<p>Cambridge/Boston >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> New Haven. As someone who's been to both cities, I'd know. If it comes down to it, go for the former...hell, Cambrige/Boston > NYC</p>
<p>NYC >>>> Boston. Besides MIT and Harvard, Boston is a old, boring place.</p>
<p>My D got into both Harvard and Yale this spring, and really couldn't exercise much personal preference because the financial aid was so much better at H that it made Y impractical (esp. true if the student has any significant resources in her / his own name). All things being equal though, she'd have chosen H for the Cambridge location and vibe. Beyond that, the architectural differences, and the fact that Y places students in its residential colleges as frosh whereas H does it as sophs after a year with other frosh on the Old Yard, I'd doubt that there are two more similar undergraduate colleges or experiences in the country, hence the tongue-in-cheek rivalry. If you can ever get a H or Y student in a rare moment of rivalry candor with their guard down, they'll likely tell you that there's no place they'd rather be than their own school, but if they had to be anywhere else it would be the other school.</p>
<p>cc2, for NYC lovers, there's surely no place like NYC, but Boston is the Mecca for American college students. After 10:00 at night you can walk the streets and ride the subways and they're dominated by college students, most of whom are the full-time, traditional-age, 24/7 college student-types from all across the country and all across the world. If Disney created a "CollegeWorld" theme park, it'd be Boston / Cambridge.</p>
<p>You can't go wrong. Visit! Go where you feel the most comfortable. Or as gadad pointed out, many of us found Harvard more affordable.</p>
<p>They have a different feel. Visit both.</p>
<p>Many years ago, I chose Yale over Harvard with no second thoughts, despite (a) liking Cambridge a lot more than New Haven, and (b) liking Harvard's colonial/modern jumble a lot more than Yale's faux gothic. (Yale's faux gothic grew on me a lot as I lived in it and it acquired emotional resonance, but on first impression I thought it was the silliest, most pretentious thing ever.)</p>
<p>What made Yale the obvious choice for me was really seven things:</p>
<p>-- At the time, Yale was the center of the world in the academic areas in which I was most interested (English/Comp Lit/European Lit), and Harvard just wasn't (except for Spanish, where Harvard was always #1). Right now -- and I say this because it's relevant to the OP -- I think they are much closer, and Harvard has the advantage. Except for Harold Bloom, who is barely there anymore, Yale doesn't have anyone to match the firepower of Stephen Greenblatt, Helen Vendler, Henry Louis Gates, Louis Menand, Jorie Graham, Denis Donoghue . . . (Plus, a huge chunk of the Harvard English department are Yale PhDs from back in my time.)</p>
<p>-- The residential college system worked better to foster community and long-term relationships than the house system, although I think the house system has improved significantly since then with the rooming-block concept. </p>
<p>-- There was always a sense that undergraduates were somewhat more central at Yale than at Harvard. Part of that was New Haven -- the faculty was around the campus more, there was no place else to go. It wasn't like Princeton or Dartmouth, but it was a meaningful step in that direction. The people I knew at Harvard felt more distant from the faculty than people at Yale.</p>
<p>-- Yale was artsier (and I think still is). More music, more drama, more fine arts. Not that Harvard is deficient in that respect, but it's really a wonderful aspect of Yale.</p>
<p>-- Harvard students, as a body, always seemed a little oppressed by the idea of Harvard. At least that's what it looked like to me. There was a sense that they were at the pinnacle of the world, and they had to prove themselves there. If they weren't proving themselves, they felt like crap. Not everyone, of course, and the dynamic was hardly unknown at Yale. But it seemed far more prevalent at Harvard. One consequence was that I thought Harvard students viewed each other as competitors much more than Yale students did. I think this is still true, but maybe to a lesser extent.</p>
<p>-- My best friend wanted to go to Yale, too, and he hadn't applied to Harvard.</p>
<p>-- Everyone else in my family had gone to Harvard, and I wanted to do something different.</p>
<p>Those are all valid sorts of reasons to choose one over the other, and not at all inconsistent with understanding that the two universities are much more similar than they are different. Some of them were idiosyncratic, of course, but everyone has his own personal situation, and there's nothing wrong with taking it into account. And, as noted, the factors are not immutable. I am reasonably certain that if I were a student today, and had the same choice to make, I would probably choose Harvard over Yale because of its literature faculty (and Cambridge, and the architecture).</p>
<p>As for the supposed prestige difference . . . you have to be (a) in high school, and (b) clueless to think it exists, or that it matters if it does.</p>
<p>Also, I should add: "Fair Harvard" >>>> "Bright College Years". But otherwise Yale has better songs.</p>
<p>If 2012 is any indication, Harvard has some of the best firepower in terms of superstars. If you like associating yourselves with olympiad winners and STS/Siemens finalists, it's the place to go. I know of only one olympiad finalist (USNCO) and 2 STS/Siemens winners going to yale, tons more going to H (and MIT). Not gonna lie, I was star-struck at Harvard preview weekend/ISEF. </p>
<p>That's not to say it's a definitive reason to choose one over the other...just an observation.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If you can ever get a H or Y student in a rare moment of rivalry candor with their guard down, they'll likely tell you that there's no place they'd rather be than their own school, but if they had to be anywhere else it would be the other school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Lol, I'd never want to be at Yale...and saying otherwise would only be for cosmetic purposes (aka a rare moment where I'm forced to not be real).</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>If you can ever get a H or Y student in a rare moment of rivalry candor with their guard down, they'll likely tell you that there's no place they'd rather be than their own school, but if they had to be anywhere else it would be the other school.<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>For all the rivalry and trash talking that goes on between the schools, there is a mutual respect and even a kindness that exists between the two student bodies. When the football game was played in New Haven, Yale girls would host my daughter and many other Harvard students as guests staying in their dorm rooms, and vice versa in years when the game was played in Cambridge.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If 2012 is any indication, Harvard has some of the best firepower in terms of superstars. If you like associating yourselves with olympiad winners and STS/Siemens finalists, it's the place to go. I know of only one olympiad finalist (USNCO) and 2 STS/Siemens winners going to yale, tons more going to H (and MIT). Not gonna lie, I was star-struck at Harvard preview weekend/ISEF.
[/quote]
Rofl lmfao, farfetched, do you honestly think someone wants to go to a school because of some olympiad finalists going there? as if this has any relevancy towards whether someone wants to go to the school or not...</p>
<p>I agree with Invoyable... and it is incredibly naive anyways to believe that all the "superstars" choose Harvard over Yale. That is an incredibly uneducated statement.</p>
<p>Piccolojunior, I think you're insecure. Get over yourself. Harvard is not 10 times better than Yale. I didn't apply to Harvard -- but 5 people from my school got into Harvard and all 5 were rejected from Yale (I was the only one who got in). They have very similar yields -- and Harvard had to go to the waitlist more this year than Yale because Yale had a higher yield of cross-admits than in the past.</p>
<p>The "New Haven" bashing is typically the way that Harvard students distinguish their school from Yale. I would argue: a) New Haven is definitely worse than Cambridge, although New Haven is much better than it used to be and b) the House and Residential College system are not completely analogous in that Yale's system is slightly superior in terms of building smaller communities within the larger campus. The one criticism of the residential college system mentioned -- namely that Freshman students do not live together like at Harvard -- is not really true because freshman live together around the Old Campus courtyard. Moreover, I think that Yale has more of an undergraduate focus than Harvard.</p>
<p>That said, I really think that Harvard vs. Yale depends on the person. It is a RATHER POINTLESS debate and tends to result in stupid arguments. I would note that it was suggested on the Yale board that this thread die and I would suggest the same for here too...</p>
<p>
[quote]
That's not to say it's a definitive reason to choose one over the other...just an observation.
[/quote]
I just saw this because I skimmed your post, but still hilarious as hell.</p>
<p>"Oh, look, here's this dude that won a Olympiad medal (I'm starting to question the disturbing similarities with the actual Olympics at face value...), I'm going!!!"</p>
<p>Re post 27: I think it’s acknowledged that the heaviest of the heavy science hitters typically choose H or M over Y. There will still be many excellent math/science students at Yale (and elsewhere). </p>
<p>I agree that the “H/Y is better than Y/H” discussion is pointless. Come April, lucky students with the choice between H and Y will make their decisions based on particular criteria that are important to them. If going to the school with the most Olympiad finalists is an important criterion, so be it. </p>
<p>An observation about the Chem Olympiad: In our region, the single USNCO finalist from the Class of 2008 is going to MIT. This is a student who lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps chemistry. A bona fide chem superstar. Our region also has three 2008 graduates below the USNCO finalist level (Honors or High Honors). Two of them are going to Yale. (I don't know where the third is going.) Although neither of the Yale-bound students has the rarefied status of a USNCO finalist, both are obviously highly accomplished in chemistry. (Kids who earn Honors/High Honors in the USNCO are the top 20-150 scorers nationally.) In addition, both have regional/national recognition in other areas apart from the sciences – fine arts, athletics, math, humanities-based intellectual disciplines. Well-rounded-on-steroids sorts.</p>
<p>There are more than enough incredibly talented students to go around to top schools. Some incredibly talented students even choose schools that are not generally considered top schools. Shocking, but true.</p>
<p>The number of Olympiad finalists may not matter, but the number of majors in one's chosen field probably does. I looked up the number of math graduates at HYPM and here are the stats:
MIT: 103.
Harvard: 35
Princeton: 18
Yale: 7.
The Yale math faculty is top notch, but it looks like the profs may outnumber the math majors!</p>
<p>Perhaps piccolojunior was a winner/finalist at some of these events and just feels a sense of camaraderie with his fellow participants? Don't rag on him for that.</p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24513%5DNay!%5B/url">http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24513]Nay![/url</a>]</p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=523907%5DYAY!%5B/url">http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=523907]YAY![/url</a>]</p>
<p>could i see the source for the Yale math majors? I find that difficult to believe, as I knew 3 math majors on my floor alone this past year...</p>
<p>I would choose Harvard, but only for reasons that a specific to me. A huge portion of my family lives in Mass., I have visited both and I liked Harvard better, I have wanted to go to Harvard scince I was 8, and I love the psych (Pinker) and liberal arts professors at Harvard more.</p>
<p>I think a lot of people who attend, want to attend, or rave about Harvard fall into the "I have wanted to go to Harvard since I was 8 years old" category. They are drawn to the name and image of Harvard -- and there is little question that Harvard has the biggest name... just ask uneducated foreigners. I think the problem with high schoolers though is that they focus excessively on this image. The educated world doesn't really care which of HYPSM you went to, just that you went to one of them...</p>
<p>Marite, I am pretty uncertain about the accuracy of your chosen statistic. That said, why would having more "top notch" professors than students ever be a bad thing? That sounds like a math student's paradise rather than a curse...</p>
<p>First, I said math graduates rather than math majors. It's a more reliable way of gauging the number of math majors because students declare majors at different times at different institutions.</p>
<p>Second, I was wrong. There were NINE math graduates from Yale (I do not include applied math or statistics majors), not seven. If I did, it would bring the total number of Yale math/applied math/statitics graduates to 13 and Harvard graduates to 79.</p>
<p>College</a> Navigator - Yale University
College</a> Navigator - Harvard University</p>
<p>Yalie: Some people may not care to be part of too small or too large a cohort of students.</p>
<p>A word of advice: do not make your college choice because of online banter. Visit. Decide based on where you fit in.</p>
<p>Thats my plan, "hope."
Unfortunately, I don't have the funds to visit anywhere that's not pretty close to Texas UNLESS I know I'm in :(</p>
<p>so, I won't visit until I've already figured out where I'm accepted.
hopefully, it's both H and Y
LOL</p>