<p>No one has provided a great answer to the original question(s)... How is the infamous Harvard social scene?</p>
<p>I live 35 minutes from Yale/New Haven and 1 hour from NYC. I'll just point out, since there was some confusion, that New Haven is incredibly small and much less grown up than NYC. A 2 minute drive from downtown NH will bring you to what looks exactly like a suburb with houses with decent sized lawns. A 2 minute drive from downtown NH will bring you to a dusty and barren highway entrance, maybe a puddly park with a river, cigarette butts, and cattails. In NYC a 2 minute drive will bring you a few blocks down the street into more downtown if you don't hit red lights. And there's more downtown and more downtown beyond those 2 minutes. I should clarify since downtown in New York is geographic. I mean grown up city landscape by downtown. And the downtown NH is much smaller than the downtown NYC. In NH, cars will slow down or stop for you to let you change lanes or parallel park. What else. . . New York has more than one airport, and both the ones travelers like you and me commonly use are actually useful. New York has a subway. New York has way more concerts. New York has way more people. So, sure you can say NH is "like" a smaller New York. Won't argue with that.</p>
<p>haha im not a bitter rejected student who spouts cliches about harvards drawbacks to allay the pain of not getting in, im seriously considering the school, i was just reacting to the candid assesments of harvards social scene by a couple friends that are currently undergrads college is, above all, about academics, however the people you meet/relationships you form are incredibly important too and atmosphere can certainly affect academics</p>
<p>Byerly- I'm sure the Y-bomb is about just as good as the H-bomb. Afterall, it is part of HYP.</p>
<p><sarcasm>Thanks a lot, HH, amnesia. I love you all.</sarcasm></p>
<p>I live in New Haven. It's fine. It's not NYC, it's not even Boston, but it's fine. Nice arts scene. Cool cemetery. Fewer homeless people than Cambridge.</p>
<p>how do the social scenes of pton and harvard compare?</p>
<p>Maybe i should have elaborated on what i meant by a low key New York. Take NYC, divide the density by 5, but keep the same windowshopping atmosphere. I dont know how good of a picture that paints. Another plus is that its said to have some of the best Pizza Parlors in the country. And to whoever said a 2 minute drive from downtown new haven will bring you to the suburbs, i was reffering to the parts of new haven that surround Yale. So while that's true, its not the atmoshpere Yale students will be in (around campus at least).</p>
<p>Sry axfr, don't know much about Princeton. But if you're Indian, i'd imagine there's a huge Desi scene. NJ is the Indian capital of America, plus the academic standards there will further increase the percentage of Indians.</p>
<p>Hmm, I just checked PR's diversity stats for Princeton. It says 13% Asian, not as high as i anticipated.</p>
<p>Basically Harvard is as everything else in life... What you make of it.
One of my best friends is a freshman at Harvard, and she is definitely a social butterfly, and she has met TONS of likeminded peers, who like going out, having fun, whatever... When I was there we went out everynight, to all the finals clubs, and there is always something happening at one or the other...
Also it might be an idea to get a hold of a fake ID if you intend to drink while in college, at the finals clubs its not an issue, but at the surrounding clubs and bars it might be a problem if you don't have one...
Whatever group of people you are looking for you are sure to find it at Harvard, obviously if you prefer a night in and don't drink, there will be plenty of people like you, there will also be plenty of people from one extreme to the other...
Anyways, I had a GREAT time at Harvard, the surroundings were fantastic and the people I met were crazy!!! (In a good way XD )
As I said Harvard is what you make it, but there are fun people and a great scene there!</p>
<p>Hope it helps!</p>
<p>Byerly's cockiness = stereotipical of Harvard students?</p>
<p>Byerly is an old alumni. If you want to make generalizations about the UG student body at Harvard based on one alumni, go ahead.</p>
<p>The quote below appeared as part of an a recent article in the Boston Globe concerning student satisfaction at Harvard.</p>
<p>"The 21-page memo, from staff researchers at Harvard to academic deans, documents student dissatisfaction with faculty availability, quality of instruction, quality of advising, as well as the sense of community and social life on campus."</p>
<p>Apparently 31 schools were surveyed and Harvard was ranked 27th.
With reference to the "sense of community" and "social life on campus", does anyone know what the specifics are, in terms of what students find most troublesome?</p>
<p>The "Yale card" is apparently the claimed equivalent of the "H-Bomb" at the New Haven school.</p>
<p>Here is a report filed by a girl who tried playing it, with frustrating results:</p>
<p>And here is an interesting response to her report by a gay Yalie:</p>
<p>Byerly: to be fair, it's harder for Harvard women to drop the H-Bomb with successful results as well. Men in general are intimidated before they are impressed.</p>
<p>I don't believe flaunting it via a sweatshirt or other branded gear constitutes true dropping of the "H-Bomb" - or ought to be considered true playing of the "Yale-card" either.</p>
<p>I doubt many Harvardians (either M or F) wear branded gear on the plane to a spring break location. The true "H-Bomb" dropper uses the weapon sparingly and reluctantly.</p>
<p>For Harvardians, the general rule is that branded gear is not worn outside of Cambridge, except perhaps in the privacy of your home. Open and crass display of the big "H" is seen as bad form.</p>
<p>It depends where you are. In Asian countries you may be treated like a celebrity.</p>
<p>
[quote]
A mere minute later, when his friend asked me the same question, I mistook his ignorance for facetiousness and answered UConn. He immediately turned to his other friends, tapped them eagerly on the shoulders, and said: "See, I told you they didn't go to Yale. UConn, man. It's all good. We can talk to them." Unfortunately, we were all talked out.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>How unfortunate.</p>
<p>Byerly, that article was really interesting. As a girl myself, I can really identify with the points in the Yale article you brought up. It's true. When girls, myself included, hear that a given guy goes to a top school, we think "that's hot." A lot of us like intelligent guys. Whereas guys tend to be intimidated by girls who go to top schools unless they go to a top school also. I don't know how your article relates the the subject at hand, though. Harvard girls would have the same problem as Yale girls, in that respect. If anything, it would be worse.</p>
<p>tallyrand: That's correct. The magnitude of the effect of the H-Bomb and Y-Card are same but opposite for the two genders.</p>
<p>I'm not sure the Y-card has <em>quite</em> the mega-tonnage of the H-Bomb. Remember the Gallup Poll survey of the attitudes of both all Americans and all American college graduates.</p>