider actual metropolitan area limits instead of 18th-century "town" borders. Of course, there are poorer areas in some parts of the central city (where houses are older, etc.), just like in any major city, but there are also multimillion-dollar houses, lofts and condos in the area around Yale. There are thousands of luxury apartments and condos being built in downtown New Haven by New York City developers (mostly adjacent to Yale), and most of the city/region consists of beautiful beachfront houses and 2-acre-zoned suburban lots. Dozens of biotechnology and financial firms have moved into New Haven, which also helps.</p>
<p>Just look at the hundreds of restaurants around Yale, most of which are far too expensive for the average rich person, much less the average college student, to eat at. See <a href="http://www.infonewhaven.com/index.cgi/639%5B/url%5D">http://www.infonewhaven.com/index.cgi/639</a></p>
<p>"Actually, New Haven is the wealthiest city in the United States..."
Care to present some data supporting that assertion? Until you do so, we can fairly assume both Palo Alto and Cambridge are better off.</p>
<p>Here are a few stats. New Haven is the 2nd richest in the country, but once you consider cost of living, it is easily the richest.</p>
<p>Wealth and density comparison of ten U.S. cities </p>
<p>Metropolitan
Per Capita Personal Income
Income Rank </p>
<p>Source: Census Bureau </p>
<p>San Francisco, CA $39,746 1 </p>
<p>New Haven, CT $38,962 2 </p>
<p>New York, NY $33,177 11 </p>
<p>Boston, MA $30,366 16 </p>
<p>Chicago, IL $29,948 18 </p>
<p>Detroit, MI $27,250 36 </p>
<p>Atlanta, GA $27,241 37 </p>
<p>Los Angeles, CA $24,945 75 </p>
<p>Las Vegas, NV $24,706 81 </p>
<p>Tucson, AZ $20,535 216 72.6 284 </p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnt.org/tsp/uic-critique.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.cnt.org/tsp/uic-critique.html</a></p>
<p>Also see:</p>