<p>Cambridge/Boston > New Haven</p>
<p>done.</p>
<p>nice job harvard2013!</p>
<p>When the best part of your school is the city in which it resides, and not something about the school itself, you have a problem.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>Who said it was the best part?</p>
<p>New Haven > Cambridge</p>
<p>renowned affordable restaurants/wonderful culture > posh college-town affectations</p>
<p>Harvard is an amazing, amazing place, but the whole assumption that the NH v. B/C battle shifts in favor of Harvard is really kind of annoying. Boston is a totally unappealing college town in my opinion. Boston is not really the most exciting city, and most of the cultural outlets are for a highbrow audience, not college kids. Everything is going to be more expensive in Cambridge. New Haven is a troubled city, but as a consequence, food, culture, and partying are cheaper. Places like Toad’s appeal to me more than a typical Boston club. It’s easier to deal with alcohol/fake IDs in a city with murderers and rapists than in a neighborhood with sky-high property values. Obviously Cambridge is beautiful and will work better for people with different priorities than mine, but location was a big deal in me choosing Yale… it’s not as if I held my nose when I decided to accept their offer of admission.</p>
<p>At the same time, the Yale lovers here need to stop reverting to generalities here. I think Yale is a happier place/better for undergrads, but glib echo-chamber one-sentence contributions are not valued here. We don’t need another one of “those” threads.</p>
<p>Boston actually is quite an exciting city, and more often than not people will refer to it as the quintessential college city. There are many many colleges in the area, and hence many new people to meet and stuff.</p>
<p>“most of the cultural outlets are for a highbrow audience”</p>
<p>What? Sounds like you’ve never been to Central Square. Or the South End. Or a dozen other neighborhoods. There’s no shortage of grimy rock joints like Toad’s.</p>
<p>I’m going to preface this by saying that I am at Harvard right now (doing and overnight with a friend), was at Princeton two days ago (doing the same thing), and will go to Yale later on today. I’ve had a great time at each so far, but I have picked up a couple things along the way:</p>
<p>At Princeton and Harvard, everyone was overwhelmingly happy and extremely nice. Nobody I met was overtly arrogant and they were all very welcoming! However, despite this, my trip has caused me to love Yale more and more (even though I haven’t done my overnight there yet!).</p>
<p>My reasons are HIGHLY personal and I’m sure they only apply to me (but I’m also sure that some of you have similar priorities to me and so you might be interested). I wish pursue a double major in Politics and Drama.</p>
<p>At Princeton: Everyone wanted to do math and science (the friend whom I stayed with, included). I’m all for people wanting to major in these fields because where else would we get our engineers or doctors; but when literally 100% of the people I met (and I met a lot) wanted to major in one of those two fields, I smell a problem. That was a turnoff for me. Also, the arts culture was not as poppin and alive as I would have liked. Yes productions did exist and there were a few concerts going on, but noticeably few people cared and there was little interest in such activities (even from the administration). I thought that the Princeton eating clubs were GREAT! They were beautiful and very inclusive and not at all elitist (they’re frats with INCREDIBLE food)!! However, I can’t imagine my social life revolving around something even remotely similar to a fraternity. I know that if I went to Princeton, I would join one (as 80+% of the kids there do) and would just hate my life. (I don’t like to party, to have fun I’d rather go see a performance or go on a trip to New York.) Let me reiterate that I LOVED Princeton when I visited, but it’s not for me and I’m eternally grateful that it isn’t the only school I got into… though I could have definitely dealt with it if it was :).</p>
<p>At Harvard: I have MANY more friends at Harvard than at Princeton so I’m having that much more fun… although, here it’s the same story! Everyone wants to major in math or science and everyone has an agenda… the same agenda. If I had a dollar for the number of times I heard, “I want to be a doctor and I’m majoring in bio” or “I think I’m going to head to wall street after all of this is over,” I would be a wealthy man. I love the doctors and stock brokers of our world (although… not too much at the moment), but I do not want to be completely surrounded by them for my entire life! The science culture is VERY strong and very prevalent here at Harvard and I fear that that means less focus on the humanities. I’m already EXCEEDINGLY aware that Harvard places little emphasis (read: money) on the arts (particularly Drama) and no emphasis on other organizations that I care about. The dorms at Harvard are nice and the people are nicer, but I just know that it’s not my type of place. As far as Cambridge goes… it’s NOT that great. I’m a city kind of guy (I got into Columbia too and the fact that I’m probably going to turn it down is killing me softly), but Cambridge does not do it for me. Yeah there’s a Chipotle and a Qdoba, but once you get past those, you’re left with a “college town” that’s really just a glorified strip mall. Personally, I do not think Cambridge is the best college town… for me, that goes to Providence/Brown (Thayer Street… <em>drools</em>). </p>
<p>Yale is definitely my cup of tea, because as milessmiles said:</p>
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<p>Additionally, Yale is just SO COOL! There’s shows going on every week!!! Some produced by students, some by Broadway directors, some by other professionals working at the Schubert Theatre. There are symphonies and world renowned a capella groups!! There’s the BEAUTIFUL architecture and incredible restaurants. There are resources and award-winning faculty abound, not to mention the same vast resources that Harvard and Princeton propagate.</p>
<p>Yale does it for me, much more so than Harvard and Princeton, so I’m heading there next fall. </p>
<p>Good luck guys and remember to make the decision that is right FOR YOU. Money will matter so little in the long run, especially since you’re all likely going to be successful (being grads of HYP and all) :).</p>
<p>any more cross admits wanna post???</p>
<p>@milessmiles - Thanks for the great post!</p>
<p>@eatingfood - I think you’re right that the drama community is biggest/strongest at Yale. But there are a lot of people at Harvard (and probably Princeton as well?) whose lives revolve around theater. I wish you would have been able to meet someone in the Hasty Pudding Theatricals or HR Drama Club.</p>
<p>Harvard also seems committed to increasing its investment in the arts under Faust. Take a look at the Arts Task Force report, if you’re interested: [Task</a> Force Releases Report on the Arts — The Harvard University Gazette](<a href=“http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/12.11/99-arts.html]Task”>http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/12.11/99-arts.html)</p>
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<p>Lulz, that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with the above. If you read the profile of Chris Hughes, one of the Facebook founders who created MyObama, he was a History and Literature concentrator. That is a popular concentration at Harvard.</p>
<p>To current Harvard students/alums: Would you say there’s a dominant perception at Harvard that Investment Banking + Consulting are the most desirable post-graduation jobs? </p>
<p>My view on this is incredibly distorted (most of my closest friends are members of the Crimson Business board). I don’t see a Math/Sci bias, but I personally see a plethora of “Wall Street” agendas (maybe less so this year, because of the markets).</p>
<p>Any Elis want to comment on this as well?</p>
<p>just<em>forget</em>me, I wouldn’t say they’re the most desirable exactly, just the most readily available. (At least they used to be.) E-recruiting streamlined the process so much that banking and consulting jobs were practically dropped in people’s laps, and with all the money they offered they were definitely attractive. Plenty of people definitely had hopes of making it to Wall Street, though. But for many, the agenda was never to stay there. A lot of people wanted to get the high-paying job, pay off their loans quickly, then have the rest of their lives free to do something else. Others wanted to take the two-year commitment, use it as a springboard into business school, and THEN go do something else. And then there are those who were genuinely interested. I knew people who fall into all those categories. </p>
<p>But I definitely never felt that anyone felt the banking/consulting jobs were the MOST desirable, and that you were looked down upon or anything if you didn’t get one. On the contrary, I found a lot of peers and professors expressed admiration when I told them I was going in a different direction entirely (journalism). I also know as many non-bankers as I know bankers, so people definitely don’t all head for Wall Street like lemmings.</p>
<p>According to the Boston Globe Harvard’s top ten majors for the class of 2009 are: Econ (758), Gov (495), Social Studies (306), Psych (290), English (247), History (236), History and Lit (158), Neurobio (155), Molecular and Cellular Bio (154), Sociology (154)</p>
<p>So math/science majors don’t seem that dominant</p>
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<p>I actually have a few friends who are involved in each and I spoke with someone at the Harvard center for the arts. Each of them assured me that theatre was alive and well at Harvard (which I wholeheartedly believe)… but I just feel like if I went there, I would be swimming against the current to get something out of a program that isn’t there. At Yale, I would have the structure of a curriculum and the resources of an entire CONSERVATORY right there. At Harvard, I would definitely have the money, but none of the structure… and while that’s great for someone not looking to make a career, I don’t know if it’s the best for me. Harvard did tell me that it plans to make some severe changes to its arts department, but they also said that with the economy they didn’t know whether this would be available for 4 years or for 10 years.</p>
<p>this theatre issue raises an interesting point:
am i right in getting the sense that Harvard is learning from the criticisms of earlier in the decade - those that led to, among other things, that Cult of Yale article?
i mean, establishing the campus events board, promoting study abroad, introducing more freshman seminars…etc…
is H catching up with P and Y in terms of undergrad focus? and if so, how long must we wait for real, proper change?</p>
<p>Swimming against the current doing theater at Harvard? No way!</p>
<p>Hey, if you want theater to be your primary academic focus, go to Yale. But it’s just wrong to suggest that it’s some kind of uphill battle to be a prospective professional actor or dramatist at Harvard. Christopher Durang, Peter Sellars, Rashida Jones, Eden Riegel, Darren Aronofsky, Matt Damon, Jack Lemmon, Jon Lithgow, Elisabeth Shue, Mira Nair, BJ Novak, Tommy Lee Jones, Mira Sorvino, the authors of the shows My Fair Lady, Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Legally Blonde, Bat Boy, etc…all had lots of company as future artists at Harvard. And they all majored in something besides theater.</p>
<p>Eating Food - The Yale theatre program is excellent. But the Harvard theatre scene is very substantial too. From the A.R.T. website: </p>
<p>“The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) occupies a unique place in the American theatre. It is the only professional not-for-profit theatre in the country that maintains a resident acting company and an international training conservatory, and that operates in association with a major university. Over its twenty-seven year history the A.R.T. has welcomed American and international theatre artists who have enriched the theatrical life of the nation. The theatre has garnered many of the nation’s most distinguished awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award, and a Jujamcyn Award. In December 2002, the A.R.T. was the recipient of the National Theatre Conference’s Outstanding Achievement Award, and in May of 2003 it was named one of the top three theatres in the country by Time magazine.”</p>
<p>Founder Robert Brustein moved the A.R.T. from Yale to Harvard in the '80s.</p>
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<p>I do wish for it to be my primary academic and extracurricular focus. Additionally, I want to double major in the Ethics, Politics and Economics (EPE) program that Yale offers… and that’s something that I literally could not do if I went to Harvard. </p>
<p>I spoke with the advising office for the Government concentration at Harvard and the woman told me that student advising was something they planned to develop and focus on in the coming years. She also said that it’s nearly impossibly to have success as a joint-concentrator and harder to receive honors as one. Although the Government concentration is large and comprehensive, it seemed much more like an advanced study in AP Government rather than an analysis of the sociological and philosophical aspects of political/economic theory and the ramifications as it relates to society. </p>
<p>I’m much more interested in the less palpable facets of political science, but it seems like nearly all of the kids concentrating in Government that I met had intentions of being politicians (I walked into a class with over 50 kids and talked to quite a few of them). </p>
<p>As I said before, I have no intention of working in politics, rather I just want to explore a passion of mine from a perspective that fascinates me. For this, I find the EPE program at Yale exponentially more appealing than the Government concentration at Harvard.</p>
<p>I will say though that the Gov concentration is probably the best you can get (…it is Harvard after all), but not the greatest for the education I seek.</p>