<p>If you are not sure what you want to study, I think that Princeton and Yale would offer you the best options–they are both strong in almost every department. As to sciences, I don’t know what 08seniors08 is exactly talking about. Princeton, like Yale, is almost universally acknowledged to have extremely strong science departments. According to the NRC ranking and the Gourman report, the Princeton physics department is one of the best in the nation-- here are the top schools according to these sources</p>
<p>NRC ranking:
1 Harvard 4.91
2 Princeton 4.89
3 MIT 4.87
3 Cal Berkeley 4.87
5 Cal Tech 4.81</p>
<p>Gourman report for undergrad physics:</p>
<p>Caltech
Harvard
Cornell
Princeton
MIT
UC Berkeley
Stanford
U Chicago
U Illinois Urbana Champaign
Columbia
Yale</p>
<p>In chemistry, the Gourman report places Princeton and Yale as essentially tied. Here’s the ranking</p>
<p>Caltech
UC Berkeley
Harvard
MIT
Columbia
Stanford
Illinois Urbana Champaign
U Chicago
UCLA
Wisconsin Madison
Cornell
Northwestern
Princeton
Yale</p>
<p>Princeton is weakest in the biology department, although the school is certainly no slouch in this area. Here are the Gourman rankings</p>
<p>Caltech
MIT
Yale
Harvard
Wisconsin
UC San Diego
UC Berkeley
U Colorado
Columbia
Stanford
U Washington
U Chicago
Duke
Wash U St Louis
UCLA
U Michigan
Cornell
U Penn
Purdue
Indiana U
UNC Chapel Hill
U Utah
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Princeton</p>
<p>Princeton is currently in the process of a major initiative in neuroscience and the school is planning a new neuroscience building, the Lewis Siegler Institute for Institutive Genomics is doing groundbreaking research at the intersection of biology and the quantitive sciences and there are numerous research opportunities available.</p>
<p>In other areas, Princeton has many many academic strengths. The Creative Writing Department is world-renowned (John McPhee, Toni Morison, Joyce Carol Oates etc.), Edward Albee taught a seminar last semester and the dance department has a passionate advocate in Ze-eva Cohen. Princeton is one of the top schools for the teaching of history (as is Yale), the classics department is exceptional, and many consider the philosophy department the best in the nation (it is ranked number 1 by Gourman).</p>
<p>I think that a choice between Yale and Princeton is essentially a win-win situation and that location, type of campus, general feeling about the school etc. would probably be the determining factors.</p>