<p>You’re most welcome :)</p>
<p>Yes, you’re right that Stanford is very heavily recruited at by firms in finance - much to the chagrin of the Occupy protesters at Stanford… where, ironically, the “Stop the Brain Drain” movement started.</p>
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<p>Then I’d say Stanford is definitely the better choice, because you have the comfort of knowing that no matter what you major in, you will be in a top department with the best professors, students, facilities, resources, and curricula. Every single one of Stanford’s departments was ranked in the top 5 this year by US News, except for civil engineering, which was #6 (but it made top 5 last year). It also has the most top departments in the NRC rankings, and was the only school in the world to be ranked in the top 5 across all broad areas (from the humanities to the social sciences to the physical sciences) in the Times Higher Education rankings. The breadth and depth of Stanford’s academics is unparalleled.</p>
<p>Re: climate, the average temperature is 70 degrees, with not much deviation. Because the Santa Cruz Mountains shield Stanford from the Pacific, there’s very little rain (avg. 15" per year; consider that a desert is defined at 10 inches or less) and consequently very little humidity, which might be a nice change for you. In effect it’s the perfect cross between NC/CA/Northeast weather.</p>