<p>I posted this in the Yale forum too. It seems to me that H students have more work (e..g., kids coming home for Thanksgiving work throughout the holiday and there seem to be more posts on this thread about classes/jobs than fun.) I'd love to hear from people who have children at both places or other opportunities to observe. Thank you.</p>
<p>Having one child at Harvard and one at Yale, I can attest that the workload is the same. My son at Yale works just as hard as my daughter at Harvard and vice-versa. It’s true that each school does has a different academic schedule – In the fall, Yale’s starts their school year about a week earlier than Harvard, so Yale’s administration can give students the week of Thanksgiving off. In the Spring semester, Yale starts back up two weeks earlier than Harvard, which allows for a two-week Spring break, rather than the one week that Harvard has – but students at both schools spend the same amount of time in the classroom and are equally stressed with a demanding schedule.</p>
<p>FWIW: Harvard requires 32 credits to graduate (4 courses per semester times 8 semesters). Yale requires 36 credits to graduate, which most students accomplish by taking 4 courses for freshman and sophomore years, and 5 courses for junior and senior years. So, the stress is a bit different at each school, but still the same intensity. </p>
<p>Both schools give you a lot of freedom to decide how hard you want to work. Most students at both try to balance things out each semester – a couple of courses that are more intensive and demanding with one or two that are more fun and relaxed (which are relative terms, remember). People who want to give enormous attention to their ECs will often choose more moderate academic paths.</p>
<p>@gibby, what prep did you do to have both kids in Ivy League schools? Would really appreciate any tips and guidance…thank you!</p>
<p>@ashl2o: High test scores are a prerequisite for all selective schools, but they are not the main reason anyone is admitted. When my kids received their acceptance letters, each had a handwritten note complementing them about their essay. So, I really think test scores are just the first of many hurdle’s kids have to jump through to be admitted. IMHO, essays and teacher recommendations are key.</p>
<p>That said, my kids took a Princeton Review SAT course that was offered by their high school. Each also did home prep for the ACT. My daughter (H) had a 2280 SAT, my son (Y) had a 36 ACT.</p>
<p>In short, no. You really can’t compare whether a school may be harder than another when you get to schools with this similar caliber and expectations of professors. Certainly a class might me harder than another or one professor, but overall the difficulty of each school is approximately equivalant</p>
<p><a href=“Opinion | Leaked! Harvard’s Grading Rubric - The New York Times”>Opinion | Leaked! Harvard’s Grading Rubric - The New York Times;
<p>I just think that this is funny and it’s approximately what every Yale student thinks of the Harvard grading system</p>
<p>@gibby what topics did your kids write about in their essays? What extracurriculars did they have/ how important did you think they were? </p>
<p>^^ My daughter wrote about religion, or rather the lack of it in her life growing up; my son wrote about his baseball coach. Each had two primary extracurriculars and a few minor ones: for my daughter it was theater and cheerleading; for my son, it was baseball (not a recruited athlete) and computer science. I posted the below on another thread yesterday, but thought I’d repeat it here.</p>
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<p>I think the best way to prepare for an Ivy league admittance is to avoid living life with that goal in mind. Two of my kids went to Ivies, Harvard and Brown, and they didn’t prep, nor did they get super stellar scores (they made the cut apparently, but barely). We never talked about colleges and they only applied to a few. They followed genuine interests inside and outside of school, at least one of which they ended up excelling in. Essays and letters of recommendation can help a lot, yes. “Character” is important in these schools and there is no prep for that. I didn’t care where they went as long as it was a fit. It is NOT worth it to resume-build and stress during high school: there are plenty of good schools out there. Sometimes I wish my kids had not gone to these colleges, to be honest, and it is embarrassing to even tell anyone about Harvard: there are a lot of prejudices out there.</p>
<p>@compmom Agreed. </p>
<ol>
<li>Acceptances to two of Harvard’s peers floated into my hands. One as a freshman applicant, and one as a transfer. I don’t mean to say that they were easily obtained: I just didn’t think about acceptance until I applied. During high school and underclassman years, I did (or tried to do) what I wanted to do.</li>
<li>I often wonder if the stereotypes and preconceived notions that people have about schools like Harvard become their own fulfillment.
“You think I’m elitist, out-of-touch, and entitled because I went to Harvard? Then let me be elitist, out-of-touch, and entitled.” </li>
</ol>
<p>@gibby would being excellent at only one extracurricular activity blemish my application…I am a junior national level tennis player in my country,but that is the only EC activity at which I excelled…Would that hamper my chances?</p>
<p>Exodius, I love your wording, that the applications “floated into (your) hands.” Exactly. You get it.
And the problem with stereotypes.</p>
<p>I would ask anyone on this forum why they want to go to Harvard. There are some good reasons, and many bad ones.</p>
<p>Michaelite, if that is a serious question (which I doubt) national level tennis will help not hinder, but I sure do hope you like to play :)</p>
<p>@Michaelite: Although Harvard doesn’t have quotas, they only accept about 160 to 200 International students per year (about 10% to 12% of the overall number of accepted students). So, your chances as an International student are much less than those for US students, as you are competing with thousands of brilliant students from Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, Mexico and Canada for those 160 to 200 beds. Look at COLUMN B in this spreadsheet (COLLEGE - which is the undergraduate school): <a href=“http://www.hio.harvard.edu/abouthio/statistics/pdf/StudentsSchoolCountryRank13-14.pdf”>http://www.hio.harvard.edu/abouthio/statistics/pdf/StudentsSchoolCountryRank13-14.pdf</a> . How many students from your country are at currently at Harvard? Those are totals, so divide by 4 to get an idea of how many freshman from each country have been admitted in the past. Those are your odds.</p>
<p>As an international student, your EC’s are the least of your worries – but no, having just one EC is not going to hamper your chances. In fact, if you are internationally ranked, it will help.</p>
<p>^^ I copied and pasted the link from another post without looking at it. Harvard re-did their website, so I’ll see if I can find another link. From memory, the largest group of international students hailed from Canada and Great Britain. About 20 countries had under 10 students in total (for all 4 years). Some countries had just 1 or 2 students, while many countries had no students in attendance.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>@gibby </p>
<p>Would you say your son’s essay on his baseball coach was a trite-ish topic that he wrote about extremely well? Or is the story itself stunning/ unusual in some way that stuck out? </p>
<p>Also, if a Harvard or Yale student wants to relax for an evening instead of study, which college offers more fun stuff to do? I’ve heard that Yale always has fun activities going on while Harvard, not so much. </p>
<p>@Goring: Essays that are trite, however well written, fail because they could have been written by thousands of students; the details are not specific enough to the applicant to make the story “a oner” – something only one student could write about. In my son’s case, the story he told was unusual and the essay was well written.</p>
<p>FWIW: Last year, Harvard banned (or made it an infraction of the rules to play) beer pong. That hasn’t happened at Yale, at least not yet. Need I say more?</p>
<p>@gibby i found the link, <a href=“Statistics | Harvard International Office”>Statistics | Harvard International Office;
<p>12 students, from my country , 3/1115, 0.2%, how fortunate</p>
<p>^^^ where did you get the 1115 from?</p>