Stats & advice from a first-gen, low income, Stanford matriculate!

bertnhernia
Sun, 25 Jul 2021 00:00:27 +0000

Good question! So to preface, in a perfect world I think I would’ve picked Yale tbh. I liked the residential college system and the overall feel of the school a bit more. Also after all my decisions came out, the only places I was considering (from a financial aid standpoint) were stanny, the ivies, uc davis, and sac state.

But anyways, I chose Stanford because of logistics. It’s much closer to me (2 hours away instead of across the country) and while proximity in terms of homesickness wasn’t an issue, I did have to factor in that with COVID still being around, it’s quite possible that I may need to go home at any point and going home from Stanford is a lot easier. With that also comes price; both schools gave me equal aid buttttt since I wouldn’t have to pay for flights or anything like that, Stanford reigns supreme. Also Stanford’s financial aid is a bit more generous than some of the other schools in that while my aid was the same for Yale and others, my aid from Stanford is far less likely to change in years to come when compared to some of those other places. Lastly, I’ve visited the campus before and already know that I love it whereas all the east coast schools are completely unknown to me. The prospect of just going into a completely new environment was really appealing tbh, but while I’m ready for change I know deep down that what I need is stability and Stanford provides that over the ivies.