<p>I am one of the lucky people to have a choice between two wonderful institutions, Harvard and Yale. I've visited both and I plan to attend the accepted students days later in April, and I have some idea of pros and cons of both. But I would be thrilled to hear from some people that had to make the same decision and what made them eventually choose the college that they did (in this board's case, Harvard). I love both places and I'm sure I'd be happy at either, but four years is a long time, ya know? Important decision.</p>
<p>Also I posted a mirror image of this on the Yale board, in case anyone saw the other one and wants to call me out on it.</p>
<p>I’m in the same boat as you guys… I’m planning on attending pre-frosh weekends at both and then trying to pick between the two. But having said that, I know they are both great and that really, I can’t make a bad choice here. Any thoughts from past students in this situation would be helpful… thanks.</p>
<p>I’d say that you have to visit both, because they are virtually more identical. Both universities are full of motivated, brilliant, passionate students who want to make a difference. I think Harvard does it better, but that’s for you to decide. Harvard’s name is more international, but that shouldn’t affect where you will in effect pay 200K to go to school.</p>
<p>I turned down Yale for Harvard a few years ago.</p>
<p>For me, the two biggest factors were probably:
Location. Cambridge is really awesome, Boston is close by, and New York is really accessible ($15 chinatown bus). New Haven is cool in some ways (dive bars!) and not the ghetto people make it out to be, but there just isn’t nearly as much going on.</p>
<ol>
<li>Eli defensiveness. This is probably a bit unfair - but after a ~50 minute interview with a Yale alum, it came out that I had gotten into Harvard EA. My interviewer then went on a ~30 minute rant about how Yale is better than Harvard. In general, I sometimes feel like many Yale students/alums feel obligated to “prove” that they’re better than Harvard - while Harvard students/alums tend to be okay acknowledging that Yale is a great school that’s on the same level as Harvard.</li>
</ol>
<p>And my decision was made a bit easier because I was EA at Harvard and gotten along incredibly well with the other EAers I had talked to.</p>
<p>Good luck making your decisions - no wrong choices!</p>
<p>(One last note - take Prefrosh Weekend and Bulldog Days with a grain of salt. Both are great ways to meet your potential classmates and see the campuses, but both are also <em>very</em> atypical weekends in terms of the number of events going on and all that.)</p>
<p>@bluewhitebulldog: Hey, gratz on getting into Yale, but no need to be so competitive over it. When it comes to the top schools, they’re all great - it’s just that different ones suit different people :)</p>
<p>I agree–Harvard students only truly care about Yale on the day of The Game. Otherwise, it’s more like, we know we love our school, Yale’s OK, so whatever. At Yale, they have this weird inferiority complex where they need to bash Harvard to make themselves feel okay or something. At least that’s been my experience with the two.</p>
<p>I liked Harvard’s house system waaaay more than Yale’s because I feel like it’s designed for you to meet more people. I just felt like if I knew my house going into freshman year, and was living with people from that house in my freshman dorm (as is the system at Yale), I would become friends mostly with those people. At Harvard, you’re in a random freshman dorm where you meet a ton of people who get put in an assortment of houses, and then you also have your chosen blockmates, who are in your own house (which you find out in March). Then, when you’re in the house for the next three years, you meet a ton of new people, as opposed to the same people you’ve been associating with since freshman year. And you have friends in all of the other houses. It just seemed like a better means of meeting a diverse group of people, which I stand by to this day.</p>
<p>Also, location location location. And Yale’s dreary gray Gothic architecture depresses me, as opposed to the cheery red brick of Harvard Small things, but it can matter to some people. Harvard’s also waaay more diverse and I feel like it’s less pretentious. I have a lot of experience with/know a lot of people at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and UPenn, and I would say Harvard and UPenn are similar in their diverse, friendly student bodies versus Yale/Princeton being more homogeneous and pretentious. Just my experiences…</p>
<p>Nope, they haven’t bashed Yale…they’ve just pointed out the aspects of Yale that I didn’t like, and why I liked Harvard’s corresponding aspects more. Which I believe is the point of this thread. I wouldn’t go around being like, “Yale sucks!” for no apparent reason. But the poster wanted a comparison of the two, which inevitably leads to saying one’s negative aspects…</p>
<p>And yep, it’s easily one of the most diverse of the Ivies. (along with Harvard)</p>
Small things, but it can matter to some people. Harvard’s also waaay more diverse and I feel like it’s less pretentious. I have a lot of experience with/know a lot of people at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and UPenn, and I would say Harvard and UPenn are similar in their diverse, friendly student bodies versus Yale/Princeton being more homogeneous and pretentious. Just my experiences…</p>