<p>Listen to what the Harvard undergrads say about it.</p>
<p>Yale, more selective and more cross-admits from Harvard this year!!</p>
<p>Just curious, how could you know that more cross-admits chose Yale if enrollment decisions aren't due until May 1st? :-</p>
<p>A new Yalie Troll makes his maiden post ... on the Harvard page!</p>
<p>To say that final clubs are "killing" social life is a reading that the original article doesn't support. I don't think anyone at Harvard, even the most virulent opponents of final clubs, would agree with that.</p>
<p>...and this is in a Yale publication because? Yale really needs to get over its inferiority complex.</p>
<p>I know. It seems like half of their articles are dissing Harvard.</p>
<p>The M.O. of the YDN at this time of year - often reflected in the approach by hosts at "Bulldog Days" - is to go into full "Harvard Sucks" mode for the benefit of potential matriculants.</p>
<p>I have been told by many students who attended visiting days at both schools that the whole anti-Harvard obsession thing in New Haven really turned them off ... but maybe I'm not talking to the ones who found it convincing!</p>
<p>My parents were at Harvard when Finals Clubs were supposed to be a really big part of the social scene, and they said they made absolutely no impact on social life.</p>
<p>I just mean that after peopl read what undergrads at Harvard are saying about these elitist clubs and their bad social lives we'll probably get more of the cross-admits. Are you saying that the news report is wrong and that Harvard undergrads like these clubs and their social lives are really good?</p>
<p>This 'punching process' sounds rather interesting. What does it involve?</p>
<p>Oh and by the way, Yale's secret societies are just.... so strange.... Skull and Bones, I mean honestly what were they thinking?</p>
<p>ive been admitted to harvard and im absolutely ecstatic, but i have to add my two-cents worth.
i didnt grow up in the US, so haven't been exposed to any of the college politics until I really starting reading this forum.
all i have to say is that im seriously /tired/ of reading all the dissing that goes on about harvard from other colleges. its obviously an inferiority complex, and its plain annoying. harvard is obviously a great school, so it only reflects badly on the other schools when they are pedantically trying to undermine every single aspect of harvard in such a pathetic fashion. move on, please.</p>
<p>That piece on the finals club is only a special report and came out after a similar one was made of yale's secret societies and Princeton's eating clubs. Yale dailies and news publications will often talk about things that are going at other colleges - mainly the Ivy leagues - perhaps with some emphasis on HP. There is nothing wrong with this - sometimes pieces on other colleges are used to criticize Yale's own policies. It's about having a frame of reference most of the time and poke fun at other colleges only part of the time.</p>
<p>If anything, it's more of a Cantab phenomenon to react harshly to any and all criticism. It helps perpetuate the stereotype that you feel you must be #1 at everything that you do.</p>
<p>"The Yale Daily News is forever bleeding; it is covered in the crimson blood of another school. Over six issues of the News (from Oct. 15-22) there were seven front-page articles concerning Harvard University, a somewhat well-known institution of higher education in the city of Cambridge, Mass. These articles range from the relevant (Harvard's alcohol policy for The Game) to the slightly irrelevant (the salary of Harvard's financial advisers) to the completely irrelevant (a Harvard grad student's manslaughter conviction), and yet all have found a way onto these same pages. Why is this the case? Because it's Harvard.</p>
<p>Last Friday's article about a new college ranking demonstrated empirically what most of the world believes: Yale is perceived as one of the top two universities in the United States, but Harvard is first. The study examined the preferences of high-school students who were accepted into the top colleges in the nation (that is, it studied high-school students like we were). As The New York Times said of the same ranking, "The degree of Harvard's dominance [is] staggering." ...</p>
<p>Accepting this fact, what is a poor Yalie to do? ... We could try to believe that such appearances don't matter; the problem with this is that Yale is a great university because the best and brightest want to be here on account of the perception that Yale is a great university. I see but one option: acceptance.</p>
<p>What I ask you to consider is what we as human beings can learn from Yale's situation. We have matriculated at the mathematical limit of perceived institutional greatness; we are forever approaching perfection but never arriving at it. As the eternal runner-up, it is Yale that represents what my 11th-grade English teacher would call The Human Condition.</p>
<p>In the "Iliad," the battles between humans are always more fascinating than the battles between the gods. Why? Because the gods are perfect in their immortality and as such cannot be figures of empathy. But even Achilles, the closest thing to a god as possible, is nothing more than a sad creature who eventually must accept his mortal fate along with the rest of us wretched humans. What is Yale if not Achilles, a tragic hero of incredible greatness, a being so close and yet so far?</p>
<p>Thus Yale affords us an optimal understanding of the two extremes of humanity: We perceive our awesome dominance over (almost) all else, but humbly recognize the existence of One above us. Thus is life; how good things get is never how good we would wish them to be. This is what gives us our humanity, what makes moderately sized blobs of flesh and blood such as ourselves so fascinating. It's the tragedy of human existence, and the sooner we can appreciate it, in Yale and in ourselves, the better off we will be. And if not, we can always look down on Princeton.</p>
<p>The story linked in the original post starts by anointing a Harvard senior named Julia Lewandoski as the expert on Harvards finals clubs and their role in Harvards social life. Buried later in the article is the fact that Ms. Lewandoski is the founder of an anti-final club organization called Students Against Super Sexist Institutions -- We Oppose Oppressive Final Clubs. Clearly the finals clubs bother the heck out of Ms. Lewandoski, but for most Harvard students who are not members of a finals club theyre totally irrelevant. The articles other primary expert on Harvards finals clubs is a 2005 graduate named Alicia Menendez, whose senior thesis was titled "To Whom Many Doors Are Still Locked: Gender, Space, and Power in Harvard Final Clubs." Any possibility that she has an axe to grind too?</p>
<p>I have the utmost respect for Yale as an institution, but I completely agree with those who find the rampant Harvard-bashing that some number of Yalies practice on prospective students around this time of year to be a major turn-off. I think most cross-admits (certainly the ones Ive talked to) feel the same way.</p>
<p>P.S., what's with the Toys-R-Us thread headline?</p>
<p>That second Yale article is quite good</p>
<p>I really wouldn't say that Harvard's dominance is staggering. I'll agree that it is more often than not perceived as the top university in the US, but I wouldn't say that this is something "staggering" or across the board. For example, a yalie has been at the white house pretty much since I was born - no other university in the world can top that.</p>
<p>In terms of a college experience, I'm really happy at Yale and I really can't bother feeling jealous at anyone. When Harvard kids came here for The Game, we both had praise for each others' schools - there were things we each liked more at the other (our academic calendar v their football team..). Overall though, it seemed like there were not that many differences. If Harvard is so overwhelmingly better, please show me how or where this happens. Academically? Athletically?</p>
<p>It's really just a matter of "prestige". I honestly don't feel the gap is that wide either. It's not like Harvard is alone in a pedestal.</p>
<p>And if there IS a wide gap then Yale should care about shortening that difference in reputation. In fact, it looks like Yale might be doing this succesfully. If you don't believe me, ask Hu Jintao?</p>
<p>Anyways, I still feel like the nature of the rivalry is demonized too much on the Harvard side and perhaps overemphasized on Yale's size (Rivalries can be fun - F U N?). Yet its hard to ignore that the rivalry has been there for a very long time and Harvard suddenly deciding that they're too good for any rivalry is really pompous, plain cocky. I saw all the Harvard kids rushing Yale Bowl after H won in triple overtime - you don't do stuff like that if you don't care.</p>
<p>I think you all misunderstand the nature of the article. It is part 2 of a three part series explaining the "elitist" upper-class clubs at harvard, princeton, and yale. yesterday's was on the eating clubs, today's was on the final clubs, tomorrow's is on the secret societies. it is part of a larger series of articles comparing aspects of the undergraduate experience at HYP. just so you know.</p>
<p>In short, it's not harvard bashing. it's old-school club bashing.</p>
<p>Did Hu Jintao go to Yale?</p>