Would you say Stanford and Harvard are equally known worldwide? When you say 'I go to Stanford', does it have just as much OOMPH as when someone 'drops the H-bomb'? Also, does Stanford have tons of funding/awards available for student initiates? Can you get money from Stanford to study abroad for the summer, for example?
1) No, I wouldn’t. Harvard has been in the spotlight for decades. Harvard was famous before Stanford even existed. “Ivy Fever” is also a very real thing, and since Stanford has only recently been getting hella publicity (because it’s great, just saying) it’s going to be a while before the two are “equally known worldwide”. HOWEVER (and this is a big however, hence the capslock) the sheer amount of publicity that Stanford’s been getting is accelerating that process to a near absurd degree.
Also if you were wondering, for the c/o 2018 applicants:
Harvard: 34,295
Stanford: 42,167
2) It depends on the context. Again, Stanford definitely is not as widely recognized as Harvard in terms of prestige and all that, but in situations involving people who read the news and go online and stuff then yeah, it does. Someone (either in Admissions or an executive role I forget whom) referred to it as the “wow” factor. They ask where you go, you say Stanford, their eyes widen and their jaw drops as they unconsciously mouth the word “wow”. It sounds ridiculous but trust me it happens.
3) YES yes yes yes absolutely. They love giving money to undergrads. Like, significantly. At any info session or tour or whatever you attend, they’ll make sure to emphasize this, because it’s a super big thing. Some of my closest friends recently got approved for a hella rad multimedia project. I have friends who’ve had significant amounts of research funded. Though I’m not close with anyone who’s studied abroad, I know that there’s an immense amount of university support dedicated to that. Basically, if you show them that there’s a good reason to give you money, they’ll give you money.
