<p>i have a question, there might've been a thread posted like this before, i dunno but if anyone could help me that would be great..</p>
<p>i really really like both harvard and yale, and i have had the chance to spend a few hours at both (not a long time, but i was at each for like around 3 or 4 hours..). </p>
<p>anyway i would really truly appreciate it if anyone could tell me why they chose yale over other schools, and especially if they were originally considering harvard, why they chose yale over harvard?</p>
<p>Up until spring break of my junior year, I wanted more than anything to go to Harvard, but that year I visited both campuses and just fell in love with Yale. Harvard was nice, and Anenburg Hall was gorgeous, but everything at Yale was just awe-inspiring, from the stained glass windows in Sterling Memorial Library to the marble walls of the Rare Books Library to the stone carvings on Siliman.</p>
<p>More recently, I realized that I like Yale's residential college system better. Harvard freshmen are all in the same dorms, then form blocking groups with their friends before they're assigned houses, which pretty much takes away the randomness and the chance to meet new people. Furthermore, I think the social scene at Yale is better. There's some article out there that I came across through CC that talked about how since New Haven is not exactly a great place to live, Yale tries really hard to engage students on campus. People in Cambridge have to be concerned with keeping property values high.</p>
<p>In terms of financial standing and fame, Harvard is better than Yale. Harvard has the largest private endowment of any university in the world. Harvard has the largest university library system in the world - over 19million volumes. It is the world's most prestigious (or one of them).</p>
<p>Anyway, Yale has a more solid academic background. Studies are taken very seriously. In Harvard, you may not learn anything at alll! Yale has UNIQUE learning facilities unequalled at other colleges. Rare collections, museums, Yale Forest, marine research facilities and what-all. </p>
<p>For a very hard-working student, I think Yale is a better choice. Yale has vast opportunities unparalleled by any other. </p>
<p>Just remember this - it's not where you go that matters, it's what you've put into your brain that really does.</p>
<p>I don't think Yale has a marine center, though I may be wrong (maybe its associated with the forestry school, which I know nothing about)</p>
<p>The difference in money between the two is a non-factor because yale and harvard are roughly equal in the amount of money per student since yale is smaller than harvard (each around 1.2 million per student!). </p>
<p>And I don't think that comparing a 13billion (yale) and 22 billion (harvard) endowment is really fruitful for choosing colleges anyway. Money/funding will be absolutely no issue at either.</p>
<p>yeah, yale is better for ugrad. Harv grad schools speak for themselves. Truth is, as an undergrad, you'll be lost in Harv - just another Harvard boy or girl. THough Harv grads are more popular than Yale grads, the truth is that the popular ones are graduates of the graduate schools and not the college. The more solid/popular ones are Yale College, Smith, princeton and Cornell.</p>
<p>If you want to thoroughly enjoy undergrad life, forget Harvard.</p>
<p>The overwhelming majority of common admits to Harvard and Yale choose Harvard for undergraduate education - and always have. </p>
<p>Among undergraduate institutions, Harvard and Princeton are tied for #1, and Yale is #3 according to the USNews ranking of "America's Best Colleges." </p>
<p>The "Revealed Preference" rankings - demonstrating where the top students go for an undergraduate education if offered a choice - have Harvard #1 and Yale #2, with Stanford #3.</p>
<p>Remember: we are talking about the schools as destinations for <em>undergraduate education</em> here: graduate education is a different story, and you might wish to consult rankings of Research Universities (TheCenter.com) or the international rankings issued recently by the London Times and others, in addition to the USNews rankings of "Americas Best Graduate Schools if you are interested in graduate studies.</p>
<p>Both Harvard and Yale are excellent schools, and both graduate virtually every student who enrolls. Few ever transfer out of either, meaning that they are well satisfied with the quality of their undergraduate education. You will very likely be "happy" wherever you go. </p>
<p>In chosing, you might possibly be influenced by the setting, and the relative attractions of Cambridge/Boston vs, New Haven. You will, after all be spending 4 years in either location if you enroll.</p>
<p>I already acknowledged that Harvard is far more popular than Yale. Everybody wants to be at Harvard. Yale is much less popular but that does not mean Harvard is better.</p>
<p>This is a great difference between popularity and quality.</p>
<p>However I concede to the fact that 'Harvard and Yale are both excellent schools'.</p>
<p>Fact is, Harv is squashed up. There is so little space in Mass. But Yale has about 7 times more space and great sports facilities scattered in and around New Haven.</p>
<p>The greatest contribution to Harvard statistics is the insecurities of high school seniors. Cross admit data from 1998 (which Byerly is referring to), is not relevant to which school is right for you or in a thread trying to compare the different attributes of schools. If you are that shallow to choose a school on USNEWS rank or Princeton review, then you eventually won't be happy wherever you choose. </p>
<p>Harvard and Yale have distinct personalities and you should spend time at both (if you are accepted) to determine which is the best fit for you. A degree from one will get you as far as a degree from another.</p>
<p>I also wanted to mention that a good thing about going to Yale is the ability to take classes in any school on campus (with the exception of the medical school). When I was there, I took many graduate courses in my major (biophysics), a graduate level anthropology course on empires, a course on hospital administration at the Public Health School, and a seminar on legal ethics at the law school. The breadth of courses available are very wide and it is one of the great benefits of having graduate/professional schools on campus.</p>
<p>Harvard has swamped Yale in the common-admit "battle" ever since the schools started getting more applications than there were places to fill, and schools started competing head to head. This didn't really happen until after WW II.</p>
<p>This is a given, and anybody who doubts it need only seek confirmation from the Yale Admissions Office.</p>
<p>Here is the significance of cross-admit data: it represents the collective judgement of thousands of top students over the past thirty years and down to the present day. It is as worthy of respectful consideration as the predictable paeans of praise for Yale from a few posters on the CC Yale thread, or, for that matter, (if they bestir themselves to do so) paeans of praise for Harvard by a few random posters on the CC Harvard thread.)</p>
<p>That said, I agree that you should visit both if you are fortunate enough to be offered a choice. Fortunately, Harvard Visiting Days and Bulldog Days do not go head-to-head, time-wise.</p>
<p>How did I lie Byerly? What in my post was not true? Is not the 1998 data (in the herald) the only published cross admit data there is? It might be true for all years, but none except you "knows" it. Even the revealed preference difference between harvard and yale (58/42) is much much smaller than your proclaimed universal constant of cross admits (80/20). It might be true, I don't know and I can't state it because it IS NOT PUBLISHED - I CANNOT PROVE IT. All I was saying is that whatever the cross admit stat is, it isn't important to someone who is trying to objectively decide between two institutions. Your argument for Harvard (everyone picks it) is hollow - Sort of like, if everyone jumped off a bridge, you should jump off the bridge too. </p>
<p>You should be careful calling other liars, when you yourself were just indicted for doctoring your own sources. And I've read some of your obscene posts on XOXO. You have a foul mouth.</p>
<p>If you have been following the cross-admit data discussions over the years - here and elsewhere (which, as long-time avid Yale booster I presume you have), then I'm sure you must be aware of each and every instance where reference to this "sensitive" data has slipped into the college papers - both in Cambridge and in New Haven. </p>
<p>Please don't pretend otherewise.</p>
<p>And at the moment I decline to drag them all, yet again, out of the archive. Suffice it to say that the Yale Director of Financial Aid (in the one story you have difficulty denying, and which you seem to imply, without any basis for doing so, was an anomoly) acknowledged that "we don't do very well against Harvard" and volunteered that the cross-admit margin that year was an eye-popping 83% to 17%.</p>
<p>Do YOU have anything whatsoever to demonstrate that this number was not typical, as I assert (and other newspaper reports have hinted)? If so, the favour of a reply is requested.</p>
<p>Really, I think you should just acknowledge this historic fact, (as the Yale Admissions Office does), rationalize it in some way, and move on.</p>
<p>I have never "doctored" anything, you phony, and what alias have you recently adopted to spread slanders on "the site that has no name"?</p>
<p>Are you, mayhap, the CC weeny wandering into that forbidden land and posting under the newly-minted moniker "Abortions Tickle!"? You know, I believe you are! How naughty for a med school boy!</p>
<p>That "moniker" is disgusting and not me. I am going to report that post immediately. You should think before writing a potentially offensive remark. </p>
<p>You don't need to register on that site to read the posts NYCfan (as it is true here as well). You seem to have a great time posting on the site that has no name, disparaging CC quite often as well. </p>
<p>hey thanks so much.. i have a question, for when you say like if i want to thoroughly enjoy undergraduate life then forget harvard, what do you mean? becuase i do want to enjoy myself while also learning so i was just wondering if you could explain what you mean..</p>
<p>also i am meaning to go and visit both schools and spend some more time there, although i dont really know anyone at yale whom i could stay with. but anyway, a lot of ppl tell me that the two have distinct personalities, and since i only visited each for a couple of hours i guess i wasnt really able to tell that apart so quickly, so i was wondering if you could also like just talk a bit more about that. thanks so much!!</p>
<p>Yale people are more friendly. I stayed at Harvard for The Game, and the folks I stayed with agreed that Harvard is a "colder" place (socially and climatically). Also, there was an article about thefacebook.com (an online "directory" for college folks), and the creator (a Harvard student) said that he created the website for Harvard because they weren't very social. This was quoted on an intercollegiate publication; talk about school pride. I figured I was going to get a good education at either school, so the quality of the people really mattered.</p>