Stanford vs Williams vs Georgetown

gardenstategal
Wed, 29 Apr 2020 11:39:58 +0000

Legacy status at Stanford guarantees that your application will get a second reading. That’s not a huge bump - it’s insurance against a reader in a bad mood . If your family is a major donor or very involved, your odds go from 5 to 10%. That’s what we were told several years ago on a tour during reunions. You will have to be a good fit to pull it off. Unless things have changed (and they usually make alums aware of that), it isn’t much of an edge. So if the only reason you added it is because you think your odds are good, it’s easy to narrow the choice down to 2.

I think you need to think about what kind of environment you want for your college experience. You can get internships at any but at only one can you do things in DC while you are in class. The academic calendar at Stanford makes it easier (and more common) to sprinkle terms abroad/off campus throughout your experience. Williams has tutorials and has a strong sense of community, in large part because of its size and isolation. (I love this kind of LAC. If the fit is good, this "bubble " can create a wonderful life experience. ) Each will have a very different feel to it.

Figure out what really matters to you. I like the house analogy above. Most, but not all, people care most about location. Most need a certain # of bedrooms – extra are fine, fewer are not. Some may really care about or need the yard, parking, one-floor living, #of bathrooms, etc. Few care about all those things equally if at all. You need to do the same assessment for college.

What would your 4 years of academics look like at each if you planned it today (taking into account requirements by the school and your major and time abroad)? What kind of social life excites you? What activities do you want to do in your spare time and are they available to you? Some clubs at GT are hard to get into. Williams has lots of athletes – it’s a D3 powerhouse – and a lot of your classmates will be on teams… Stanford 's athletics are in a whole different league. If you like the idea of going to games, that’s a fun place to do it.

At only Williams will you be seriously disadvantaged by not applying ED but if you want to go there, that matters!

Do some reading about getting a job in the foreign service if that’s a goal. You can pull it off from any of these 3 but you will definitely need to focus on developing high level skills in a foreign language, preferably a "critical " one.

These are all amazing schools, similar only in their prestige. Dig a little deeper on what you want. And understand the application options at each.