<p>I have never been to New Haven, but I have spent a lot of time in Cambridge, MA. I was always under the impression that Harvard was located in the most unattractive spot for the Ivys (besides maybe UPenn). I was just wondering what New Haven was like in regards to:</p>
<p>1) Visual enviornment
2) Safety
3) Stuff to do
4) Size of city
5) How much interaction Yale undergrads tend to have with New Haven</p>
<p>If anyone is familiar with Cambridge / Boston, as well, I would especially appreciate you describing NH in relation to it as a sort of benchmark for me.</p>
<p>I'm not overly familiar with either location, but from my brief visits I will say that your definition of "attractive" is much different from mine. I preferred Boston to New Haven because of the culture. There's so much more to do, it seemed. But then, I'll probably lock myself on campus anyway so it doesn't matter as much as you'd think.</p>
<p>New Haven is slightly smaller and dirtier than Boston because there are fewer tourists, but overall one would be foolish to walk alone at night in either city. Since you say Cambridge and Philadelphia are the worst areas for ivys, I'm thinking you prefer rural (?) New Haven definitely isn't that.</p>
<p>Both universities take precautions for safety. Yale has the "blue lights" all over the place to push if you're in an emergency that needs attention within 30 seconds. Each is appealing and disappointing in its own way. I prefer the red brick and manicured lawns of Harvard, you might like the Gothic gray of Yale (it depressed me a little).</p>
<p>As for interaction: you'd have as much as you want to. Undergrads with humanitarian leanings will interact with it, but one can shut themselves up in the Ivy tower with no problems.</p>
<p>All this is from word of mouth, though, I'm not a real authority on urban areas. Dang SoCal boondock-suburbia.</p>
<p>ghetto-fab is a great description haha. i love it.
all the fabulosity of an Ivy League town with the ghettoness of a city that was hit hard by the Crack Epidemic!</p>
<p>Hey, Philadelphia has gotten much better in recent years; Penn has been cited numerous times for the outstanding work it has done in neighborhood redevelopment, so much so that other colleges are now coming to Penn for advice. I think you would be surprised by how it has improved...I know that I was when I saw it.</p>
<p>
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I was always under the impression that Harvard was located in the most unattractive spot for the Ivys (besides maybe UPenn).
[/quote]
I view this one as a fit question ... Harvard, Penn, and Columbia are all in big cities while Cornell and Dartmouth are in remote college towns and Princeton is in a suburb and Brown and New Haven are in smaller cities. Eaching setting has its pros and cons which will hit each applicant very differently.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Connecticut is the richest state per capita in the US.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Just a technicality, but since a year or two ago, I believe NJ became slightly higher. But yes, CT is still quite wealthy as a whole (not necessarily New Haven, though).</p>
<p>I personally like Cambridge more than New Haven. But this might be because I've spent 4 awesome months living there on my own. </p>
<p>Even still, people have told me that New Haven will grow on me. I really hope that's true, because Yale's location is the only thing that I can perceive to be a negative of Yale. I'm open to the change too, because I've practically lived my whole life in suburbia.</p>
<p>Most of New Haven is really, really nasty, but the area around the Yale campus is nice - lots of restaurants and shops. If you go a few blocks in the wrong direction, you're in the "ghetto". There are shootings once in awhile, but they are generally not close to the campus.</p>
<p>I go to school in a very bad part of north Philadelphia, and while New Haven certainly has some terrible areas, it's not quite as bad; that said, ctgirl is right in noting it's fairly bad outside a few block zone around Yale. </p>
<p>I can offer some decent if uneducated comparison between Cambridge and New Haven--while I don't go to school in either place yet I have visited each four times for their annual debate tournaments. The stereotypes about forensics are fairly true, so I can't really offer too much insight on the nightlife, but in terms of visual environment Yale wins hands down- much more actual greenspace, better architecture, and the immediate area of New Haven is much better than the area around Harvard (though Boston + Cambridge as a whole certainly trump New Haven).</p>
<p>Go to Yale though. It's much more awesome, as there are no Harvard students there (my primary motivation to choose Yale over Harvard: people).</p>
<p>Connecticut is the richest state per capita in the US because of Western Connecticut, which is more or less a suburb of NYC (towns like Greenwich). New Haven and Hartford are among the poorest cities in the nation. CT has a huge disparity between poor and rich. Found online: "According to the US 2000 Census, the population of New Haven is 123,626 people with a median household income of $29,604, compared to the state of Connecticut median household income of $53,935."</p>
<p>If you want an urban, lively lifestyle, Cambridge is a great location - better for a student, perhaps, than NYC or Philadelphia (all about personal preference, of course). I really like the atmosphere - Cambridge to Boston is rather like Greenwich Village to midtown Manhattan (on a smaller scale).</p>
<p>wow that last post was a lil much. haha. i love going into the city. and i'm looking forward to going up to Boston. let's just say New Haven is a nice oasis between NYC and Boston.</p>
<p>Getting onto Harvard people, I know that you guys were kind of kidding about them but seriously? What are the differences between Yalies and Harvard(err?)-ies. My impression from my parents (both Harvard, but definitely not stereotypical H students) is that Yalies were more artsy and 'flimsy' and and Harvard students were more competitive, selfish and pragmatic- but both were fairly arrogant. These stereotypes are probably completely outdated or wrong now though.</p>
<p>What are differences between the two student types in general?</p>