<p>The quality of instruction and research opportunities is the same at Stanford and Harvard. Neither will make you a better mathematician/physicist (they’re both ranked at the top).</p>
<p>The humanities requirements are not bad, but you probably don’t have to worry so much about them, since Stanford’s doing an overhaul of the undergraduate curriculum with the goal of reducing the number of requirements.</p>
<p>When I was choosing between Stanford and Harvard (among others), I would not have said that weather is important. But after having been here for a while, I’ve realized how under-valued it is when students are choosing colleges: it not only has an effect on your mood, but it really changes what you’re able to do outside (more important than you think, even if you aren’t active in sports); imagine having to move your graduation ceremony inside at the last minute (HYP have to anticipate this; Stanford never does). It’s also really awesome to wear only a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops in mid-December. Stanford isn’t dry, but it doesn’t rain much–the Santa Cruz mountains create a rain shadow so Stanford gets only about 15 inches of rain per year.</p>
<p>Palo Alto isn’t a great college town, but downtown is decent. You’ll also have access to San Francisco, San Jose, and other small cities on the peninsula. </p>
<p>If Silicon Valley is an interest, then being near it is very important. Stanford connects you with internships, jobs, etc. in SV, and there are lots of other programs for those interested in SV–Mayfield Fellowship, various talk series from CEOs in SV, etc.</p>
<p>By the way, doing the 50H and the physics 60 series together would be torture, and you’d likely not do well and/or switch down to the regular series. Either one is intense enough, but together you’d have to eliminate a lot of other stuff in your daily schedule.</p>