Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

can someone give me some pros and cons. theyre both reach schools so if i have to choose its the best possible scenario.

By Dschnapps (Dschnapps) on Monday, December 22, 2003 - 02:56 am: Edit

have you visited both?

a lot of people like Stanford's campus and surrounding city better. Stanford is warm and sunny, has a nice, safe campus/city, has great resources and facilities.

Yale is like a Gothic fortress in the city of New Haven, much maligned for its crime. It is very cold, especially from the Californian point of view, and the seasons are distinct and intense. When I visited, though, I fell in love with it. I love the architecture, and you will only get mugged if you walk by yourself at night in the wrong part of town. The pizza on Wooster St. is, hands down, the best I have ever had. Frank Pepe's Pizzeria and Sally's Pizza (the names are close to that) are the two most famous.

On the other hand, I didn't love Stanford. The city seemed boring and suburban, Yale seemed to have a much deeper sense of history (partly helped by the acid-washed walls of the fortress.)

So...visit.

I'm sure somebody like Carolyn or TheDad can tell you about the strengths of various depts.

By Cbmac (Cbmac) on Monday, December 29, 2003 - 08:40 am: Edit

The question is, what kind of graduates do they typically produce? Making vast generalizations and certainly stereotyping:

Stanford: The archetypal Stanford graduate combines a techie background and business savvy. I think Silicon Valley, maybe running a high tech startup (but not as the original inventor, rather as say the finance director appointed by the VC firm that gave all the money). Also, even though he or she has certain west coast traits, like a penchant for wearing TEVAs to work, he or she is more republican than the average Californian.

Yale: Even if Andover no longer sends 60% of its graduating class there, Yale graduate is still East Coast Establishment. But the graduate of Yale College is far more likely to go into government or politics than graduates of any of its east coast peers. Also, there are a lot of Yalies in media and the arts.

Some famous Stanford alumni (including graduate degrees):

Vinton Cerf, called the “father of the Internet” as co-author of Internet protocol; and Ray Dolby, designed noise reduction systems. Eric Benhamou, Chairman, 3Com; Carleton Fiorina, President and CEO, Hewlett-Packard Co.; William Hewlett and David Packard (both deceased), founders, Hewlett-Packard Co.; Philip Knight, Chairman and CEO, Nike, Inc.; Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack, founders, Cisco Systems; Scott McNealy, President and CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Robert Mondavi, founder, Mondavi Wines; Charles Schwab, Chairman and CEO, Charles Schwab Corp.; and Chih-Yuan “Jerry” Yang and David Filo, founders, Yahoo! For a full list go to http://www.stanford.edu/home/stanford/facts/alumni.html

Some famous Yale alumni (including graduate degrees):

John Ashcroft, former governor of Missouri , Jennifer Beals, actress, movie Flashdance , Edmund Jerry Brown (JD), former Governor of California, William F. Buckley, political pundit , George H. W. Bush, former President of the United States, George W. Bush, President of the United States, Dick Cavett, TV personality, Bill Clinton (JD), former President of the United States, Hillary Clinton (JD), United States Senator, wife of Bill Clinton, Howard Dean, Governor of Vermont, David Duchovny, (M.A. English Literature) actor in the X-files, Gerald Ford (JD), former President of the United States, Jodie Foster, Academy Award winning actress, David Gergen, political pundit, Sara Gilbert, actress, best known for her portrayal as the daughter Darlene Conner on the sit-com Roseanne, John Kerry, United States Senator, Clarence King, founder of the US Geological Survey (USGS), Sinclair Lewis, Nobel laureate (1930, Literature), Joe Lieberman, United States Senator, Maya Lin, architect, best known for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, David McCullough, famous historian, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, best known for his books on American Presidents Truman and John Adams, Edward Norton, actor, George Pataki, governor of New York, Robert Picardo, the holographic doctor on the syndicated Star Trek:Voyager, Gifford Pinchot, founder of the US Forest Service, Stone Phillips, television anchor for NBC, David Hyde Pierce, actor, best known for the character Dr. Niles Crane on Frasier, Vincent Price, movie actor, Gene Siskel, movie critic, Meryl Streep (MFA), Academy Award winning actress, William Howard Taft, President of the United States, Gary Trudeau, Doonesbury cartoonist, John Turturro (MFA), actor, Margaret Warner, Senior Correspondent (co-anchor) on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, a nationally televised news program broadcast every weekday on PBS, Sigourney Weaver (MFA), actress, Thornton Wilder, playwright, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for the play Our Town, Pete Wilson, former governor of California, Henry Winkler (MFA), actor, best known for the character Fonzie on Happy Days, Naomi Wolf, feminist writer, Tom Wolfe (PhD), journalist, author of The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities, Robert Woodward, journalist and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book All the President's Men.

For a complete list go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_University#Famous_alumni