<p>It’s obvious that Harvard is a huge, amazing, premier institution of higher learning. That’s a given not really worth disputing – or really disputable. What’s not as obvious to people – because people look at brand names and Harvard has the strongest – is that Stanford is an institution that does superlatively well across a broader range of disciplines, sort of like Harvard and MIT put together or Berkeley and UCSF put together.</p>
<p>Now can we let this thread die – or at least get back to what the OP was asking about? Though I am sure by now he/she’s made his/her decision.</p>