Hello guys,
I got accepted to Princeton. Since I never expected that, I never thought about whether I should apply to somewhere else after early action (basically, I would apply to nearly every prestigious college). Do you think that I should apply Harvard in RD? Otherwise, I guess I will go with Princeton Math.
By the way, I never went abroad; therefore, I am not able to compare them. I guess I will be happy in both colleges considering the fact that I am living in a third world country.
Good luck to all regular decision applicants, hopefully, you will get accepted to your dream college
Thanks!
You’ve been accepted to your first choice school, which offers excellent financial aid, is consistently ranked the #1 college in America, and is more focused on its undergraduates than is Harvard.
Given that, I’d recommend you not apply anywhere else.
I don’t know @sherpa, he sure sounds like a Harvard man to me!
@Rebellionban: In all seriousness kid, grow-up! Do you think Harvard will seriously open more doors for you upon graduation than Princeton or Yale? If you have doubts about the answers, let me assure you, it won’t!
What you should be MORE concerned about is fit, rather than becoming a prestige-whore always seeking what you think might appear in someone else’s eyes as “better.” Now that you’ve been accepted to Princeton (congratulations), can you imagine yourself attending school there? If you think you’d be happy at Princeton, with it’s wide open grassy campus in suburbia, you may not actually like an urban campus such as Harvard. Have you give that thought? Are there professors at Harvard you would like to study with, learn from? Does Harvard have more courses in the field you want to study than Princeton? All those things need to be considered, as well as social life. How does a student’s social life at Harvard compare to Princeton? There currently won’t be a student center at Harvard until your sophomore year. Are you aware of that? And what about Eating Clubs? If you’re male, and not a member of a final club, forget about getting into one. There are literally hundreds of ways you can compare the schools, but prestige should NOT be one of them.
I do think fit is extremely important and probably the most important factor. I do believe Harvard will open more doors and there have been studies to back that up. I am not sure what difference if any a student center will make.
Not much agreement here. Please provide proof in the form of an article or research study which everyone can read that clearly demonstrates Harvard opens more doors upon graduation than Princeton. I would think many Princeton graduates would strongly disagree that is the case.
@gibby , I fear something went missing between your brain and your keyboard!
In any event, I agree completely with gibby, except for his overvaluing the presence or absence of a student center. The environments in which Harvard and Princeton exist are totally different. Almost everyone will have a preference for one or the other . . . although if you are 17 and haven’t lived in a variety of different places, you may not know which one you prefer. And which one you prefer is not likely to matter in the end, because 99% of people who would thrive at one would also thrive at the other.
They are two of the great universities of the world, and if you are interested in math they have two of the great math departments in the world. The notion that Harvard would open more doors for a particular student than Princeton is completely laughable. People who would say that are people with no real experience of the world in which Harvard and Princeton graduates operate.
In general, Princeton is more genteel, more undergraduate-centric, more rigorous, and less competitive than Harvard. Princeton alumni tend to adore it; many Harvard alumni are ambivalent about Harvard. There probably isn’t a meaningful difference in overall strength between their math programs, but there’s an interesting curricular difference: Harvard has Math 55, a famous intellectual boot camp-like seminar for a handful of superstar freshmen that essentially amounts to completing what would be a full math major at most other strong colleges in a year. Princeton deliberately does not offer a course like that; its superstar freshmen simply go into topic-specific courses for advanced undergraduates.
And there’s one more very critical difference between Princeton and Harvard that gibby failed to mention: Princeton’s colors, orange and black, are silly, and do not look good on adults who are not Taraji P. Henderson. Harvard’s dark crimson is understated and goes well with everything.
@JHS has an uncanny ability to pack more insight into a single sentence than most would into an entire post. His observation that Princeton is more rigorous yet less competitive than Harvard is simply brilliant.
I don’t know, but promoting a “Harvard or nothing” attitude, especially on a site frequented by so many anxious, high achieving, and often perfectionism-prone teenagers, seems pretty unproductive and perhaps even harmful. OP already has a wonderful place ready to welcome him with open arms come next fall. And it’s Princeton, no less, a highly-ranked university that offers so much to its undergrad students. I would probably say the same thing if OP were considering taking a free ride at the state flagship.
Should OP pursue Harvard if he (she?) can realistically imagine being a student there? Sure, there’s no harm in that. But if OP doesn’t–or even if OP does and is ultimately rejected, which happens to even the most qualified students–there is no reason to believe someone with OP’s work ethic and talents wouldn’t succeed at Princeton or Yale or a smaller elite college or even Flagship State, if it came to that.
I’m not saying that some schools don’t offer opportunities that others do not. But at the end of the day, it’s up to the student to make the best of what he or she is given and turn that into success. Even if there is evidence out there that Harvard grads outshine all others (and honestly, I’ve read plenty of articles, legit or not, that claim that it really doesn’t make much of a difference among high-achieving students), those students very likely succeeded not because of Harvard but because they had that something that compelled Harvard to accept them in the first place.
OP - my D was also accepted SCEA into Princeton. It was her first choice at the time. She was eventually accepted into Harvard as well. She visited both places, but eventually chose Harvard. The financial aid was better at Harvard, and in general it was a better fit for her. I will tell you that she has not found it to be competitive, but surprisingly collaborative. Hope this helps, and good luck with your college choice.
Thank you for your answers. Last year, one of my friends got accepted SCEA into Princeton but chose Harvard over Princeton. Since he is very happy there, and I believe we are very similar, I was thinking about applying to Harvard. Otherwise, I don’t really care about “prestige”. By stating “prestigious colleges”, I meant top colleges in US + several safeties with acceptance rate over 50%. A lot of US universities are better than top colleges in my country; therefore, they are all prestigious for me.
This week, some older students visited my high school. One of them was in Harvard University. She said that the best thing about Harvard was Boston and insisted that I should apply to Harvard University. However, I still feel like Princeton is a better fit for me.
To those that say that Princeton will open as many doors as Harvard do you have any studies or evidence to back that up. Harvard is extremely collaborative so the assertion that Harvard is more competitive than Princeton is wrong. The problem is Princeton has grade deflation which leads to competiveness.
The math department at Harvard is about twice the size of Princeton. There has been a lot of criticism of Math 55 at Harvard. It for all practical purposes excludes women. Math 55 does not teach 4 years of math in one year. Instead it gives a superficial overview of many areas. As such many of the students who take math 55 are unprepared to take more advanced math classes
The major difference between Harvard and Princeton is that Princeton is much more conservative than Harvard. Princetons nickname is the Southern Ivy
The grade deflation policy was eliminated a few years ago. My son, who attended Princeton during the grade deflation period, reported that things were very collaborative even then.
No offense, but you didn’t exactly provide evidence to support your very large “Harvard above all else” claim. I’m never said that Harvard can’t open doors, just that there are lots of other colleges out there (ivy and otherwise) that provide an equally rewarding education and enriching environment. If you go into this believing that Harvard (or Princeton or Yale or Stanford) has the best this or that and no other institution can compare–especially when acceptance rates hover so low–you are not doing yourself any favors.
Princeton isn’t consistently ranked #1 for undergrad by USNews for nothing:
Its undergraduate focus is highest among HYPSM (and expanding that group to include Chicago, Columbia, Penn...) -- Princeton has the highest % of undergrads.
It has the highest per-student endowment among all colleges and universities in the US. (I.E., it's the richest school per capita)
Its students have -- for a research university -- excellent access to professors. It is known for student-prof interaction.
Unless you really want to be in Boston instead of Princeton, or something about Princeton seriously sours in your estimation, or you’re nervous about Princeton FA (it’s among the best generally), I think sticking with Princeton is the way to go.
You might toss an app at Harvard and, if you get in, you can tell everyone about it. And then send in your deposit to Princeton…
“You might toss an app at Harvard and, if you get in, you can tell everyone about it. And then send in your deposit to Princeton…”
Ahaha. I don’t want to be that person who is applying to those type of colleges just to satisfy himself. At the same time, over 5 years Harvard always accepted 2 people from my high school. However, this time they didn’t accept anybody in early action. If I get accepted, one of my friends may get rejected just because of me.(considering the concept of the common good, I shouldn’t apply to somewhere else) However, my parents say that I am overthinking about the process.
I knew when I said Harvard was more competitive than Princeton I should have explained what I meant, and that I would probably draw a number of “Oh, it’s so collaborative!” posts.
Of course it’s so collaborative, especially academically. That’s what elite institutions are like – Harvard, Princeton Yale, Stanford and many others. What I meant by saying I thought Harvard was more competitive is really two things. First, for a long time I think Harvard has been characterized by a kind of niche-ism, where many students are looking for a niche they can dominate. This mainly happens outside the classroom and the library, but most Harvard students tell themselves that the most important part of their education is taking place outside the classroom and the library. There’s a tendency at Harvard to regard actual courses, especially those outside one’s major, as sort of a necessary evil, to get a credential and to be permitted to carry on one’s ECs as a Harvard student. The center of gravity at Harvard is outside the classroom, and there are lots of sharp elbows there (and also much collaboration, just like in the world).
Second, for better or worse Harvard draws the biggest share of kids who think in strict hierarchies. Every elite institution has them, and they aren’t the majority of students everywhere, but there seems to be a broad consensus among kids who think there has to be a #1 that Harvard is it. And, for better or worse, those kids tend to want to be #1 themselves, and have been most of their lives. It thickens the atmosphere somewhat.
Princeton more conservative: That certainly was true in the past, but I don’t think it’s true now. Harvard has gotten more conservative, and Princeton significantly more liberal. It’s not the “Southern Ivy” in any meaningful sense anymore.
Princeton opens just as many doors: I don’t have studies. I have 40 years of working with and observing alumni of both colleges, and of others. Let’s look at the Supreme Court, for example. There are eight current Justices; three of them have undergraduate degrees from Princeton, two from Stanford, and only one from Harvard. Merrick Garland would have been a second Harvard AB.
