<p>What do you think of the limited Single Choice Early Action (SCEA) that make you choose between these two uni as well not allowing you to apply to your other first choice(s)? Do you have something against them? Or are you just simply with them? My point for creating this thread is that I want to compare these two universities so that in the end, if possible choose one to apply.
When posting, again, it would be my pleasure if you can:
Tell which one you favour more. Your reason(s) on why, with facts supporting them
Compare them in academics, financial aid (for Int Student too if you can), housing/dining, curricular activities, no of books in library, staff to student ratio, amount of lectures vs small group classes, whether its dorm is wired with fast internet connections, etc.*
If you know anyone who goes there, ask for their experiences, did they love it or regret it? (recent undergraduates 2000s onward)
Also look for transfers who used to go Yale then transfer to Stanford and vice versa - what’s their comments, why did they transfer, etc.
Retention rates, graduation rates within five years*
<p>An enormous THANK YOU to those who contributed!!! (YOU ARE HELPING A CLUELESS INTERNATIONAL STUDENT WHO CAN’T DECIDE WHICH UNI TO APPLY FOR EARLY ACTION)</p>
<p>Am I asking too much? If so, you don’t have to worry about what I set out. I would truly appreciate kind people who reply and help me with this thread!</p>
<p>GOD DARN IT. Please use the search tool. You’re only going to start a battle. </p>
<p>** My prediction: ** </p>
<ol>
<li><p>First poster (effectively ignoring my post) comes in with some arbitrary rankings, and/or claims one is “superior” or “better” or “slightly better” or “slightly superior” or “a little better” or “a little superior” or “in my opinion, better,” or “in my experience, it is better,” or “everyone knows that it is better” or “most people I know think that it is superior.” Potentially posterX, datalook, etc. USNews. Newsweek. Fortune 500’s. Graduate School rankings. Shinghao. Princeton Review. NIH. Awards. Nobels. </p></li>
<li><p>Next poster comes in to debunk that with his or her set of stats and rankings. Potentially posterX, datalook, etc. USNews. Newsweek. Fortune 500’s. Graduate School rankings. Shinghao. Princeton Review. NIH. Awards. Nobels.</p></li>
<li><p>EXTREMELY LONG THREADS with quoting and bashing and quoting and bashing and quoting and bashing. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>**4. OP reappears. Says “stop arguing”, when he or she is actually the sole cause of all the trouble, due to their inability to have the foresight to see that comparison threads only result in such arguments, as EVIDENCED by COUNTELESS NUMBER OF THE SAME INCIDENTS IN THE PAST. **</p>
<ol>
<li>People ignore OP, continue arguing until it dwindles down into a completely digressed topic about thongs or cheeseburgers.</li>
</ol>
<p>As someone in the class of 2010 who applied (and was accepted) SCEA to Stanford, but ended up going to Yale, I’ll contribute my thoughts.
Obviously, I favored Yale in the end. It was a difficult choice for me, part of it was highly personal (I’m a Stanford legacy, and didn’t really want to be a legacy student), and I’m from the West Coast and wanted to try living on the East. But there are a few more generally applicable things that made me choose Yale. The residential college system is frankly amazing, and Stanford really has nothing that can match it. And the longer I’m at Yale, the more committed to the residential college system I become. That’s probably the most important advantage for Yale. On the other hand, Stanford’s weather is a lot better, if you care about that.
Overall, roughly equivalent in academics, though Yale probably has somewhat more of a focus on undergraduates than does Stanford. Financial aid is also pretty similar. Yale’s housing is significantly better (and least from my limited experiences with Stanford dorms when visiting as an admitted student) - bigger, nicer rooms, and the residential college system (which I commented on earlier) both give Yale the edge. For dining, I can’t really comment - you get tired of dorm food after a while, but I liked both Yale and Stanford when I’d only had a few meals at each. Extracurriculars vary depending on what interests you. I don’t know enough about Stanford to give you a very good picture, but I can guarantee that the extent of ECs at Yale will satisfy virtually anyone. Yale’s library is bigger (2nd biggest university library in the world), though I don’t think that matters very much. Yale has a better staff:student ratio. I can’t comment on class sizes at Stanford, but at Yale they depend on your major. History has great access to seminars, economics doesn’t do as well there. Yale’s dorms all have fast internet connections and I assume Stanford’s do as well.
I absolutely love Yale and have no regrets about choosing it. It’s been an amazing experience so far on every level.
I don’t know any. I know only one person who transferred away from Yale and it was because he wanted to go to the same school as his girlfriend. The transfers to Yale that I know didn’t come from Stanford, so I can’t get anything new from them.
Approximately the same at both. You won’t have to drop out at either one unless you have serious personal/family problems.
Stanford has more Asians - overall racial diversity is probably similar. Stanford probably has fewer prep-school grads.</p>
<p>Edit: And Trix-D, I hope this response was more acceptable to you than what you complained about above.</p>
<p>Thank you Svalbardlutefisk, your post has really given me a deeper insight into Yale’s life and academics. </p>
<p>The fact that I’m an international student place me places at a disadvantage position, not knowing what is happening inside the university apart from what I can learn on their website. Trust me, it’s tiring to read all those information and then have to compare them as to see which one is better. In addition, the only source is from their website and some rankings provided by Trix-D i.e. USNews. Newsweek. Fortune 500’s. Graduate School rankings. Shanghao University. Princeton Review. NIH. Awards. Nobels. Altogether, the information is kind of one-sided and it’s hard to base my decision on them. </p>
<p>I appreciate what Trix-D has got to say as a forewarn but still if it turns out a battle - let it be. What if we can found out more and better information this way? Who can blame people who want to defend their point of view? Let them argue, if their points are strong and proven to be true then we can consider them and use them in the process of making our decision. Choosing which university to go to is very important because you can CHANGE. IMPORTANT AND DRAMATIC CHANGES USUALLY HAPPEN DURING THIS TIME.
As a mature member who looked out newbies like me, I, College_Go!, invite you to be my partner in crime to help me prevent anyone approaching to the state of talking about topics like you previously mentioned, thongs and cheeseburgers. If you are interested, please reply. I will assure you that together we will terminate this thread before it reaches to that state. If you are not interested, than please still, don’t be afraid to speak out loud and posts your opinion up! </p>
<p>As for Majayiduke09, I will hope that you will hopefully post your opinion up and help me in deciding!
Thank you amb3r for ‘speaking’ out but I hope that you like, Trix-D and Majayiduke09, will also contribute in this thread!</p>
<p>Once again, I hope that I have offended anyone. A big THANK YOU to all those who have contributed in this so against thread!</p>
<p>Erm… the only thing Ivy means is that the school is a member of a certain northeastern athletic league. It isn’t a “Top 8 Universities Evarrrr LOL” list.</p>
<p>kyledavid: At Yale, according to their common data set, the 4 year grad rate is 88.1%, the 5 year grad rate is 94.9%, and the 6 year grad rate is 96.1% (all this for the most recent year available).
At Stanford, 4 year grad rate is 79.6%, 5 year grad rate is 92.2%, and 6 year grad rate is 95.2%, so they catch up a bit between year 4 and year 5, though Yale still seems to do slightly better (which I hadn’t known before).</p>
<p>If you are an engineering major, Stanford easily beats Yale. You’re sitting in the middle of Silicon Valley after all, and many of your profs have founded companies.</p>
<p>College_Go! as someone who was living overseas when applying I feel for you…</p>
<p>Hmm so I won’t compare the two universities other than to say that Stanford is usually considered significantly better in engineering and honestly when applying I never considered Yale because of this fact… </p>
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<p>I cannot compare both I’ll mostly just talk about Stanford. </p>
<p>Financial Aid for international students is not need blind at Stanfod but I think it might be at Yale. I’d definitely look into that if I were you (yes shock can it be that I’m giving advice that might hurt the chances of this guy applying to my uni? honestly i’m just trying to give the person my honest opinions) </p>
<p>Dining at Stanford is ok. Nothing amazing but its edible. </p>
<p>Number of books in the libraries has got to be the silliest method to compare two universities of such calibre. Both universities have great library systems with millions of books. </p>
<p>The dorms at stanford all have fast wireless internet.</p>
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<p>I actually don’t know a single person who has transferred out of Stanford. </p>
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</p>
<p>I love Stanford I honestly do. Weather is usually good, people are usually hella friendly-really. Honestly all the profs I know have been really nice (well except for one who was a prick lol). Stanford is really a great university!</p>
<p>Sorry, to anyone who had read my latest post at this thread, I would like to edit the second last sentence:
“Once again, I hope that I have offended anyone.”
It SHOULD say:
“Once again, I hope that I have NOT offended anyone.” </p>
<p>Moreover, ENORMOUS gratitude to those who so far, have not turned this into a battle!</p>
<p>Special thanks to kyledavid80 who provided me with statistics of Stanford and Yale’s four year retention/graduation rate. (I am sorry for not showing any appreciation for your information but honestly I am grateful for it)</p>
<p>WOW! So far this thread have received mainly positive posts and I am indebted to all of you. </p>
<p>Gigantic thanks to superwizard and svalbardlutefisk!
Gargantuan thanks to virtuoso_735, M’s Mom, d4r7h3v1l and Milkmagn!</p>
<p>If anyone is interested and wanted to do this person a Great favour, I was wondering if you can list which one is better at the following majors (thanks to M’s Mom and superwizard that I learnt that Stanford is ‘slightly’ better in engineering):</p>
<p>-Biology
-Chemistry
-English
-Physics
-Psychology
-Mathematics
-Economics
-Philosophy
-Arts, Visual & Performing
-Computer & Information Sciences
-Other Social Sciences</p>
Yeah, Yale is need-blind for internationals, I didn’t realize that Stanford wasn’t.</p>
<p>As for your question about rating majors, I am usually quite suspicious about making those sorts of distinctions at the undergrad level. The only areas where there is a big enough difference at the undergrad level that it should affect your decision are, IMO, engineering (where Stanford is certainly better) and perhaps the arts, where I believe that Yale is substantially better.</p>
<p>Well at the undergraduate level the relative strengths of the programs shouldn’t necessarily be a big factor. You’ll get a good education in whatever you choose at whichever university, be it Stanford or Yale. However, my take on some of the items on the list you posted:</p>
<p>-Biology
Both Yale and Stanford have strong biology programs. Stanford is obviously strong in the sciences, but Yale is also strong in biology, especially ecological and evolutionary biology.</p>
<p>-Chemistry
Again, same as above. Yale is not as well known for chemistry but as an undergraduate you will have the same resources as a Stanford undergrad studying chemistry.</p>
<p>-English
Yale is traditionally strong in the humanities, so English is one of Yale’s many stand-out departments. Anyone interested in English, especially English literature, has heard of Harold Bloom, a professor at Yale. Stanford is also strong in the humanities but if you were to major in English, Yale would be the place.</p>
<p>-Physics
See chemistry.</p>
<p>-Psychology
I don’t know the relative strengths of psychology at Y and S but I’ve heard of really good psych classes at Yale, and there have been many famous psych studies done at Stanford.</p>
<p>As a science major, I trust the data more than anybody’s personal experience. If you are good enough to get into Stanford and Yale, you may want to think about what you care most. If you want to become a lawyer, a politician, or an artist, Yale might be a better choice. For everything else, Stanford might be a better choice.</p>
<p>If you want to meet the most distinguished professors and the most creative minds in the world, you should go to Stanford. </p>
<p>That being said, I would throw in some data collected for Stanford and Yale, mainly related to faculty distinctions.</p>
<h1>Nobel prize winners (the affliliates at the time of reward anouncement) </h1>