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<blockquote> <p>I thought Erich Segal went to Harvard?!<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>You're right, but he was a professor at Yale at the time he became famous for Love Story.</p>
<p>Google is your friend. </p>
<p>Erich</a> Segal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia </p>
<p>Erich</a> Segal - Biography</p>
<p>I found myself incapable of applying to Yale after visiting the campus. Well, no that's inaccurate. The campus was lovely, but New Haven GAVE ME THE CREEPS. </p>
<p>And then Boston...oh, love at first sight <3 Cambridge wasn't amazing itself, but Boston is very close. </p>
<p>I think I like the "idea" of attending Yale more than Harvard, but decided to apply to Harvard instead for the location issue. And I even had a much better chance of acceptance at Yale due to athletic arrangements! Oh well. I couldn't live in New Haven. Just a "je ne sais quoi", categorical BAD feeling...</p>
<p>I feel the opposite. Harvard Square is more dangerous with more anonymous homeless people who come in from Boston (STALCOMMPOL:</a> Crime Data and Methods of Analysis ), and less lively for students (it used to be decent 10-15 years ago, but has been sterilized). It also feels like a bland outdoor shopping mall, not an interesting college town like Ann Arbor, New Haven, Berkeley, Athens, Chapel Hill, Northampton etc. All places I've spent a lot of time. I'm not saying it is bad, it certainly is a great place in some respects, just that I wouldn't want to live there.</p>
<p>I am mystified why OP feels compelled to withdraw from Harvard RD. My advice...wait it out and see if the decision gets made for you. Either way, you will never have regrets later.</p>
<p>i've gotten a likely letter to harvard, so i'll almost certainly be there next year. i would pick harvard over any college (i don't know much about yale but yale included) because of the opportunities it gives you after you graduate. right or not, there's a certain 'wow-factor' of saying 'i went to harvard' that isn't really there for other schools. these are more personal factors, but i love boston and cambridge. i had a blast in my overnight visit. the parties were fun. people were nice. everyone was all psyched up about the red sox game. and i never felt overwhelmed in the classes that i sat in on.
you should visit and see for yourself.</p>
<p>i think saying "i went to yale" is not far from "i went to harvard". regerdless, boston>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>new haven</p>
<p>You may also change between now and April. My son didn't make his final decision until spending a weekend at Carnegie Mellon and a weekend at Harvard. (He's at CMU now - no regrets.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I feel the opposite. Harvard Square is more dangerous with more anonymous homeless people who come in from Boston (STALCOMMPOL: Crime Data and Methods of Analysis ), and less lively for students (it used to be decent 10-15 years ago, but has been sterilized). It also feels like a bland outdoor shopping mall, not an interesting college town like Ann Arbor, New Haven, Berkeley, Athens, Chapel Hill, Northampton etc. All places I've spent a lot of time. I'm not saying it is bad, it certainly is a great place in some respects, just that I wouldn't want to live there.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think your first point is false. The crazy guy who does the STALCOMMPOL stuff is right about some shady reporting, but the Harvard part of Cambridge is a very safe place. </p>
<p>You do have a good second point, with some culinary exceptions ('Nochs, Filipe's, an incoming Chipotle), Harvard Square doesn't have the college town feel.</p>
<p>Justforgetme,</p>
<p>The reality is both places are "very safe" when you look at the figures, even though both see an occasional crime. It's just that one is safer than the other, and stalcommpol points that out. Safety and security is ultimately more about the decisions you make, anyways, whether you are at an urban, suburban or rural campus. A place that "looks" safe isn't necessarily so, in all situations.</p>
<p>Also, you might want to consider that college students are statistically about 200 times more likely to be hurt or killed in a random car crash than in random violence (except for incidents like the Virginia Tech shooting, where a student killed 30+ people, or in cases of spousal/domestic abuse). You are much safer if you attend an urban school - like Harvard or Yale - where everything is within walking distance and you don't have to/want to drive ever. I have met at least a thousand college & graduate students over the years and have stayed in touch with them -- and I'm sad to say that over the years, more than a dozen of them have been hurt or killed in car or plane crashes, one was killed by an abusive boyfriend, and none have ever been even slightly hurt in any kind of random violence (except one who got punched in a robbery in Manhattan, which he recovered from pretty quickly).</p>
<p>I have heard through friends currently attending Harvard that to get invited to all the cool parties you have to go with a guy who belongs to one of the "male clubs" that throw the parties. Is that true? It sounds very sexist that to have a good time at Harvard you have to hang out with guys that belong to the right clubs. Kind of the old fashioned old boys network. Yale apparently doesn't have this problem.</p>
<p>Quote:
Originally Posted by datalook
Roughly,</p>
<p>H=Y in humanities and social sciences</p>
<p>H>Y in science
H>Y in engineering
H>Y in business school
H>Y in medical school
H>Y in school of education</p>
<p>H<Y in law school</p>
<h2>H <<<<<< Y in engineering. Really, Harvard engineering is not particularly good. That was, unfortunately, the biggest thing that stopped me from applying or considering Harvard - other than the issue of its crappy engineering, I really rather like the school. The engineering was a major dealbreaker.</h2>
<p>What's your basis for saying that Y>>>>>>>H in engineering? Granted, engineering is not Harvard's greatest strength, but Yale is hardly a powerhouse in engineering. Yale may have more faculty members for the time being but that should change as Harvard's program enlarges. Currently there are 15 National Academy of Engineering members at Harvard compared to just 6 at Yale. Harvard is currently ranked at #23 by the US News while Yale is at 37. Harvard's graduate program is more selective and has higher admissions standards than Yale's. Yale and Harvard were ranked #1 and #2 for citation impact factor in the last decade, with virtually no difference in the actual number. Harvard's engineering school has a 1 billion endowment, which I would bet is higher than Yale's. </p>
<hr>
<p>The actual picture would be something like this:</p>
<p>Y>H in performing arts
Y=H in music and art theory
Y=H in the humanities (H slightly better)
Y<H in social sciences
Y<<H in physical sciences
Y<H in mathematics
Y<<H in biomedical sciences
Y<<H in clinical medicine
Y=H in engineering (H slightly better)
Y<<H in business
Y=H in legal theory (Y slightly better in quality, H more influential)
Y<H in legal practice</p>
<p>I discussed the merits of YLS vs. HLS at some length a while ago. Here's the link to the somewhat controversial thread: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/363740-harvard-most-powerful-influential-sakky-s-comments.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/363740-harvard-most-powerful-influential-sakky-s-comments.html</a></p>
<p>Y<H in placement in top graduate schools
Y<H in student awards, fellowships, scholarships</p>
<p>and last but not least, H>Y in football since formation of the Ivy League</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I have heard through friends currently attending Harvard that to get invited to all the cool parties you have to go with a guy who belongs to one of the "male clubs" that throw the parties. Is that true? It sounds very sexist that to have a good time at Harvard you have to hang out with guys that belong to the right clubs.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Some version of this is said to be for some Final Clubs. But the Final Clubs comprise only a very small portion of the Harvard social scene. There are plenty of other parties.</p>
<p>I was talking about undergraduate engineering.</p>
<p>As coureur has pointed out there are many other social activities besides the clubs. Anyway, it doesn't take all that to get to go to one of these clubs anyways.</p>
<p>Also Harvard engineering while not great is higher ranked than Yale's.</p>
<p>
[quote]
As coureur has pointed out there are many other social activities besides the clubs. Anyway, it doesn't take all that to get to go to one of these clubs anyways.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>If you're a girl (especially a freshman girl), you'll have no problem getting into the final clubs. If you're a guy (especially a freshman guy), you'll have some problems, unless you know someone.</p>
<p>I recently talked to two Yalies and three Harvard guys and girls, and this is what I got:</p>
<p>Harvard is very competitive. Don't expect a cooperative community, and I got a feeling of disappointment from the students to whom I talked to. It was not what they expected, not very warm in terms of competition. It is however extremely challenging, and really rewarding in that sense. Also, a student helped me get access to Widener, and I was awed. It is truly as fantastic as she was saying it was. In terms of campus, I hated it. I thought it was silly and not very special, very vanilla, but at HMUN it was much warmer, and it got better seeing it with all of its busy students going around with backpacks larger than themselves :p</p>
<p>Yale on the other hand is said to be very non-competitive. Expect lots of study groups, talking with friends about common courses, discussing things and working out solutions with your suite-mates and so on. Academically speaking, I am just thrilled to be able to take classes by Kennedy, Bloch, Kagan and Bloom - one of the primary reasons why I chose Yale and didn't apply anywhere else. From an extracurricular perspective, if you are interested in more things than just football, Yale will definitely satisfy you in many aspects (as will Harvard, I am sure). From an architectural perspective, Yale is divine. I read somewhere that they based the Harry Potter dining hall in the movie, on a Yale dining hall. It's sad that it's not in a big city like Boston (which I love as a city), or as close to one, but I've heard that lots of people go to NYC to spend their weekends (and I love NYC more than Boston :p).</p>
<p>This is the perspective I have from talking to both Yalies and Harvard ppl. Take your pick. I took mine: Yale.</p>
<p>The statement that Harvard is all so competitive is bizarre. My daughter is premed (supposedly competitive) and she finds Harvard significantly less competitive than her high school. She also doesn't have any problems finding study groups even for the "weeder courses" such as organic chem. Also, I should point out that it isn't that easy to get A's like a lot of people think. Both the competition nonsense and grade deflation (today - not 5 years ago) are myths.</p>
<p>Your daughter might feel so, but the three people I talked to all had the same opinion: competition is there, and it is very significant. Your daughter might not experience it, but others definitely do, so don't label them myths, because the fact that some people feel the competition proves that they are not.</p>
<p>Every college has some level of competition. If you're a student, you better get use to competition, because in work world, the level of competition is going to be much greater than what you will ever see in any college.</p>
<p>By the way, personally I hate Boston and love NYC as did my daughter. However, she doesn't go into Boston very much and I doubt that Yale students go into NYC that much - it isn't that close (80 miles). There is a huge difference between Cambridge and New Haven (I live 20 miles from there) where you'll be spending your time. The Cambridge area is much more vibrant.</p>