<p>I visited both Harvard and Yale in the past week. When I mention to Harvard students that I am also considering Yale, they tell me that in the end, it's my decision, that it's based on personal preferences. When I mention to Yale students that I am considering Harvard, I am met with some hostility (jokingly or not). Then they say that they love Yale, that it's the best, and that I should come to Yale. I was trying to think of reasons for the differences:</p>
<p>Harvard students don't tell me that they love Harvard and that I should come to Harvard because they don't enjoy being at Harvard. Yale students promote Yale because they genuinely love it.
OR
Harvard doesn't say that it's the best because they don't want to seem arrogant, and they actually like their college. </p>
<p>Hi,
We visited both Harvard and Yale in the past week, too.</p>
<p>I think you're trying to read too much into the personal responses of individual students with individual personalities. I also wouldn't use those responses as a way to generalize how either Harvard or Yale students feel about their respective schools. </p>
<p>Ironically, we must have talked to totally different people than you did, because we got the exact OPPOSITE responses from students -- the Harvard students told D. not to go to Yale, Harvard is SO much better! And the Yalies, who all were extremely happy at Yale, acknowledged the difficult choice to make between the two schools.</p>
<p>Congratulations, you have a wonderful choice to make! However, I would not try to read too much into those students' responses.</p>
<p>Yea, it really depends on the people. I have personally encountered more people at Yale that have a genuine dislike for Harvard. While Harvard students seem indifferent. :|</p>
<p>Speaking as a parent with a daughter in the same situation as you, I'm really sorry that your parents are making the choice for you. Unless there's tuition money or some really practical issue involved, the choice should be yours. Especially when you're chosing among superlatives.</p>
<p>When i visited Yale for Bulldog Days, most students were ecstatic about Yale and pretty much everybody I know who went or goes to Yale, loves it. When I visited Harvard, there were no students there (vacation), so I didn't get the full picture. However, my Harvard interviewer confessed to me that he wished he would have gone to a smaller school like Amherst or Williams. When I asked him how he liked Harvard, he politely praised the school but did not show any real enthusiasm. I also know a girl at Harvard who is not happy there and I know one who loves it. I guess it all depends on the best fit for you - choose whatever suits you best.</p>
<p>Hey all, am a Harvard and Yale admit too. My heart really goes to Yale - I could tell from the way I addressed my envelopes when I applied, though I guess I was never psychologically prepared to get into Harvard (I thought they'd turn me down). And I've also experienced the whole indifferent Harvard attitude. I don't know if its universal, but when I love a school (like my junior college), I cajole everyone I know who's trying to make a decision to come over anyway, cos it's got something for everyone. This just doesnt seem to happen with Harvard. Yale, on the other hand, has been sending me an average of 3 emails a day... </p>
<p>All the same, I'm taking the "best fit" thing seriously. So what are the characteristics that make a good Yalie as opposed to a Harvardian? Any thoughts?</p>
<p>The impression I get is that Harvard has more serious and studious people who take themselves too seriously, and have to be extroverted and go-getters in order to get the best out of their college, whereas Yale is more laidback and people have wider interests, and the support network is better. Is this true?</p>
<p>No, I don't think this or any other sweeping generalization that people are wont to make about these two schools is true. Having attended (and stayed in touch with) both, I think the two schools are very similar. They certainly have far more similarities than differences. That's why it's so difficult to make a decision between the two for people who are unable to spend some time visiting both to get a sense of which one "feels" more comfortable for the individual.</p>
<p>If you haven't already seen it, you may want to take a look at this thread in the Parents Forum, which has a more substantive discussion of the two schools than most of the "Harvard or Yale" threads I've seen on this board.</p>
<p>This alleged distinction between Harvard and Yale students - based on vintage stereotypes - can be overdone. </p>
<p>Remember that there can be an overlap of nearly 25% in the admit group at each school, and a larger fraction than that may actually have applied to both schools.</p>
<p>I think there is very little difference between Harvard and Yale students, and if there are differences it is because of the subtle differences in the administration and certain policies towards students. Harvard and Yale's housing systems offer different opportunities residentially. Harvard's theoretically allows you to meet a greater portion of your class and definitely ensures that you will room with your closest friends. Yale's provides you with a community that gives you a support group from the moment you arrive on campus, but limits the amount of your class that you meet (especially if you are assigned to Silliman or TD and don't live on Old Campus). Yale seems to coddle its students a little more with its more extensive adivsing systems and administrative policies and seems to encourage a bit more academic exploration (Yale has its students pick majors at the end of their sophomore year. Harvard has its students pick concentrations at the end of their freshman year. Harvard has a core, whereas Yale simply has distribution requirements.), whereas Harvard requires a bit more effort and self-motivation to get advising and to participate in extra-curriculars, which in the long run might help you be more self-sufficient. Yale has more options for smaller freshman classes (Directed Studies, Perspectives in Science, freshman seminars, seminar-style econ and English classes) whereas Harvard only has freshman seminars (although Harvard offers a lot more freshman seminars than Yale currently does). Harvard has Boston which is much more entertaining than Yale's New Haven, but detracts from campus life in ways that New Haven can't. Harvard has the slightly better name, but the H-Bomb can make it a little more awkward to display school spirit without being branded as some sort of elitist (the Y-Bomb is not nearly as divisive). None of these things could be said, however, to be categorically better than the other and they really depend on personal preference. </p>
<p>The only thing that to mean remains better about Yale (and I have said this before) that I do not think can be argued about is Yale's schedule. While I can accept that having exams after winter break isn't as bad in practice as it sounds, I don't know anyone who would want to go on winter break with finals looming over their heads. I know at the end of last semester it was great to be able to go home and just relax and not have to think about final papers and exams. Yale's schedule also has more reasonable breaks than Harvard does to allow you to recharge, giving you a week to go home for Thanksgiving instead of giving you only Thanksgiving off, giving you two weeks in the spring as opposed to one (actually this one could be argued about because it was a little hard to get back in the swing of things after this break). Finally, Yale's schedule coordinates better with schedules at other schools. Harvard's idiosyncratic schedule results in you being home when none of your friends are except at Christmas and in the summer. This shouldn't be a reason to choose Yale unless you really can't decide, but to me that is the only thing that is inarguably better about Yale than Harvard.</p>
<p>I am sure there are things at Harvard that are inarguably better than Yale (I guess if you like your football teams to win then Harvard would be a better choice), but I don't go there so I wouldn't know.</p>
<p>Something to think about. Dad's schoolmate is a research professor in one of Harvard's grad schools. Used to work for another top school before. When visiting Cambridge, we stopped by for a piece of advice on college choices. Harvard wasn't on the table anyway, but surprisingly he said he became somewhat disappointed with Harvard students. They seem more career-oriented without real passion towards scientific research. For this reason he prefers to pick graduates from other colleges (especially from MIT) than from Harvard itself.</p>
<p>The chasgoose "analysis" is full of tired cliches, as might be expected, and betrays an almost total ignorance of life at Harvard. Chasgoose should stick to the Yale positives, and leave the uninformed anti-Harvard stuff out of his advice column.</p>
<p>After running down the standard Yalie list of bad things about Harvard, he unaccountably confesses - in the last line, mind you - that "I don't go there, so I wouldn't know."</p>
<p>there's no negative slant there byerly, read his post. you're too sensitive. He's pretty much saying the only thing better about yale is the calendar.</p>
<p>edit: seeing as how you and I killed the other thread, I hope we won't bicker and kill this thread either.</p>