<p>I have never ONCE "argued about which college is 'better' or more prestigious."</p>
<p>Nor have I claimed "how much better Harvard is."</p>
<p>Just as silly a claim would be any boast that "Princeton students seem on the whole happier", etc etc. etc.</p>
<p>Putting down the "atmosphere at other colleges like Harvard" at pre-frosh weekend, is not, by the way, a very effective way of recruiting the undecideds. </p>
<p>Far better to focus on the positive aspects of your favorite school rather than to make negative comments about the "opposition."</p>
<p>You won't find anyone at Harvard wearing the counterpart of the message on the shirt of the kid on the right end of this Princeton lineup:</p>
<p>I have seen quite a few anti-yale tshirts in cambridge, and on one "map of harvard" in my friend's dorm in cambridge Princeton, NJ and New Haven are labeled disparagingly.</p>
<p>Not that any of this should offend anyone-its all within the spirit of a healthy and fun rivalry that gives people like us something to talk about.</p>
<p>"If Princeton could have figured how to do it, they should have kept Guttman and shuffled Tilghman off to Penn for two relief pitchers and a minor leaguer to be named later. Trouble is, I doubt Penn would have agreed to the deal." - Goldust, Byerly.</p>
<p>Byerly, despite MIT's ability to regularly attract the top Math and Science students, don't you feel that the universities inability to do the same in social sciences and humanities diminishes its academic lustre, to an extent. Isn't this where universities such as Harvard and Stanford shine because they have the capacity to attract the very best, no matter what their field of speciality?</p>
<p>
[quote]
... void created when Amy Gutmann - sort of the Rasputin of the new feminocracy - decamped for Penn. (Byerly)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>LOL, that one was funny. </p>
<p>But mind that (Radcliffe/Harvard educated) Gutmann was elevated to "Rasputin" (aka Provost) by Tilghman herself, which ultimately made her a candidate to lead a major university (allegedly, she was even in the race to follow Neil Rudenstine). Anyhow, the prospect of becoming university president still represents the crowning achievement of an academic career, or how else do you explain that Kim Clark just "decamped" to for Brigham Young?</p>
<p>
[quote]
You won't find anyone at Harvard wearing the counterpart of the message on the shirt of the kid on the right end of this Princeton lineup (Byerly)
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</p>
<p>C'mon, maybe they don't care about P at H, but at least you encounter T-shirts like: "Duck Fartmouth" or "If it's brown, flush it down". :D</p>
<p>Not really, and certainly not on regular sale in campus stores. The closest you will see is a shirt with the Harvard logo above a lineup of other Ivy logos, accompanied by the phrase - "Harvard: Its Lonely At The Top."</p>
<p>Nor are there any Cambridge counterparts to the shirts so popular in Palo Alto, Ann Arbor and Durham: "Harvard: the Stanford of the East"; Harvard: the Michigan of the East"; and "Harvard: the Duke of the North."</p>
<p>Exactly my point. Harvard doesn't go out of its way, locally, to do much disparaging other schools, on t-shirts or otherwise, or even to take much notice of them.</p>
<p>At Yale, on the other hand, "Harvard Sucks" is a pervasive phrase. Even President Levin has been known to shout it out in order to get a rise out of a student group.</p>
<p>This year, the class day speaker at Princeton even felt contrained to end his remarks with a ringing exortation: "Harvard sucks!"</p>
<p>Perhaps college rankings should now include t-shirt proliferation as an index.</p>
<p>One of my favorite things about going to Princeton was how good it felt to be surrounded by people who felt so sure they had made the right choice. That is just anecdotal data. I would of course have to issue a survey and have it published in US Today to validate the current state of Princeton students:).</p>
<p>(Boy: "Caroline, I'm just so SURE I made the right choice by picking Princeton, aren't YOU?" Girl: "Ooooh YES Bart! We ALL think we made the right choice!")</p>
<p>Byerly, I believe it was Larry Summers who, at the Harvard Prefrosh Weekend, commented on the undesireablity of New Haven and the superiority of Harvard over Yale. And yes, the anti-Yale tshirts seemed to me not to be an anomaly, but a fixture. Especially when the Game approaches.</p>
<p>The only time you really see the "harvard sucks and princeton doesnt matter" t shirts in New Haven is near the time of the game. Most of the time, people just walk around in plain old Yale gear.</p>
<p>Of course fans at college football games have shouted insults at the opponents for eons. ("Saaaafty school!! Saaafty school!!!" is a common cry sent across the field to the losing Yalies)</p>
<p>But in New Haven, the pathological obsession with Harvard, and the pervasiveness of the "Harvard Sucks" (and, occasionally, "Princeton doesn't matter") mantra is a 365 day a year thing, contrary to what the prior poster says.</p>
<p>Clear evidence of Yale's unhealthy "Harvardcentrism."</p>
<p>Byerly, why is it when you disagree with other people you say things like "you miss the point" and "blahblahblah"? You seem to have a very difficult time accepting the reality that other very intelligent people's views may be different from yours. It comes across as very disrespectful. Makes me sad, because I'm always going around telling people that the stereotype of the Harvard student as arrogant isn't true. If you keep up like this I might have to revise my views.</p>
<p>Byerly-How much time have you spent in New Haven during non-Game time? In my experience, Yale people really dont talk about Harvard, nor do they wear t-shirts bashing Harvard. Same goes for Princeton-when there is no immediate athletic competition, the students really dont care.</p>
<p>I think you have a deluded obsession with making everyone else bow down to the superiority of Harvard. Perhaps you think that we all have hidden inferiority complexes. The fact is, Byerly, we really dont care, despite that you have convinced yourself to the contrary....</p>
