#Harvard vs Yale vs. Stanford

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sterile flax
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Schools: Harvard, Yale, Stanford
Majors: History, Creative Writing/Comparative Lit, politics. Might become journalist or go to law school later. Prob consider minoring/double majoring in STEM.

Harvard:
Pros

  • in boston! I love city life (and the foooodddd) and easy transportaition
  • major would be "history and literature" and it's the only school that combines both history and literature
  • job aspects: as an international student hoping to go back to home country for work in the future, employers think of Harvard way better than Yale of Stanford
  • much more diversity in terms of socioeconomic status and country and others
    Cons:
  • people seem snobby and elitist
  • big on gov/econ and people seem to follow the pipeline into corporate/investing/consultant

Yale:
Pros

  • all my friends are there. So a lot of support and easier to make friends if needed. I can also get advice from upperclassmen
  • big humanities school! also they have Directed Studies
  • seems more chill and less cuthroat
    Cons:
  • not very safe
  • not in the city
  • not super good at STEM so if I'm double majoring, doesn't seem that useful
  • everyone seems super extroverted and as an introvert, idk how that's going to work
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Stanford
Pros:

  • weather!!! (but I guess in 4 years, global warming means it doesn't really matter)
  • really interdiscplinary and good politics program (and symbolic systems!)
  • can complete masters and undergrad in 5 years
  • beautiful and safe campus
    Cons:
  • away from the city and East Coast where all my friends are
  • campus is really really big
  • big on CS. Though I might double major/minor in CS/Symbolic Systems, feel like the humanities is underappreciated and funded

Preferences:

  • single dorm rooms later in the college life (or suites with individual rooms)
  • good food (esp Asian food!!)
  • better law school aspects?
  • tired of cliquey and preppy people (e.g. golden goose fancy white New York/Conneticut girls & lacrosse guys)
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Harvard vs Yale vs. Stanford

zealous grail
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smh my head my comment got deleted Angry

sterile flax
kind canopy
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i gotchu

zealous grail
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ty guest uwu

kind canopy
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no wrong choices either way, all 3 schools will at the end of the day give pretty similar experiences.

I'll make a few general comments:

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doing some normalizing to correct for the % staying in school, the % going into the big 3 industries (finance, tech, consulting) is:
Stanford:

  • 19% technology
  • 11% consulting
  • 2.4% finance

Harvard:

  • 11% technology
  • 15% consulting
  • 12% finance

Yale:

  • 14% technology
  • 12% consulting
  • 19% finance/insurance/real estate

on the whole pretty similar.

  • not very safe
    I think this is a bit overblown. And new haven is a real city! and you're closer to it than Stanford teehee

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not super good at STEM so if I'm double majoring, doesn't seem that useful
nah, this is also overblown. Yale STEM placement is very very good, competitive with the others.

  • everyone seems super extroverted and as an introvert, idk how that's going to work
    I think this is probably small statistics? on the whole I think the student bodies are pretty similar in this regard.

  • can complete masters and undergrad in 5 years
    you can do a masters in 4 years at Harvard through https://oue.fas.harvard.edu/concurrent-masters, but the fields are more limited than stanford. yale also has a simultaneous masters program but I think it's even more limiting than harvard http://catalog.yale.edu/dus/dus-department/simultaneous-award-bachelors-masters/. Stanford's is definitely the most flexible, though you will pay for the 5th year. (or have an RAship/TAship, I'm not sure how available those are)

  • single dorm rooms later in the college life (or suites with individual rooms)
    I only know about harvard but thi
    More...
    s is pretty much guaranteed junior and senior years. Most sophomores also have singles and a decent number of first years.

  • good food (esp Asian food!!)
    I'd guess stanford > harvard > yale here

  • better law school aspects?
    probably very similar at all of them

  • tired of cliquey and preppy people (e.g. golden goose fancy white New York/Conneticut girls & lacrosse guys)
    definitely going to exist at all 3. NY/Conn will be more prevalent at Harvard and Yale but stanford will have cali + tech cliques lol

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silly 32 line limit

sterile flax
kind canopy
zealous grail
# sterile flax thank you!! this was v informative 🥺 !!

oh also I'm not sure how it is at the other schools but Harvard's prelaw advising is pretty good. it's mostly done through the house system. Each house has a set of prelaw tutors that are there to help you put together application materials, review your essays and apps, etc.

I'm not prelaw but I have a few friends who are and they've generally had positive experiences (and have been successful applicants to law school lol)

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I'm very happy to answer any questions you might have about harvard (and to the best of my ability the other 2 schools)

sterile flax
zealous grail
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oh I should have mentioned, I'm currently a senior at Harvard

zealous grail
analog niche
true thorn
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yls has a bias towards yale students and there's more yalies at stanford law than stanford students

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also will add new haven has really really good food

zealous grail
obsidian obsidian
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you are cracked cracked!

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i guess it depends on how much you value stem

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i think out of the 3 Stanford is by far the best stem school

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and yale is the most humanities centered

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harvard is right in between

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but honestly all 3 have insane name brand and quality education so

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can’t go wrong with any

zealous grail
obsidian obsidian
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at least tech

zealous grail
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it's true that Stanford has a lot more cs/engineering faculty and research

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if you're thinking about academia as a path, that could matter more

obsidian obsidian
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or startups

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stanford has big startup culture

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but me personally would choose harvard

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there's not another school on the planet that

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no matter where you go to

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you tell them "i went to harvard" and they'll know what it means

gray geyser
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agree with abnon, can’t go wrong with either here

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given your pros and cons & abnon’s comment, I’d personally pick harvard

sterile flax
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thank you guys!! this is super helpful

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really high grades, feeder school, solid activities, and a lot of awards

gray geyser
true thorn
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but i wouldnt include "amount of random people who think i am smart" in my college decision personally

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the only case where the harvard brand might be useful is when going to a place with relatively few US alumni and little US school knowledge, which OP might be(?)

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Though even then it depends on where you can and for what industry lol

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For the UK I'd assert Harvard >> Yale >>>>>> Stanford tbh

obsidian obsidian
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so maybe this is biased

true thorn
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I would suspect it depends a lot on where in Asia you are too

obsidian obsidian
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in china you walk into any person and say harvard and they'll know what it is

kind canopy
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maybe not yale

obsidian obsidian
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think yale is pretty well known too

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and MIT

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kekw

kind canopy
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yeah but not as much those 3

obsidian obsidian
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all of hypsm pretty much

kind canopy
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honestly thye might know nyu over yale or mit

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cuz

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nyc

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💀

obsidian obsidian
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not really

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i don't think much chinese ppl know abt nyu

kind canopy
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my family in china thoughts nyu was better than princeton

obsidian obsidian
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💀

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no way

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ig it's cuz my family has a math-ish background

kind canopy
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yeah cuz nyu/columbia have lots of intl students

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its the nyc pull

obsidian obsidian
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so every relative knows princeton

kind canopy
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damn

obsidian obsidian
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also cornell bc

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it's historically nice to chinese students in the past

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alike UIUC

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but like harvard is definitely the most popular right?

gray geyser
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yeah

true thorn
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in western countries yale seems to have really good rep

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i suspect the fact its often the university of choice in US tv shows helps

obsidian obsidian
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ok but i feel like the other two have better tech

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and op said he's interested

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so

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thought yale was the mostly law/humanities

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school

true thorn
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i wouldnt disagree if you extended it to the natural sciences - yale has strong strong bio, chem, physics, math etc departments

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CS is good enough, has equal outcomes to the other two schools but not equal research and academia notoriety