<p>I really love everything that I’ve read about Stanford, but unfortunately, I will only be allowed to attend a college on the eastern half of the US. What similarly academically strong Eastern schools have a similar atmosphere to what I’ve heard from Stanford students (i.e. tons of things to do even outside greek life, great people, strong academics, supportive environment…)</p>
<p>Brown comes to mind as one option.</p>
<p>Brown, Tufts, Swarthmore (smaller), Yale.</p>
<p>Standford attracts more high-tech brains. It used to be a strong Business school. Brown doesn’t have the kind of high-tech attitude like Stanford does :)</p>
<p>People frequently compare Stanford to Duke, but I think that’s mostly because it’s also a top-10 school with strong athletics and decent weather. Duke has a much more prominent Greek scene, which Stanford doesn’t.</p>
<p>Brown also comes to mind, especially because of its liberal atmosphere. Academically, Penn, Columbia, and Harvard are much closer - at least among the Ivies.</p>
<p>Academically I would actually think Princeton would be the closest.</p>
<p>Yale and Princeton</p>
<p>IMO Princeton (rich suburbs, manicured/beautiful campus with distinct theme, quantitative academic strength)</p>
<p>for the weather/rah/sports: duke</p>
<p>Yale is more artsy, urban. Same with brown and columbia.</p>
<p>To me, there’s none. There’s simply no school that has the academics of MIT (engineering) and Havard (liberal arts and sciences) combined while having arguably the best athletics program in the country.</p>
<p>On a different criteria - in terms of schools with happy student bodies, great academics, and “happy campus” environments I’d say:</p>
<p>Brown, Dartmouth, Princeton, Northwestern, Amherst, Duke, Middlebury.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, no one has mentioned either Pomona or Berkeley which are Stanford’s closest peers geographically and spiritually. I’d add Rice to the mix, if you are talking about another big tech-oriented school with lots of red tile roofs.</p>
<p>@john probably because the OP asked for East Coast schools :P</p>
<p>I’m surprised that no one has mentioned Cornell - the east coast school Stanford was modeled after.</p>
<p>The connections between the two are deep, stretching all the way back to Stanford’s founding when Leland Stanford asked Andrew Dickson White (Cornell’s co-founder) to come to California to help him start his university (White didn’t go, but instead sent Cornellian David Starr Jordan and almost half of Stanford’s original faculty from Cornell). Stanford was built according to the Cornell model which placed the same focus on practical, technical education in fields like engineering, agriculture, and architecture, as it did on traditional liberal arts education. The two schools share even school colors (red and white), and a nickname (Stanford - The Farm; Cornell - Uncle Ezra’s Farm). </p>
<p>Today the two are still the only private schools, outside of the pure technical school like MIT, Caltech, & CMU, to offer engineering programs on par with top publics like Berkeley and Michigan. Yet both also have top rated liberal arts programs on par with those of the Ivy League (or in Cornell’s case, the rest of the Ivy League). Among their peers both also offer, by a decent margin, the largest breadth of academic majors and courses to their undergraduates (especially in engineering, architecture, and other technical fields).</p>
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<p>In that case (sorry, my bad) it’s kind of a weird question. You can substitute the snow carnival atmosphere of some of the New England colleges for Stanford’s sun and surf ambience, but, it would still be a difficult comparison.</p>
<p>Agree with Sam Lee. None. California and the east coast are different worlds.</p>
<p>@B-Schooler that’s because the two are drastically different now, even though they had similar beginnings. Stanford was originally modeled after Cornell but chose the less professional route: it doesn’t have schools for architecture, agriculture, etc. and in fact doesn’t even offer those. It’s taken more after U Chicago (founded at the same time), the so-called “German model” of education, with a focus on the liberal arts.</p>
<p>And while Stanford was rural when it was originally founded, it’s very much suburban now, with cities all around it. Cornell is still very rural and secluded. On top of that, Cornell has a very strong focus on professional education (often in obscure fields like human ecology), while Stanford has a stronger representation of non-professional programs. Cornell’s undergrad is also 2x the size of Stanford’s. I’ve always felt that Cornell is very much like Berkeley.</p>
<p>And Cornell’s weather is terrible. ;)</p>
<p>None. Stanford is unique. It doesn’t even have a similar school in California.</p>
<p>^Cornell? Nah. The weather can’t be any different. Other significant differences:
- Lots of New Yorkers vs lots of Californians.
- Lack of specialty schools (architecture, agriculture/business, hotel) at Stanford.
- Pac-12 football/basketball with winningest programs in tennis and swimming vs Ivy League athletics.
- None of the schools in the east coast seems to match Stanford in entreprenuerialship. While the top east coast schools seem to have tons of students aiming for investment banking, it seems to me more Stanford students are planning their next start-ups.</p>
<p>Duke founded by tobacco money.</p>
<p>Stanford founded by railroad money.</p>
<p>^ Leland Stanford’s wealth was less in railroad than in his other stocks, bonds, real estate, wineries, etc. which is where most of Stanford’s original endowment came from.</p>
<p>Robber baron money nonetheless ;)</p>