<p>Hey,</p>
<p>My son is considering whether he should applying for Stanford or Princeton early. I was wondering whether Stanford or Princeton would favor his profile/type of applicant more:</p>
<ul>
<li>Strong in Math/Science</li>
<li>More Involved in Service</li>
<li>Less Sporty/Musical/Artsy</li>
<li>Less Holistic, But Strong in Academics (Grades, APs etc)</li>
</ul>
<p>In general, how do Stanford and Princeton differ in terms of the type of applicants they prefer?</p>
<p>I understand that Stanford is stronger in Engineering and Princeton has more opportunities in terms of finance. If you take both into account, which is a stronger program?</p>
<p>Your description doesn’t point to anything that would make him more attractive to either Stanford or Princeton. S and P recruit heavily in a broad range of disciplines, so there’s likely no discernible difference in preference between the two for any generic description of a student “type.”</p>
<p>The more important point here is that your son should not base his early app choice on which school wants him more, but rather which one he wants more. He needs to explore each extensively: read their homepages, read the admissions literature from top to bottom, explore the academic programs that he’s interested in (including course websites, professor homepages, etc.), and take a virtual tour (or a real one). He should absolutely make a habit of reading the respective student newspapers online - they give you the greatest insight into student culture, the research and academics of the university, and so on. </p>
<p>Then do a little hypothetical: if he had acceptances from both in hand, and it’s May 1st (the reply deadline), which would he choose? That’s the one he should apply early to.</p>
<p>Some links:
[Undergraduate</a> Academic Life | Undergraduate Academic Life](<a href=“http://ual.stanford.edu%5DUndergraduate”>http://ual.stanford.edu) [the most informative in terms of opportunities]
[Publications</a> : Stanford University](<a href=“Page Not Found : Stanford University”>Page Not Found : Stanford University)
[Undergraduate</a> Admission : Stanford University](<a href=“Page Not Found : Stanford University”>http://admission.stanford.edu/)
[Stanford</a> University Explore Courses](<a href=“http://explorecourses.stanford.edu%5DStanford”>http://explorecourses.stanford.edu)
[Departments</a> A-Z: Stanford University](<a href=“http://stanford.edu/academics/departments.html]Departments”>Academic Departments – Stanford University)
[Interdisciplinary</a> Programs: Stanford University](<a href=“http://stanford.edu/academics/programs.html]Interdisciplinary”>Interdisciplinary Programs – Stanford University)
[Stanford</a> Daily | Breaking news from the Farm since 1892](<a href=“http://www.stanforddaily.com%5DStanford”>http://www.stanforddaily.com)
[The</a> Unofficial Stanford Blog](<a href=“http://tusb.stanford.edu%5DThe”>http://tusb.stanford.edu)
[Stanford</a> University - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University]Stanford”>Stanford University - Wikipedia) [a pretty good empirical summary of Stanford]</p>