<p>I'm stuck at the moment and I need some help. I was accepted EA to Yale and then in January I was contacted by the Brown U. softball coach. Softball is a huge part of my life and I've always wanted to play in college, but for the time between my call from Brown and my Yale acceptance I was so excited about going to Yale. I'm trying to figure out if my softball is enought to get me to go to Brown. Don't get me wrong, I was applying to Brown anyway, and the two schools were kinda even, but I just wanted to get some insight on the differences. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Have you contacted the Yale softball coach? Even if you're not recruited, it's possible to be a walk-on for some teams (don't know about softball). Chances are, if you're good enough for the Brown coach, you'd be good enough for the Yale one, too. </p>
<p>If you've always wanted to play in college, I'm suprised that you didn't check this out before applying and "bonding" with Yale. Didn't you research colleges with teams that would fit your skills?</p>
<p>This is a decision only you can make by doing some honest soul-searching. The schools have differences, but they are more of style than substance. Both provide an excellent education. Have you visited both campuses and talked with the students at each? Have you met the teams? I can't imagine committing to a sport at a college without
meeting the coach and hopefully some team members.
Good luck with your decision - you will probably love and be loyal to whichever one you end up choosing. Both school's students are convinced that their school is the best!</p>
<p>well speaking from ain international perpsective, I d say go to Harvard, it has a wider and better reputation world wide by far...most people here in Europe have barely heard of brown but when you mention Yale, they re all like whoooooooooooooooooa. so for ur future, i d say Yale s better.</p>
<p>If you go to Yale, it will be much easier to transfer to Brown should you be unhappy than vice-versa.</p>
<p>my suite's best girl friend is on the softball team and she loves it.</p>
<p>softball's big for them. i'm gonna say come to Yale if not for the history and elitism and what not, but for other lil perks like the awesome professors, and, my favorite, the residential college system.</p>
<p>do what you love at a place you'll love.</p>
<p>Alright, well, I'm not so sure about the residential college system. Does it lead to cliquey-ness? I just come from a small, rural school and would feel disappointed if I went to college to get a bigger group of people, and then ended up being limited to three or four hundred. Is the residential college system enough for me not to go to Yale if I really don't like the idea of it? </p>
<p>Did you apply other places? Why did you go to Yale? All I've heard is it was because of the residential college system, and I was wondering if that was the only reason. I know it's not, but what else would you say is another reason?</p>
<p>The colleges don't make you cliqueish. I hang out with kids from all the colleges (thanks to living on the Old Campus with all the other freshmen). People have college pride, but it comes with some nice, healthy competition. Sort of like the houses in Harry Potter. Except no Slytherin to cause drama.</p>
<p>I chose Yale because it was always my dream school and they offered me the most financial aid. The other place I applied was Northwestern and I got in. I had applied Early Action at Yale, so I cancelled my other apps. Yale was just so pretty, ancient and, most importantly, far from home. I knew it had extremely impressive social science/humanities opportunities. I liked the central location between New York and Boston. Also, Yale reached out to me more than any other school. My admissions officer was amazing and very in touch. That tact, despite being a world-renowned elite university, sealed the deal for me.</p>
<p>It's not really ancient. The institution is, but the gothic architechture, gorgeous though it may be, isn't even a hundred years old...</p>
<p>Yeah, like JohnnyK said the architecture looks/feels old, but isn't actually old. They used acid or something to stain the stone to look like it'd gone through hundreds of years of usage.</p>
<p>Most of the buildings, i.e. residential colleges, Harkness Tower, Sterling Memorial Library were built in the 30s.
James Gamble Rogers used acid to make Harkness Tower look old.
He even had some of the Gothic building windows cracked in rough Y shapes and welded back together so Yalies working in the library/in their dorms would become frustrated during their work, look up at the windows and be inspired by the Y's.</p>
<p>Well you can't blame 'em for faking gothic. it looks so damn good. And look at the alternatives</p>
<p>Harvard largely stuck with its original gregorian. While consistent and genuine (and there is a certain beauty in both these qualities), the buildings themselves lack the majesty befitting Harvard--or at least the majesty found at Yale..</p>
<p>On the opposite side of the consistency spectrum is Penn's electic mishmash of a campus. The interesting thing there is you can trace the history of the university through its wide-ranging architectural eras...from the ornate victorian of the original buildings to the dabblings of collegiate gothic (a unique interpretation by C&S befitting of Penn's industrial roots), to the architectural nadir of modernism (state-sponsored at that), and finally to a postmodern rennaisance and new urbanism in works like Huntsman, 40th & Walnut, Sansom Commons and the other current new construction on/near campus.</p>
<p>Nice history, and it's not bad to look at except for the terrible modernist crap--unfortunately Penn has a lot of it.</p>
<p>The only other truly stunning campus is Columbia's, which is...also fake (in classical style)</p>
<p>Fake it 'til you make it!</p>