<p>Hey, I’m applying to Stanford this year. I’m doing REA even though I realistically know that I have no chance. Since none of my other schools have EA and I’m definitely not sure enough about a school to do ED, I figured “why not?” Good luck to everyone!</p>
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<p>Be a little more optimistic!</p>
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<p>That’s logical.</p>
<p>I’m entirely optimistic, I just have realistic expectations about getting in 
Stanford is the biggest reach (in my opinon) in my college list considering my overall application strength. I would love more than anything to go there (especially after doing a month-long program over the summer there) but for now it’s only a dream. Maybe things will change on December 15, we’ll see.</p>
<p>@ fledgling, what is HYP? </p>
<p>@ people applying to Yale AND Stanford: What are the differences between the schools? How did you determine which school is a better fit? What are the best parts of Yale and Stanford?
I know it’s subjective but I’m curious for your opinions :)</p>
<p>@ Anybody interested in privately messaging application essays?</p>
<p>Thanks :D</p>
<p>Best of luck to everyone!</p>
<p>HYP is the common abbreviation for Harvard, Yale and Princeton.</p>
<p>Well, i think Stanford offers more flexibility in majors. Also, its core curriculum is stronger.</p>
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<p>What makes you say that?</p>
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<p>What does that mean?</p>
<p>^For the majors, if you come into Stanford and change your mind a half-dozen times on what you eventually want to study, you really can’t go wrong with the quality of the department you end up in because Stanford is so strong across the board. Princeton seems to be most like Stanford in this regard. Though Harvard and Yale probably have smart students in engineering, it is widely believed to be a notch or two below Stanford. Really though, for most academic disciplines, you can’t go wrong with any of these 4 schools. Fine arts I hear is Stanford’s weakest area, though I could be mistaken. </p>
<p>Core curriculum is required classes or types of classes that one has to take. Generally at Stanford, Freshman year everyone has to take three quarters of Introduction to the Humanities, which are ten Freshman-only humanities classes from which you pick one. Freshman and sophomore year every student has to take one PWR (program in writing and rhetoric) class each year, from which there are 20-30 options. In addition to those, there are general-education-requirements that each student has to fill. That means taking any class in a humanities field, math field, engineering, science, social science, etc. as well as take classes related to gender, American studies, and two other things (pick 2 out of 4). 3 quarters of a language are required, but there are various ways to place out of that.</p>
<p>After freshman year this “core” really isn’t too much of a factor, as most students are exploratory and would have taken classes in every field anyways. In fact I’m an incoming sophomore and I’m almost done with the requirements. </p>
<p>I can’t speak for Harvard, Princeton, and Yale though.</p>
<p>@BejeweledGirl: I applied and got into both Yale and Stanford. I am obviously biased (Cardinal for life!), but I will try and answer as objectively as possible. I am a native Californian, so the Stanford weather was an obvious plus. I really loved Yale’s college system and the bond it created. I also think that the Yale suites are in general nicer than the average Stanford dorm. I loved the architecture at both schools. What made my decision was visiting the schools and meeting the people. I honestly was far more comfortable around the Stanford students. They seemed more friendly, happier, and generally less stressed. They also seemed, for lack of a better word, less pretentious. That being said, I have some great friend that attend Yale, and I definitely wouldn’t call them pretentious. Honestly, do your research, visit the school, and get a feel for each campus, on and off paper. You are the only one that can decide which is a better school for YOU. They are both amazing. Best of luck in your college search!</p>
<p>ahem *friends</p>
<p>^Welcome to CC! Good to have another person in the Stanford forum. If I were you though I’d get off before you potentially get addicted haha (it subsides during the school year though a ton luckily, at least for me). FYI there’s an edit option I think at the bottom right corner of your post. You have 20 minutes after you post to edit if you so choose. I edited my post (like always). </p>
<p>Regarding the personality of Stanford students, a lot of people use the duck in a pond analogy: seemingly calm on the surface but paddling furiously underneath. Some people use it in a negative way, but I never thought of it like that. Stanford students, like students at every other top school, are going to work hard. But we generally don’t let our workloads drive us insane: my friends and I played basketball the night before a final; it’s common for someone to help out other students with a pset even if (s)he is not nearly finished with his/her own; people will tan in the sun while doing homework; I went skiing and missed a couple days of classes midway through the quarter. Things like this are the norm. </p>
<p>Some say it’s an artificial persona that we’re forced to adopt to fit in, but I think it’s more the types of people Stanford admits. And if it were peer pressure (although it may just be that being in an upbeat environment will make one naturally more upbeat) is getting rid of stress the worst thing in the world? Far better I think than being in an environment of super-intense and competitive students and being pressured to not fall behind them. </p>
<p>And it’s not like your looked down upon if you complain about classes or your workload- practically all of us do that at some point or another, and you can almost always find someone to commiserate with. It’s just we don’t let that dominate other facets of our lives. Academics are just one of many spheres.</p>
<p>(off topic but ditto the addiction thing - it really is…)</p>
<h2>I’m also a proponent of the positive duck analogy. I love the work hard play hard.</h2>
<p>Okay now back to Stanford hopefuls :)</p>
<p>what do people think - is it better to apply scea without submitting sat subject tests or wait until rd and submit subject test results?</p>
<p>ED . gives you more chances of getting in.</p>
<p>I’m sorta pessimistic about getting in to someplace like Stanford, but it can’t really hurt to apply. My dad went to Stanford for graduate school. I just don’t know how my test scores will work with Stanford. I got 2090 SAT, 34 ACT, 800’s on both Math and Physics SAT2, and about a 3.6 unweighted or 4.1 weighted GPA.</p>
<p>just simply send in everything except your sat reasoning score that brings it down. act will replace your sat reasoning :)</p>
<p>They’ll get mad if you don’t send in the SAT. Don’t worry though, they’ll only look at your ACT score.</p>
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Why? Will they know that he took it yet didn’t send it in?</p>
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Pretty sure Stanford doesn’t have ED.</p>
<p>@ kabizzle: Stanford accepts both the SAT and the ACT.</p>
<p>Stanford doesn’t have ED.
[Restrictive</a> Early Action or Regular Decision : Stanford University](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/application/decision_process/index.html]Restrictive”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/application/decision_process/index.html)</p>
<p>Senior0991- Your post (along with others i’ve read) really notched up my opinion of Stanford. That’s pretty much what i’d want my classmates to be like, and i haven’t come across a single person calling Stanford students pretentious or stuck up. Plus, their international relations program is reputed to be one of the best. (Harvard doesn’t even have one. You can only specialize under government.) And the weather is so much more appealing than the freezing cold!!</p>
<p>If it weren’t for the fact that Stanford isn’t need blind for internationals, i’d love to do REA there instead of SCEA at Yale. Unfortunately, my chances at Stanford are extremely low because of their financial aid policy.</p>