<p>These are the schools that I call my impossible reaches and though I don't see a point of applying to all three (or any of them for that matter), I'm thinking about applying to one. Probably Yale but I'm not sure.</p>
<p>What I want to know is how would you rank the three based on these criteria.</p>
<p>1)Great College Town
2)Fun
3)Strong Biology and Psychology Major
4)Anything else important</p>
<p>Fun:</p>
<p>P
Y
H</p>
<p>Harvard students repeatedly poll as the most dissatisfied ivy goers.</p>
<p>Great College Town: H Y P
Fun: Y H P
Biology and Psychology: Y H P</p>
<p>@hmon
I'd be very satisfied if I went to Harvard. And yes, I would be willing to sacrifice "fun" for that.</p>
<p>So anyways, don't apply to places based on "fun" - think about after college</p>
<p>You shouldn't really rank based on those things.
All have comparable student bodies and academics. One major difference is in location: Harvard is in Cambridge (great city but according to some leads to lack of community), Yale is in New Haven (reportedly bad city but leads to greater sense of community), Princeton is in Princeton (suburb so if you NEED to be in a city, you probably shouldn't choose it over the others).
I'm sure you can find fun people and "anything else important" at all three.
Another thing that defines each is: 1) residential colleges at Yale 2) eating clubs at Princeton 3)residential houses at Harvard.
Lastly, attention toward undergrads is a factor: reportedly most undergrad-focused at Princeton, then Yale and lastly Harvard.</p>
<p>mabsjenbu123, you don't have your priorities right.</p>
<p>^ Agreed. And it's not like you are really sacrificing anything by choosing Yale over Harvard because Yale is more fun. I don't think that will hurt you too much after college.</p>
<p>I've spent 31 years as a college administrator on all kinds of campuses, I've visited over a hundred campuses, and college life is my passion. I've got two daughters at Harvard, and from my visits there (seven and counting), I believe it's the most fun college environment I've ever seen. The students are amazing, they're passionate about doing incredible things outside of class, they seem to have a health work-play balance, and they're 11 minutes by subway from the world's greatest college town.</p>
<p>Frankly, it'd be impossible to get a truly informed answer to this question. H, Y and P all graduate 97% of their undergrads, so no one's ever a full-time undergraduate student at more than one of the three.</p>
<p>I'm going to say that Harvard is the best school for biology.</p>
<p>I'd say Princeton is the best for biology, but the worst at the important contest of 'not-having-eating-clubs' ;)</p>
<p>Read up on all three. Something or other will give you a "gut" preference for one of them, and that will be as good as anything else. They're all great.
I will just add that I don't agree with the stratety of applying to one "impossible reach" just for the heck of it. If it really is impossible, it is a waste of your time and money, and will just make you feel bad when the rejection comes in. If it's really a possible reach, though, it makes more sense to apply to several highly selective schools because of the challenging odds of getting into any one of them.</p>
<p>They'll be equally happy to take your money and reject you. (You already said they are "impossible reaches".) So figure out to which one you'd like to make a contribution.</p>
<p>Define fun.</p>
<p>Strong in psychology? Why does that matter?</p>