<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>I know that many of you like to compare these two incredible colleges by showcasing the "the differences." However, as I've been reading a lot of those threads lately, I've been getting the feeling that the two share more similarities than differences.</p>
<p>So let's celebrate both Harvard's and Yale's success, and focus on how similar they are!</p>
<p>If you go to the search feature, there are 5 or 6 threads about this very thing</p>
<p>^. Thanks, but I actually tried doing that and couldn’t find any thread discussing this. I would really appreciate links to those threads…</p>
<p>It’s easy to see the similarities. For starters, both schools:</p>
<ol>
<li>Are top research universities.</li>
<li>Are highly selective with ultra-low admission rates.</li>
<li>Have large endowments that allow them to provide low-income and middle class students with outstanding financial aid – better than 99% of private schools.</li>
<li>Have the same residential housing system.</li>
<li>Have the same northeast weather.</li>
<li>Have renown faculty, most of whom teach undergraduate students.</li>
<li>Have notable alumni</li>
<li>Have highly regarded graduate schools</li>
</ol>
<p>BTW: All of which could be said of Princeton and a few other schools.</p>
<p>One thing that both Harvard and Yale students have in common is that they were all accepted to Yale. :)</p>
<p>LOL: dan – that’s pretty funny! Good zinger there — BTW: to outside readers; UNTRUE but funny!</p>
<p>^^ I can attest to that; my daughter, who is a junior at Harvard, is a Yale reject!</p>
<p>^^I can second that - my son, who is a freshman at Harvard, is also a Yale reject. It makes it really fun for him to add “Beat Yale” to everything 'cause he means it!</p>
<p>That said, there are distinctions-- and very strong ones even for such similar schools-- look at the threads noted above-- I am not going to re-invent the wheel.</p>
<p>I hope you and others have the enviable position of figuring out where you belong–because Harvard kids and Yalies are different in subtle but definite ways, by and large (as a Yalie who has been at Harvard for over 30 years…)</p>
<p>Adding to what the others have said, my son got into Harvard EA but was rejected by Yale RD; he thought he might have blown it when he told his Yale interviewer that he had applied early to Harvard. Anyway, he loved Harvard, and was thrilled every year when Harvard won The Game.</p>
<p>@gibby</p>
<p>Regarding the similarities you posted, Harvard and Yale do not share the same residential housing system. Yale randomly assigns incoming freshmen to colleges, while at Harvard students are assigned to houses, not-so-randomly, after their freshmen year.</p>
<p>@Flyingfish: I think both administrations put a lot of time, effort and care into arranging their residential colleges, but there is degree of randomness in both systems. </p>
<p>Harvard’s residential college system is a three-year program that starts in a student’s sophomore year. In placing students in freshman dorms, the Freshman Dean’s Office strives for balance. For example, they split up all the athletes, and likewise do the same with student’s extracurricular and academic interests. Rising sophomores are then randomly assigned into houses based upon “blocking groups” with an algorithm that strives for balance: See: [The</a> Housing Lottery: Then And Now | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/3/7/Housing-day-lottery-freshmen/]The”>The Housing Lottery: Then And Now | News | The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>Yale’s residential college system is a four-year program. Like Harvard, Yale strives for balance; the administration splits up all the athletes, and does the same with student’s extracurricular and academic interests. Student’s then stay together for their 4 years, or may apply to transfer to another college if there is room. </p>
<p>There are pluses and minus’s to be said for both systems, but they are essentially the same residential college system.</p>
<p>One Yale res college made TShirts saying: “Our group of randomly assigned students is better than your group of randomly assigned students”</p>
<p>LOL: I wish I had one of those</p>
<p>The similarities of the two residential housing systems are much greater than their differences. Which is not surprising since they were both founded in the 1930s through the efforts of the same guy, Edward Harkness.</p>