<p>Hello CCers on Harvard's forum!</p>
<p>I know how much you guys love data, so I'm hoping you will be able to help.
I was fortunate enough to be admitted to Harvard and Princeton.</p>
<p>It's difficult to decide between the two and I was trying to get career data of a recently graduated class. Princeton'sis easily accessible but Harvard only seems to have rough percentages on their reports on the career services website.</p>
<p>Can someone help ?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Yes, I can help. There is no data that is going to inform your decision in a meaningful way. People who are admitted to either college – not to mention both of them – tend to succeed more often than they fail. But that would be true if they spent the next four years being raised by wolves or imprisoned in a North Korean POW camp, too.</p>
<p>One of the problems is that the careers of people who graduated 20 years ago may not be representative what is happening now, but it’s almost impossible to draw significant conclusions from the selective biographies of people who graduated recently. Princeton does a great job of getting recent grads to answer questionnaires, and Harvard (and its grads) don’t give a crap about questionnaires. But you knew that already (or should have known it). </p>
<p>That’s a real difference between the colleges. It relates to another real difference between them: Princeton alumni tend to keep an intense, close engagement with Princeton, and Harvard alumni not so much, although they are happy to send checks. However, if there’s a real difference between the colleges in terms of the opportunities their graduates get, (a) no one has ever figured it out, and (b) it would be news to everyone who ever graduated from either.</p>
<p>Stop wishing that the Data Fairy will come and rescue you from having to make a decision. There is no Data Fairy. They are both great. Use your gut to pick one, and don’t look back. </p>
<p>The following are all perfectly good bases on which to pick one or the other, much better than any data you will find. Actually, several of them are fully supported by data, and for the rest your subjective response is the only data you will need.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Crimson and some neutral color look good on almost anyone. If you are more than 2,000 feet from Nassau Hall, orange and black look good on no one.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s meaningfully colder in Massachusetts during the winter.</p></li>
<li><p>Harvard Yard draws massive numbers of tourists, and that will get old about a three days after you start living there.</p></li>
<li><p>Princeton was once called the College of New Jersey, and for good reason.</p></li>
<li><p>No one ever talks about “the P-bomb,” and if they did they would giggle a lot.</p></li>
<li><p>You like/don’t like the sound or idea of the phrase “eating club.”</p></li>
<li><p>You saw Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle, or The Social Network, and one of them attracted (or repulsed) you more than the other. Taking into account that neither was filmed where they purported to show, and no one has suggested that either is remotely accurate.</p></li>
<li><p>You want to grow up to be this woman: <a href=“The Ivy League Hustle (I Went to Princeton, ■■■■■) - YouTube”>The Ivy League Hustle (I Went to Princeton, ■■■■■) - YouTube;
</ul>
<p>Haha. I know there is no data fairy that will come to make a decision. Its kinda difficult to get a gut feeling about any college for me - I live in India. Visiting is impossible because flights are too expensive not to mention . I am looking to major in CS/MechE so there could be a HUGE difference in graduating careers/ success. Harvard really falls behind on rankings in both these areas. If it was a difference of 1st v/s 9th , I wouldnt care , but here the difference is top ten v/s top 30 . For both these fields, so I would like to have some better indicator than US News about the departments at H. </p>
<p>On another note ,
<p>It seems to me that you like Princeton more - go with your gut feeling! :)</p>
<p>Oh, heavens, don’t worry about finals clubs making social life competitive. They’re only about 10% of the student body, so just in the course of living my life, I have more or less ignored their existence for the past two years. Whereas eating clubs take about 75% of Princeton upperclassmen. You may still like Princeton better and I don’t have much to say about the rest of your concerns, but I haven’t found the existence of a small final club scene has affected my life at all. It takes conscious effort on my part to remember that’s A Thing, even; I’ve come to find that scene more bemusing than anything.</p>