Is it harder to get into stanford or harvard?

<p>I agree with rooster08. No matter which of these schools you attend, the education will be the same. The only difference that I can see is that some university departments might be stronger than others or weaker than others. It depends what your interests are. To say that one school is better than another because of a tiny discrepency in admissions statistics is an incorrect statement. In fact, I believe people who judge a school by the number of people it accepts are narrow-minded. Usually, they choose a school because of its “prestige” and not by whether it is tailored to their career, academic, or personal needs and interests. Although ambitious as can be, they don’t know what they exactly want in their future and think that four years at an ivy-league school is their ticket to realizing their dreams of success. I don’t mean to be critical or judgemental in anyway but it makes you think what a person’s real motives for attending institutions, such as Harvard or Stanford.</p>

<p>Definately depends. From my school on the east coast its historically harder to get into Stanford.</p>

<p>No. That’s just because fewer people apply from the east coast. And Stanford is generally second choice not first for east coast people. So the early people are predominantly west coast people.</p>

<p>F A T W A</p>

<p>Each school gives a regional tip, but a whopping 50+% of admitted students at Stanford are from California. It is definitely harder to get into Stanford if you don’t live in California.</p>

<p>stanfords early rate is 20% vs harvard’s 23.3%. just match that up against the overall rate. it would seem that stanford should be easier RD.</p>

<p>you cant really use infinity as if it were a number or variable. (infinity + 1)/infinity is undefined. And yes rooster, some infinities are infinitely greater than other infinities (comparing integers to possible graphical curves, etc…)</p>

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<p>Not true… I believe that their California accpetance rate is almost exactly the same as their non-Cali acceptance rate. In California, everyone applies to Stanford =)</p>

<p>actually, (infinity + 1)/infinity is not undefined. its an indeterminant.</p>

<p>I agree with what raven001 said. </p>

<p>I would also add that there are 2 other factors you have to keep in mind.</p>

<h1>1 - California is the most populous state in the country. So it would make sense that lots of applicants to Stanford come from California, just like lots of applicants from anywhere in the country tend to come from California, just because California has the most people of any state. Similarly a lot of Harvard applicants come from New York City, which should surprise no-one simply because New York City has a lot of people.</h1>

<p>Let’s also keep in mind that the state of California is geographically speaking simply huge - far larger physically than any of the states in the Northeast. It takes you longer to drive from San Francisco to San Diego than it does to drive from New Hampshire all the way to Washington DC, even though the former drive is all confined within the state of California, whereas the latter would take you through 7 different states (or maybe 8 if you decide to go through Pennsylvania) as well as the District of Columbia. And San Francisco isn’t even close to the Northern border of California (it’s about 400 miles away from it). Put another way, if we were to actually carve out an area in the Northeast that is of the same physical size as California and call that a singled unified “Northeast State” (or something like that), then it should surprise no-one that most applicants to Harvard would come from this Northeast State. </p>

<h1>2 - The legacy/alumni factor</h1>

<p>Let’s keep in mind that Stanford gives preference to legacies, and Stanford graduates tend to be found in California, and hence legacy applicants also tend to come from California. By the same token, lots of Harvard graduates live in New York City, and hence lots of Harvard legacy applicants will come from New York.</p>

<p>yes, m6ixty2wo, in circumstances where infinities are of the same magnitude</p>

<p>erm… infinity + 1 and infinity ARE of the same magnitude.</p>

<p>its a simple limit, if the number on top is a constant (not infinity) difference from the number on bottom. as the number on top approaches infinity, then the ratio approaches one. now if its not a constant difference, thats a different story.</p>

<p>can you approach infinity? i thought infinity was a qualitative concept, not a quantitative one.</p>

<p>true, it is a qualitive concept, you can’t approach it. there’s my language difficulty.</p>

<p>harvard is definitely harder</p>

<p>compare stats of applicant pools - grades, e.c.'s, tests…</p>

<p>if you want to learn about infinity, read George Gamow’s “One, two, three…infinity!”</p>

<p>You’ll see what I mean by different magnitudes of infinity m6sty2wo.</p>

<p>lol… ill have to decline… :)</p>

<p>wha?!? :(</p>

<p>oh well…</p>

<p>US news ranked harvard i believe 3rd for selectivity and stanford 8th. and considering harvards early accept rate is actually HIGHER, it makes stanford that much easier for RD (not taking into account x factors we cant control such as what diversity they need).</p>

<p>Limit rules (as n approaches infinity; a, b, c, and d are constants):</p>

<p>lim (n + a)/(n + b) = 1
lim (an)/(bn) = a/b.</p>

<p>Combining,</p>

<p>lim c(n + a)/(d(n + b)) = c/d.</p>

<p>For unequal exponents (a<em>i and b</em>k are constants for all nonnegative integers i and k; h and j are constants),</p>

<p>lim ((a<em>h)x^h + (a</em>(h-1))x^(h-1) + . . . + (a<em>1)x + a</em>0)/((b<em>j)x^j + (b</em>(j-1))x^(j - 1) + . . . + (b<em>1)x + b</em>0)
= infinity if h > k
= (a<em>h)/(b</em>j) if h = k (this is the same as above)
= 0 if h < k</p>