<p>i take it you concede the bulk of my corrections and other points.</p>
<p>It's true that there are some vital differences between the Yale and Harvard housing situation, that definitely divide people. It's not necesarily a bad difference, but it does exist. Students on both sides agree.</p>
<p>f. scottie, I really have to disagree with you. It is a four year residential college at Yale. I am not sure with what authority you are able to define a "true" four year college. </p>
<p>Living together in college groups on old campus as freshmen serves to integrate the class and breach potential divides that would arise from having students live in college for all four years (which does happen for Silliman and Timothy Dwight, which by the way, are the first real 4-year colleges in your book, not the ones being built at princeton). BUT right from the first day, you are interacting with upperclassmen, advisors, the master, the dean, freshman counselors from your college. You play intramurals for you college, eat in the dining hall there, study in its library. You have access to EVERY amenity your college campus has. Your point is really somewhat superficial because college identity goes far beyond living on the campus. Even after members move off campus, for instance, they still identify with their college (as I did). When you live at Yale, you realize that the college goes far deeper than its physical campus. I went to Branford College first, and Yale second - and I only lived in the Branford College Campus two years.</p>
<p>Crimsonbulldog is correct, I think, based on what I've heard from every Yale graduate I've ever met. He touches on a reason why I think perhaps there's a fourth major reason Yalies choose Yale (in addition to the three I posted above). See the article at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_University%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_University</a> - it says that the reason Yale dominates national politics, according to New York Times correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller and Atlantic Monthly correspondent James Fallows, because of "the culture of community and cooperation that exists between students, faculty and administration, which downplays self-interest and reinforces commitment to others."</p>
<p>I really don't think it's necessary to get into a huge argument here about what a "true" residential college system is and make passive aggressive attempts at proving which ivy league's the best. it's all really a matter of taste.
To answer the original question, I have to agree with a lot of what posterX said in his/her first post - those are the qualities that really made Yale stick out to me. Princeton and Harvard have college systems too, but I think the difference is that Yale's really dominates the social scene, whereas it's didn't seem like as big a deal at Harvard and Princeton. I ended up choosing Yale because I really dug the environment there - there's a really great sense of community and friendliness that I could really just sense - that's not to say there's not a great sense of community at other great schools, but to me, it seemed like yale's seemed the most tight-knit. I found this great quality when I visited that really just united the undergrads on campus - and I can't put my finger on what it was, but it was just kind of a thread that seemed to unite everyone, and it was just so amazing, and it's something I wanted to be a part of. Princeton had a comparable quality, but it wasn't nearly as strong there. I felt like Harvard didn't have as much of a sense of community - it really fostered a sense of independence. I don't know how true it is, but I feel like schools in huge urban environments like Columbia and Harvard tend to have less tight-knit communities. The trade off is that you get to interact with this amazing city - which opens up all kinds of other opportunities. I LOVE cities, and I haven't moved into New Haven yet (give it a week though, and I'll be there!), but while it seems like it's definitely not a dead town, it's definitely not a Boston or New York, but I decided that I could forgo 4 years in a city for the sense of community I found at Yale because I'd never get that opportunity to live in that kind of environment again. I also really liked the fact that since New Haven's a small city, there's a lot of opportunity to interact with it and actually make a difference. I read articles about Yalies getting elected to city council, which just sounded so cool to me - that doesn't seem as feasible in small, ritzier cities like Princeton or Palo Alto, and probably not to likely in big cities either.
Sorry that was kind of garbled - I was writing without really thinking of structure. But, if you have any specific questions, I'll definitely answer them and try to be as objective as possible.</p>
<p>Yes, Oreo, you've made a valid observation about New Haven - it's much easier to get involved there than any other Ivy League college town, and the fact that so many Yale students (50-90% of them) get involved in some way speaks to that. It's not just in government or volunteer work, but also businesses, law, etc., as well. All in all, Yale students are 10 times more involved in their host city than students at any other university I have ever visited, including those in Europe. Furthermore, considering the area immediately around the college, New Haven is now easily the best college town out of the Ivies and one of the best in the country. </p>
<p>It keeps growing, too - over 70 new businesses, most of them restaurants, opened right in the area around Yale just in the past year. And that's in addition to the hundreds that were there to begin with. Do other Ivy League schools even have 70 restaurants total in the areas immediately around their campus? Not most of them.</p>
<p>Overall, I agree with Oreo that what really draws people to Yale and makes it the most selective university in the country is the sense of community there and the vibrant campus. As an impartial observer who has visited virtually every major university in the country, I honestly can say that no other university compares.</p>
<p>"PosterX" you really are a piece of work! </p>
<p>For the last 8 years on this site and the other, you have been spewing this propaganda about New Haven - often with totally phony and irrelevant "metropolitan area" stats - in hopes that people will believe it if you repeat it often enough!</p>
<p>"Impartial observer" my foot!</p>
<p>And I see you are now posing as a high school student who has recently taken the college tour and given Yale "5's" across the board!</p>
<p>I imagine Yale seeding local government with its own students cannot sit well with the non-affiliated population of New Haven...</p>
<p>
[quote]
I imagine Yale seeding local government with its own students cannot sit well with the non-affiliated population of New Haven...
[/quote]
Actually, it's only one member of a 30 member or so city council. That member represents a district of New Haven that consists almost entirely of the Yale campus and residential colleges.</p>