<p>Better than looking for a "War Czar"...</p>
<p>The main difference is that Harvard's campus is dead when compared to Yale's. Yale's is buzzing with student activity 24/7. If you want my guess as to the reasons why, search through some of my previous posts (the main one seems to have to do with Yale's undergraduate dorms and undergrad life being very compact, while Harvard is quite spread out). To an outsider like me, the difference is pretty stark and definitely seems to affect how social the campus is. Maybe it's just that Yale attract students who are more outgoing and social - I think that's part of it, as someone above suggested - but I think there are also other factors at work. </p>
<p>As an aside, New Haven has become a much better college town than Cambridge: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4000714&postcount=16%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4000714&postcount=16</a></p>
<p>posterX, I thought I was second to none in my Yale chauvinism, but your post really takes the cake.</p>
<p>I agree that Yale's campus is buzzing with student activity 24/7, and that gives it a great, magical feeling. I agree that New Haven is much nicer than its reputation. But a better college town than Cambridge (either one)? No way. Not even close.</p>
<p>As someone who was lived in both New Haven and Cambridge, Harvard as the better location. By far. Agreed with JHS.</p>
<p>I beg to disagree. The best college town is one where students have the most fun. Harvard Square is "nice" - in a shopping mall kind of way. It is overrun with tourists and suburban shoppers and chain stores. New Haven is much more of a real place with hundreds of great, affordable, local places (particularly ethnic restaurants that support the enormous communities of immigrants from all over the world who live in that area) and nightlife to go within a block or two of the campus. It's also the center of activity for the 50,000 college students in the immediate area. Harvard Square was nice in the 1970s and 80s before it became gentrified; Harvard alumni now frequently complain about what it has become. Unfortunately, New Haven is trending towards what Harvard Square is now.</p>
<p>Cambridge is MUCH more than just Harvard Square. Plus you have the great city of Boston at your fingertips. It also helps that Boston itself is a real college town, and there is lot of interaction with other college students (MIT, Tufts, Wellesley, BU, BC, etc.) , something that really doesn't exist at Yale.</p>
<p>Who wants to spend hours a week on a subway traveling around a large city, away from your campus, when you can have all of the student-centered activity right around it and walk there from your dorm? There's a reason why places like Madison, Ann Arbor, Austin, New Haven, Burlington, Athens GA, Charlottesville, Chapel Hill, Northampton etc are considered the best college towns, not places like Los Angeles, Atlanta or New York City. It obviously isn't because they are huge cities there with lots of colleges. A large city may have bright lights and more excitement than a college town, but all a huge city really does is make everything spread out and isolated. Everyone I know who went to college, even at very urban schools like NYU, spent 99% of their actual time in the immediate few blocks around campus. If you want a day trip, that's fine, but you can do that just as easily from Yale to NYC because there are about 90 trains per day between the two cities (and to be honest, NYC is at least 100 times more exciting than Boston).</p>
<p>An interesting article from the Harvard Crimson on Harvard v. Yale:</p>
<p>The Cult of Yale: What's in the Kool-Aid?
<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=35015%5B/url%5D">http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=35015</a></p>
<p>An extroverted kid will find no difference between the two.</p>
<p>An introverted kid MAY find more social opportunity in the residential house system at Yale.</p>
<p>Cambridge and Boston MAY provide more social opportunity than New Haven.</p>
<p>It's a very slight tip--if any.</p>
<p>Couldn't access the Crimson article just cited.</p>
<p>Quote: "...there is lot of interaction with other college students (MIT, Tufts, Wellesley, BU, BC, etc.)"</p>
<p>Very true. My son has gone to parties and events at several of the above mentioned schools, ---many of his friends at Harvard, including him, have friends at those schools. And those kids often visit at Harvard as well. On any given weekend night, he tells me there are many choices between Harvard parties and those at the colleges in and around Boston/Cambridge. So, yes, I would imagine that the social scene is less centered and compact than at Yale.</p>
<p>Let's see if the Crimson article links properly this time around...</p>
<p>That article has been circulated around CC a hundred times. It's old news and doesn't sound like anything I've heard from a wide number of students over the last 3 years.</p>
<p>I originally wrote this for Harvard vs. Princeton debates, but sadly it has become apparent that this is needed for Harvard vs. Yale discussions as well. So I've developed this handy tool to make the perpetual H vs Y threads quicker, easier, and more efficient. Below are 14 assertions for each school that are made over and over again pretty much every time this argument breaks out, which is about weekly.</p>
<p>The Harvard people should use the numbered points; the Yale crowd should use the lettered points.</p>
<p>For Harvard Partisans:</p>
<p>1) Harvard is always ranked in top 5 by USNWR.
2) The Revealed Preferences Survey and common admit data shows that when they have a choice students FAR prefer Harvard over Yale.
3) Yale has elitist, exclusive, downright weird secret societies.
4) Harvard has the wonderful and historic city of Boston right at its doorstep - the possibilities are limitless.
5) Harvard freshman get to live in historic Harvard Yard and then move into their wonderful residence Houses in blocking groups that ensure they'll be in the same house with their friends.
6) Cambridge is a much more fun and happening town than that frightening and crime-ridden slum called New Haven.
7) Yale admissions is driven much more by privilege and power than academic excellence as evidenced by the fact that the well-known dullard George W. Bush went there.
8) Yale is just a Harvard wannabe that can't get over its institutional inferiority complex.
9) I'm a current Harvard student (or parent) and I can tell you that all the bad things you hear about it just aren't true.
10) Yale students are all elitist snobs.
11) Harvard's terrific financial aid initiative makes the school free for anyone making $60K or less.
12) I visited Yale and I hated it. The tour guide was dreadful.
13) Here is an article from Yale's own newpaper confirming all the bad things about it.
14) You are just a Harvard-bashing Yale troll.</p>
<p>For Yale Partisans:</p>
<p>A) Yale is always ranked in the top 5 by USNWR.
B) The COHFE survey shows that Harvard students are unhappy and dissatisfied with their school.
C) Harvard has exclusive and elitest Final Clubs.
D) Yale has the fabulous city of New York just a short hour away - the possibilities are limitless.
E) Yale students are assigned to their wonderful residence colleges right from the start and thus develop a greater sense of campus and college community
F) New Haven is quickly being gentrified and has tons of great little shops and ethnic restaurants plus, Yale's Gothic campus is much more beautiful than Harvard's dreary pile of bricks.
G) Harvard admissions is driven much more by privilege and power than academic excellence as evidenced by the fact that the well-known dullard George W. Bush went there.
H) Harvard is just a famous brand name that doesn't live up to the hype.
I) I'm a current Yale student (or parent) and I can tell you that all the bad things you hear about it just aren't true.
J) Harvard students are all pompous, competitive cutthroats.
K) Yale is known for its very generous financial aid.
L) I visited Harvard and I hated it. The tour guide was dreadful.
M) Here is an article from Harvard's own newpaper confirming all the bad things about it.
N) You are just a Yale-bashing Harvard troll.</p>
<p>There it is. Now the way this works is that the next time someone starts one of these H vs Y threads, save us all a lot of time and typing by simply posting the number or letter that corresponds to the argument you are making. E.g. when someone posts "F" you can quickly respond to that argument by merely typing "6", or maybe "6!" if you are particuarly worked up about that point.</p>
<p>See? It's easy and allows anyone to quickly join the argument without knowing anything (although not knowing anything has never stopped anybody before). With my new tool these tiresome threads can be brought to conclusion in just one day instead of the usual two weeks.</p>
<p>Try it. You'll like it!</p>
<p>B, H........</p>
<p>Most of those are opinions, sir (some quite inaccurate), that do require explanation at length from time to time.</p>
<ol>
<li>:)</li>
</ol>
<p>But I just dropped my son off at the admitted students weekend and will let him make up his own mind.</p>