<p>The problem with choosing Harvard is that you have to spend four years around Harvard students. That alone is a reason to choose Yale over Harvard.</p>
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<p>Indeed, it can be a humbling experience.</p>
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Thanks for making my point for me.</p>
<p>^ I don’t think that’s what Hunt meant, and I agree with him. </p>
<p>Plenty of people choose Yale over Harvard. Two of my siblings did (one for undergrad, one for graduate school), back in the day.</p>
<p>For the benefit of anybody who may not know this, Yale and Harvard are rivals who constantly take (mostly good-natured) potshots at each other. In most ways, the two schools are almost identical, which probably explains the exaggerated nature of the rivalry. In terms of safety, I doubt if the area immediately around Yale differs from the area immediately around Harvard.</p>
<p>Being very familiar with both, give me Harvard square anyday.</p>
<p>I’m familiar with both, and I certainly agree that Harvard Square (and Boston) is better than New Haven. I think Yale’s undergraduate experience is a bit better, though.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the Yale experience. My kid went to Harvard and loved it but I can’t compare the schools. She didn’t apply to Yale as she had no desire to stay in the area. I live 20 miles from New Haven and spent over the years a lot of time at the libraries plus I have doctors at Yale - New Haven Hospital.</p>
<p>LOL @Hunt because I agree 100%
I think people are primarily worried about “walking around alone at night to your college” At night, the areas where Yale (residential colleges) is located really are not that bad. As long as you don’t do anything noticeably stupid, you are fine. Old Campus’s gates are locked up and noone can get in or out (unless you know how to/have a proxy key for residential colleges) and the main residential college buildings also have locked gates 24/7.
New Haven New Haven is quite a different story from Yale-New Haven and I think it’s important to make that distinction. If you have ever been to New Haven, you would also see that clear distinction and find that there is a very different mental separation between the two areas.
As I attend a public high school right next to New Haven, my view of “safe” might be very different from another’s perspective. What I view as reality might be someone’s idea of a crime rampant city.</p>
<p>I’m fully aware of the difference between the location of the hospital and the rest of the campus. As I mentioned, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time on the campus and in the libraries.</p>
<p>hmm so what is the cost of an average car at New Haven so that I can blend in with the crowd? Reliability is essential for me as I would hate to have a breakdown somewhere late at night!</p>
<p>So what do you mean by ‘New Haven is a dump’? Are the houses there old or smth?</p>
<p>I went to Boston and I really felt Harvard was safe! If Yale is like that, I’ll have no concerns.</p>
<p>If you step off the campus of Yale, you’ll be fine for a couple of blocks deep. Beyond that, it gets really sketchy.</p>
<p>I live a few towns away from New Haven and visit the city often. Contrary to common belief, it’s really not that bad. Like any city, it has bad areas. However Yale is in a decent area and is very enclosed with gates and private buildings so there there is not much of a risk.</p>
<p>“But seriously, even though New Haven is a dump by any reasonable standard - there may be something to the fact that being an oasis in the desert helps foster a close sense of community among Yale students.”</p>
<p>I live in New Haven. It is not a dump by any reasonable standard. “Oasis in a desert,” is the kind of remark that townies greatly resent. These kinds of remarks show disrespect and condescension to all of the hard working people of New Haven from all stratas of society. With my own children, I emphasize respect for the communities of the colleges they attend. I have no personal or professional connection to Yale, but I have a PhD from a university as prestigious. I have many neighbors who are similarly accomplished, and many without a college education, but they are all fine people. Many of us have a love-hate relationship to the school. We appreciate the cultural contribution the school brings to the community, but don’t appreciate the snotty attitude of the Yaliens (a term coined by my daughter). When my daughter was attending a program at Yale for New Haven public school students, run by Yale students, one of them had the temerity to ask me, “Do you have a dictionary in your house?” That’s what I’m talking about. Many of us are also not happy that the school sucks services out of the town, but pays no taxes.</p>
<p>This is not endemic to Yale. Most urban universities are located in the midst of less than high-priced neighborhoods. That’s in their interests. It’s cheaper to expand when the property values are low and the people living in them are politically disenfranchised. There may be a cause and effect between a university and the property values of the community surrounding it. It’s arguable that it’s the university that’s the blight, not the community.</p>
<p>“If you step off the campus of Yale, you’ll be fine for a couple of blocks deep. Beyond that, it gets really sketchy.”</p>
<p>Not exactly true. Depends on which direction you step. Head north along Whitney Avenue to my neighborhood, East Rock, and you will pass houses beyond the economic reach of most people in America. I guess Yale wanted a secure corridor to the high priced spreads.</p>
<p>All that said, one of my kids is the type of student that Yale will probably recruit for his outstanding academic abilities and achievements. I’d be happy for him to go there. As he put it, “It’s not as good as the math department at Harvard, but it is top 10.”</p>
<p>Purely anecdotal: In the two decades I’ve lived in New Haven, the only time I was a crime victim was when–my own stupidity–I left my car unlocked. I lived in Northampton, Mass for a while–idyllic New England community, home of Smith College–and my apartment was twice burglarized.</p>
<p>I visited Yale; everywhere around campus is totally nice. And I live in a WASP-infested New England town, so I imagine my standards are pretty high.</p>