<p>It does seem that Yale went out of its way to recruit admits. I’ve received like a basket of stuff from Yale, including a free t-shirt, postcards, letters, emails etc. The admits site is GORGEOUS and very informative. Harvard’s admit site is very sad, and so far i’ve received one letter from my regional admission officer. Someone posted the “Yale or Harvard” question on the message board and no current student even answered… Even SOME of the H alums i’ve talked to don’t seem as enthusiastic about their alma mater (like they either dont bother replying my email or sent me a three line response), whereas ALL of the Y alums - and there are way more of them who I have contacted because i was admitted EA - are super in love with their school. Their emails are miles long, filled with praises for Yale. Idk, but as far as “vibe” goes, Yale’s is far and away better than Harvard’s. Maybe its the Harvard thing. Like we don’t really have to convince you much cos there’s an 80% chance you’ll choose us anyway. Even the Harvard accept letter wasn’t as warm or welcoming as Yale’s. </p>
<p>I honestly don’t know why i haven’t picked Yale at this point. Actually I do. It’s the Boston thing, and the parents’ pressure thing. I have hardly followed my parents’ wishes in my entire life and i kinda feel that this might be my one chance.</p>
<p>i just thing its the trend to turn down Harvard for someother institution, namely Yale. it makes you look brave, thoughtfull, and not easily wayed by an unparalled international reputation, and the world’s second largest non-porfit endowment or the world’s largest academic library… such acts of chivalry should never be kept quiet, indeed, they must be flooded upon the whole world…</p>
<p>I’m not so sure that a “shift” has actually occurred. Yale has always won more cross admits against Harvard than any other school. Although there is much speculation as to the actual number since a reliable study has not been done in a while, there is evidence that Yale has consistently won at least 35% of cross admits and this is expected since in the humanities and in many different areas of history, Yale is ranked higher than Harvard. However, I believe that Yale admits are merely more vocal about there decision because it is less “expected”. In addition, with many titles of threads specifically mentioning choosing Yale over Harvard or worries about attending Harvard, I am sure that those who chose Yale over Harvard are much more likely to respond, establishing significant response bias. I am sure there are many like myself who have chosen Harvard over Yale and I expect that in the end, the cross admit data will not vary significantly from the historical figures.</p>
<p>I am talking about in certain humanities and history areas. Yes, USNEWS ranks harvard college above yale college, but in many specific departmensts (although usually based on grad school rankings), yale is ranked higher than harvard. Off of us news: in english - yale #2, harvard #4; in history - yale #1, harvard #5. Yes, in many areas harvard is stronger than yale, especially in math, most sciences, and economics. I’m just saying that many will pick yale because it has a strong undergrad focus and in smoe cases has stronger specific programs.</p>
<p>@kd5qdf - Great post, although I’m not sure Yale’s always been Harvard’s toughest competition when it comes to cross-admits. I’ve heard (anecdotally) that Stanford (because of kids who don’t want to leave the west coast) and MIT (because of engineering) have been on the same level as Yale in the past.</p>
<p>There’s an interesting thread on the “College Search & Selection” board in which students who are cross-admits to two or more of HYPSM are posting their selections and the others they are declining. So far, Harvard is the only school with >50% of cross-admit “wins” with 7 out of 13. Yale has 7 “wins” out of 17 cross-admit possibilities. Percentage-wise, Harvard is being chosen in 54% of cross-admit scenarios, Yale 41% of the time, with MIT at 36%, Stanford at 30%, and Princeton at 29%. In the eight direct Harvard-Yale cross-admits, Harvard has been chosen 5 times and Yale 3 times.</p>
<p>^^That “data” is no more valuable than supposition because it is not a scientific poll of the cross admits. It’s not a representative sample; it’s just self-reports from a very small subset of people who may or may not be real cross admits and who happen to have stumbled across the thread and felt like answering. </p>
<p>It has about the same value and validity as “what you heard” from your friends or “what everybody is saying” at school.</p>
<p>Whatever4, I would agree…having never watched the show before…I can only guess what the show is about. I was just kidding as you know but…my kidding is based on the fact that my kids go to an International School and unfortunatley a lot of the kids here watch the show (great impression of American teens huh!) and now a bunch of kids are saying “Oh I want to go to Yale”, and asking my D why her brother and sister didn’t go there! Realize that is not the real reason people choose Yale.</p>