<p>Id only like to apply to 3 of the following but im having trouble choosing: Columbia, Cornell, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and UPenn</p>
<p>I like big schools, but I’m not really into sports (although I am a runner). I value diversity and quality of life highly. My intended major is linguistics.</p>
<p>Columbia, Princeton and Stanford.</p>
<p>Yale, upenn and cornell</p>
<p>Correct me if I’m wrong but I think Stanford and Yale are relatively small schools?</p>
<p>How do you feel about community, location, etc.? Columbia is very much in the city, while a school like Cornell isn’t. Yale’s residential college system creates a more closely-knit community than you might find at Stanford. All of these schools offer fabulous ‘diversity’ and ‘quality of life,’ so that probably isn’t your best criteria to sort them by.</p>
<p>Stanford and Yale are relatively big schools. Their undergraduate classes are not big compared to state schools, but the overall size of their student bodies is gigantic. Both institutions have numerous graduate/professional schools, which garner a lot of attention for them. Essentially, such schools direct many of their resources into those professional schools, since it will be people graduating from those schools who build upon the reputation of the institution. </p>
<p>In comparison, Princeton is a relatively small school. Princeton has only one graduate school and no professional schools, bringing the total number of students here, including graduate students, to only about eight thousand or so. </p>
<p>In answer to the OP’s question, the most prestigious of the ones you want to apply to (and probably the hardest to get into) are Yale, Princeton, and Stanford, with Columbia being a close fourth. So, it really is a matter of how you want to spread out your risk (i.e. all high reach schools with huge reward but huge risk, all low reach schools with minimal reward but minimal risk, or a mix).</p>
<p>Some factors to consider:</p>
<p>location – do you want to be in the city or accessible to it? 4 years in Ithaca, NY for Cornell is very different from Columbia, Penn or Yale. Then there is Princeton which is in a generally affluent town with easy access to NYC. </p>
<p>curriculum: Columbia has a strong core curriculum, the others have a range of more typical distribution requirements (I really haven’t looked into them so I am not familiar with requirements at the other schools).</p>
<p>Greek life: Penn, Columbia and even Cornell have Greek life. Princeton has eating clubs. Not familiar with similar structures at Stanford. Investigate the prevalence and role of those entities at each campus. </p>
<p>Those are just some examples of factors to consider. Take a look at the linquistics programs at each school.</p>
<p>I know UPenn has a fantastic linguistics department, so I’d leave it on your list for that. It’s definitely diverse, though I’ve heard it has a fairly pre-professional feel (take this description with a grain of salt).</p>
<p>Thank you all. I’m now leaning towards yale, UPenn, and cornell to apply to. Ill make sure I visit these schools.</p>