<p>I break them down like this:</p>
<ul>
<li>The three are just about even in terms of academics. To me, you could add Chicago and Princeton to that level.</li>
<li>Yale is the strongest in the Humanities. S and H are a bit stronger than Yale, overall, in STEM areas.</li>
<li>Yale and Harvard’s students are a tad smarter than Stanford’s (higher test scores).</li>
</ul>
<p>So: the faculty strength/academics are about even among the three. But H and Y have slightly smarter students than S, so I give Harvard and Yale (and Princeton) a slight edge over Stanford (and Columbia, Chicago, MIT, etc.).</p>