<p>I saw this question asked on the Princeton board and i thought it would be interesting to get answers here:</p>
<p>"
I'm a pretty laid back gal. I enjoy low-key kinda stuff, but am up to a good party every now and again...
What I do want to know is if there is a large laidback culture at Yale too. You know, those wholike meenjoy a relaxed, chill evening sometimes in lieu of a crazy one. I mean, when I visited, it seemed to me that there was.. but stuff like that is hard to guage from an overnight...
Relaxed evening as in.. dinner/movie with friends, quaint coffee shop dates, dorm room get-togethers..maybe a little midnight four square if the weather permits."</p>
<p>totally, kids are out on Old Campus till 3am just walking around talking. it's normal to rent a movie for the night or get a nice dinner and come home and talk.
you don't have to go to Toad's and get wasted and stumble back home.</p>
<p>I know Yale's really into huge parties, but do they involve <em>everybody</em>? That is, is it possible to avoid these parties for the large part and still have a close core group of friends. Interacting with large crowds sounds a little suffocating for the introvert.</p>
<p>there's no real way of knowing. the parties are really fun. i personally don't know of anyone who decided to skip out on Safety Dance, the Freshman Screw, or the like. chances are some of your friends will want to go. and about being in a large crowd, you could always be in that large crowd with your small group of friends, that's how it usually works.</p>
<p>I've visited all the Ivies extensively, and observed what I could. Yale has the most active spontaneous social life of any Ivy, both in terms of big parties that everyone is invited to as well as in terms of people walking around, randomly interacting in a laid-back way, sitting on the campus benches and talkings, playing pranks, going to see plays and concerts, sitting in dorm rooms talking in big groups, hanging out in dining halls and the like. </p>
<p>In my opinion, the main reason for this is that all of Yale's undergraduate dormitories are within extremely close proximity of each other, to an extent that no other university in the country can match.</p>
<p>Freshmen live on the Old Campus.
Both both Harvard and Yale's systems where inspired by Cambridge and Oxford.
At first Yale passed on Edward Harkness' idea, but accepted it after Harvard did. (Insert a Byerly comment on Harvard's supremacy over Yale here).</p>
<p>Despite the similarities, Yale's housing system is much better funded, cost significantly more to construct, has more amenities and is more central to the campus in a number of ways. Harvard's houses are spread out across Cambridge, which limits student interaction. Yale's colleges are within a couple minutes walk of each other. Also, Yale students are affiliated with their housing system (college/house) for four years while Harvard students are not. Any prospective student who spends a significant amount of time at both campuses will immediately notice the difference, despite what Harvard boosters may have told them.</p>
<p>well being only an undergraduate at Yale and never having been one at Harvard, I can only talk about Yale's housing and social life, both of which are pretty awesome. The whole Old Campus thing is kind of overrated, as one of the students who actually lives in my Res.College for all 4 years, I can say that I think being in your college is better. But they're all really nice for the most part- everything is getting/has been renovated as well, which is nice.</p>
<p>Socially, there's something for everyone. My personal tastes trend more towards big parties (fraternities and sometimes in the colleges) and then some bar and/or Toads, but there's definitely a lot of people who don't do that.</p>
<p>I have seen both campuses and the housing setup is exactly the same. The dorms at Yale (on Old Campus) are fine but not great in terms of amenities, and I don't think Harvard's are any worse.</p>