<p>Hey so a friend of mine got into both Brown and Yale. He wants to go to Brown. His mom is on board but his dad feels Yale is “better” can you help give some advice?</p>
<p>Is it better to go where you want and will be happy and thrive, or to the more prestigious place and watch as the preferred path is shut off? You’ll thrive most where you’re happiest, and parents pressuring kids to go somewhere may very well backfire.</p>
<p>That being said, it’s an internal family matter, so nothing any of us say on these boards will matter one whit. And they shouldn’t.</p>
<p>Have your friend list the pros/cons of each. I was in his similar situation --but w/no parental preference. I know I would have loved Brown but chose Y instead. In the end, he can’t go wrong. But I think if he choose Brown, his dad will feel better if the son can clearly explain why</p>
<p>I’m with the father on this one, and I’m a Brown grad. First, you have the name. Second, you have a more cohesive and successful alumni network to draw from in this tough economy. Yale also has far better, and more cutting edge facilities because, since it’s graduates are more successful, and enjoy their experiences at Yale, they are more willing and able to contribute to alumni fund drives. Brown’s a good place. I could have done worse. But there is a reason that Harvard only really considers Yale its true peer. Besides, you can always say you went to the alma mater of George “I’m the decider” Bush.</p>
<p>^This is kinda surprising, since Galanter has been such an ardent supporter of Brown elsewhere. Since I disagree in this case, I wanted to speak up.</p>
<p>From my current place in the world – as a Harvard Law student three years out of Brown – I can look back on my college choice and honestly say that there is no where I would rather have gone to college than Brown. There are, however, a few places that I think I would have been almost as satisfied as I was at Brown, and one of those places is Yale; (Incidentally, Harvard is most assuredly not one of those places.) The people that I’ve met from Yale just strike me as people I would have enjoyed spending time with.</p>
<p>Putting aside the issue of Yale being a good place for me, I hardly think that it would have been better than Brown, and I’m unpersuaded that the arguments that Galanter makes apply to most students. Here are two questions to ask yourself:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>What does your future look like? The only situation that implicated the sort of ‘network’ that Galanter references is if all three of the following apply to you: (a) you intend to get a career-path job straight out of college, (b) the job that you want is in a network-dependent field, and (c) that field is one where there are more Yale alums in the network than Brown alums. If (a) doesn’t apply to you, then the strength of your eventual graduate program is what matters. (b) and (c) are, I think, self-explanatory, and I would argue that woefully few people meet these three factors.</p></li>
<li><p>What kind of facilities are you interested in the superiority of? Everything in the library at Harvard Law is wood-paneled with beautiful hard wood, and there’s art – most of it original – on literally every surface. I have to admit, I enjoy these things. Enough to have chosen Harvard or Yale over Brown? Not in a second. Where do facilities matter most, in my opinion? Labs! And labs are largely paid for by Federal grants that have nothing to do with generous alumnus donors.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Well I guess one question is, is Yale truly that much more prestigious than Brown? Also isn’t new haven a dump/they’re having that whole sexism issue …and Several deaths including murders have occurred at the school</p>
<p>I really, really don’t understand the mentality of “I should go to/do the most prestigious school/thing” as opposed to “I should go to/do the school/thing that’s best for me.” Best is an incredibly relative term, and it should be considered acceptable in America’s well-to-do social classes to not go to college at all. Why it isn’t generally acceptable makes no sense. Yale’s a great place, but just because you get in doesn’t mean it’ll be good for you. The same is true with Brown (we have plenty of people who take leaves of absences, transfer out, etc.). Not that I’m any authority, but it seems to me that people should be striving to find a place in life that they’ll thrive in, rather than a place that other people will be impressed about.</p>
<p>If someone can explain why I’m wrong, please give me a good, rational explanation. I really want to understand why this view isn’t universal.</p>
<p>Name recognition doesn’t matter in the long run. When I visited Brown, I met a freshman that had declined Harvard and Yale for Brown because she simply liked Brown’s atmosphere better than the atmosphere at H or Y. It’s all about picking a place that you know you are going to thrive in and like. </p>
<p>And plus, this isn’t really a struggle for your friend. He wants to go to Brown and the only thing stopping him is his dad who wants him to go to Yale. However, come September, his dad won’t be going to college: he will be. So he needs to make a decision based on what he wants, not what his parents (specifically his father) wants.</p>