Is the workload at Stanford or Princeton harder? Does Princeton offer a good engineering program? Which school requires more students to engage in seminars and conduct presentations?

College Search & Lists
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Is the workload at Stanford or Princeton harder? Does Princeton offer a good engineering program? Which school requires more students to engage in seminars and conduct presentations?

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Depending on what ratings you read, Stanford might be listed slightly higher than Princeton but negligible. Is there a type of engineering you are looking for?

(I think princeton has many quads, 4 single rooms with a shared bathroom)

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  1. The workload in engineering is going to be very heavy in any engineering program. Whether you would find one ‘harder’ than the other is impossible to say. Most engineering students find some parts harder than others- but that depends on the person: you might find Topic X easy and Topic Y hard, and somebody else might be the other way around. Any way you slice it, though, you will be working very hard.

  2. Any good program will require students to be engaged in seminars and do presentations.

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Generally and relatively speaking, Princeton’s engineering program is more limited in scope than Stanford’s, but it places somewhat greater emphasis in underlying sciences and math (which could make it harder for some students).

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I can’t speak about Princeton’s program but can speak about Stanford’s CS program. Our S recently graduated with a BSCS and he did make many presentations within his major and in non-major core classes. In the non-major classes, the presentations were made to the class and sometime to panels of invited reviewers. These presentations ranged from the regular PowerPoint informative presentations to poetry recitations. The presentations in his CS major were more involved including formal papers and poster sessions. In all he made about 9 CS poster sessions. The large number of sessions may be due to his focus on AI/ML so this number might not be typical for other areas of specialty. One interesting thing is that these poster sessions are heavily attended by outside industry and VC types, and our son made many contacts that resulted in internship and full time employment offers.

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I couldn’t tell if the OP wanted - or didn’t want!- a school that “requires more students to engage in seminars and conduct presentations”.

@14121412, just in case you are asking b/c you don’t want to have to engage and present, re-read @Rivet2000’s post. Notice that in both major and non-major courses there was a fair amount of getting up on your hind legs and making presentations, and the reason for it precisely because so many students are not comfortable doing it, but it is an important part of being successful in your field. It is one of the things that is the mark of a good program.

If you are ambitious enough that you are looking at Stanford and Princeton, you are not looking to spend your life in job in which you fly under the radar. Sooner or later you will have to present your work- and getting experience in the comparatively safe space of school is (like developing good writing skills) the gift that keeps on giving. @Rivet2000’s son’s experience is Exhibit A.

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