<p>I know that there's a lot of "Hahvahd" bashing that goes on at Yale. After all, a google battle (see Princeton forum) turns up 89,300 hits for "Harvard sucks" but only 334 for "Yale sucks" and 339 for "Princeton sucks", though that can be partly attributed to "Harvard sucks" being a Yale battle-cry-type thingie.</p>
<p>Anywho, I was wondering if there's a lot of Yale or Princeton bashing that goes on at Harvard.</p>
<p>(Gazing into my magic crystal ball, I predict that someone <em>cough</em>Byerly<em>cough</em> will respond that Harvard doesn't need to resort to putting down other schools to cover its insecurities because Harvard knows that it is a proven scientific fact that Harvard is the best university in the world and the universe and the history of the world and the history of the universe and all future worlds and universes. :) )</p>
<p>No, there is not a lot of Yale bashing that goes on at Harvard. When I went to Harvad, we spent most of our time enjoying Harvard, not bashing Yale. The Yale bashing was mainly done for sports games, and was done in fun, not in seriousness. As an adult, I have friends who went to Yale. These include some who also have Harvard degrees.</p>
<p>My perspective and the perspective of most Harvard folks I know is that we needn't spend our time bashing Yale. It's a fine school. Yalies have lots to be proud of. They are number 2 and try harder. :)</p>
<p>What Northstarmom said is true. My daughter is currently at Harvard, and except for the annual football game, Yale doesn't seem to be on anyone's mind there.</p>
<p>The Harvard bashing is because every ivy, not to mention Stanford and a few others, considers Harvard their key rival. Every ivy considers the "big game" the one against Harvard!</p>
<p>Here's an exerpt from a recent Yale Herald editorial on the topic:</p>
<p>Time for Yale to question rivalry
BY COLLEEN KINDER</p>
<p>Let's be honest: President Richard Levin's, GRD '74, speeches usually put us to sleep. If there was ever a moment when Levin's oration evoked a powerful response from the student body, it was in 1997, when he said two words that caused an entire auditorium of Yalies to go absolutely berserk: Harvard sucks.</p>
<p>You can find these words anywhere on the Yale campus. They are plastered onto bulletin boards, etched into wooden desks, and printed on t-shirts....</p>
<p>We students are not the only ones guilty of allowing Harvard to obsess our minds. The Administration seems haunted by its influence. Policies are changed not because change is long overdue, but because the other Ivies, namely Harvard, are changing theirs....We evaluate every miniscule facet of Yale life in light of Harvard; perhaps one of the most ridiculous examples is a 1998 Yale Daily News article entitled, "Harvard beats Yale in the race for two-ply toilet paper" [YDN, 1/27/98]."</p>
<p>I always saw the lack of rivalry on Harvard's part as a major shortcoming of the student's there and demonstrative of their lack of school identity. Maybe that is why attendance at Harvard athletics is pitiful, ranking well below Yale and other ivies. Only Harvard students with their superiority complex would see this as a negative of Yale. Noting the hundreds of other college rivalries in the country and the fun that accompanies the competition, you have to wonder why Harvard students are so removed from school spirit - maybe its the lack of undergrad focus at the university, I don't know.</p>
<p>Yeah I hate that. When I got my acceptance to Columbia, my dad was like, "You could have gotten into Harvard." And I was like, thanks dad! Way to say the right thing at the right time! I said they're both hard to get into, but I want to go to Columbia. . . .</p>
<p>" always saw the lack of rivalry on Harvard's part as a major shortcoming of the student's there and demonstrative of their lack of school identity."</p>
<p>I hope that means that you didn't apply to Harvard because your viewpoint indicates that it's not the school for you. There are many students for whom a big part of the college experience is the rah rah atmosphere, including enjoying college rivalries.</p>
<p>Harvard students simply aren't in general those kind of people. I loathe rah rah atmospheres. I live in a college town, and think that the locals obsession with the college football team is ridiculous. I would have hated going to that kind of college. The way that things were at Harvard when it came to sports was the kind of atmosphere that I love for college. </p>
<p>What's a problem in your eyes was a big plus for me.</p>
<p>I am not talking about Friday Night Lights. There is healthy and non-obsessed level of athletic competition and rivalry that is fun for everyone . But Harvard doesn't have any school spirit, save for one day every other year when the game is in cambridge and harvard kids have nothing better to do. So they spin off Yale's attempt at making a rivalry as an inferiority complex.</p>
<p>Oh please, don't listen to your dad. You know full well how impressive and fantastic it is that you were accepted to Columbia ED. Don't let your dad ruin it. </p>
<p>P.S. That sentiment certainly is no stranger at my house.</p>
<p>"But Harvard doesn't have any school spirit, save for one day every other year when the game is in cambridge and harvard kids have nothing better to do. So they spin off Yale's attempt at making a rivalry as an inferiority complex."</p>
<p>I repeat: What you view as a problem -- perceived lack of school spirit at Harvard -- is what I view as a plus. I felt the same way when I was a student there. </p>
<p>People who want rah rah stuff can go to Yale or the many other schools where students constantly act like that. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, I see no reason for Harvard to change or to apologize. It's a great place for people who thought that high school pep rallies and spirit days were wastes of time and were boring.</p>
<p>(By Penn grad, visiting at Stanford and Berkeley):</p>
<p>"Rivalries: Put Up or Shut Up By Steven Friedman</p>
<p>Ignorance, I sometimes think, really can be bliss. Being completely ignorant about a subject gives you that beautifully naive outsider's perspective that someone wrapped up in and knowledgeable about a subject can't have.
I'm so ignorant about UC Berkeley -- no, I don't go here -- that I actually walked into the Bancroft Library the other day wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed "STANFORD UNIVERSITY."
At first I thought I was paranoid for thinking that everyone in the library was giving me evil looks. But the perfect truth of Woody Allen's catchphrase, "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not after me," quickly proved itself true, as person after person pointed out to me that Stanford is UC Berkeley's mortal enemy. ...."</p>
<p>Look what you're doing now, and frequently, Byerly. "The way to greatness, as Harvard has recognized, is not to tell competitors how much better you are than them. Instead, you must quietly and confidently work at being best." Well, well, well, would you look at that! Got to work on that Byerly, eh?</p>
<p>Oh, please don't attack me, Byerly. You're too good for that, Harvard grad. . .</p>
<p>Harvard has become a cliche people use for the best school, like saying something is the "Rolls Royce"of whatever even though everyone knows Mercedes are better cars. Harvard's much vaunted edge on cross admits between Yale and Princeton is based almost totally on cross admits of kids from the midwest and moutain states. It's dead even for students on the more college-savvy coastal states. In fact, I think yale and Prinseton now have the edge over H among the saviest students. Still, if I had any chance, I'd pick Harvard because the vast majority of people think your a genius if you go there. I like that!</p>
<p>Oddly enough, Yalies don't take the business of putting down that little school outside Boston the least bit seriously: The reason the "Harvard sucks" website gets so many hits is because the prank was funny. Yalies who diss Harvard--rather few of whom can be bothered to rant about it on CC--are just fooling around, whereas some Cantabs clearly are not.</p>