Help me...Princeton vs. Yale vs. MIT

Lord_Asquith
Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:53:49 +0000

New Haven isn’t bad, the buildings are nicer than Princeton’s, and Princeton is too rural to me (it takes longer to get places, which I really hate). The academics are awesome at all three of these schools, but you have smaller classes at Yale, you have the residential college system, more resources, cooler sweaters, more school spirit … I could go on.

Yale does enjoy a better name than Princeton or MIT, but the difference is miniscule among employers.

Also, the general views of Princeton as snobby (mostly due to the Eating Clubs/bickering) and MIT as geeky hold true to a certain extent (especially the latter notion).

I disagree about the buildings being nicer at Yale. Also:

1. Princeton is rural, but very close to the most urban city possible: NYC. Students very frequently go to NYC for conferences, shows, even classes (my suitemate takes a dance class in NYC).

2. Princeton has a smaller student body than Yale, so I rather doubt that Yale could have smaller class sizes. I’ve had classes with as few as 6 people (and with a full professor!).

3. Princeton has a larger endowment per student than Yale ($1.68 million vs. $1.34 million). Factor out all of Yale’s professional school endowments, and Princeton has significantly more resources to spend on each undergrad student than Yale does.

4. I can’t say whether Yale or Princeton has more school spirit, but those who go to Princeton certainly love the school, as evidenced by Princeton having the highest alumni-giving rates.

5. Princeton isn’t any snobbier than Yale or Harvard. They all go for the same types of high school applicants.

But I agree that it would be way more useful to visit both campuses.