<p>what is the elitist factor? and why wouldn’t it affect yale?</p>
<p>i think the elitist factor would be more prominent at harvard just because harvard is just about always considered #1 in national and international public opinion, whereas yale sometimes has to contend with princeton/stanford/etc.
harvard just seems to be considered the gold standard, period, and i think students there realize that too</p>
<p>lol why would the elitist factor affect party scene?</p>
<p>By making some people too snotty to party with others, and making others not want to party with them, thus reducing the overall scene. More snobs = less fun.</p>
<p>The problem with parties at Harvard is that you run into too many people who go to Harvard there.</p>
<p>well, final club members generally fall into the waspy crowd. you know, prep school, j-crew wearing legacies who already have job offers lined up after graduation thanks to their parents’ connections. the clubs, through their exclusive membership, openly promote social discrimination. </p>
<p>this elitism in turn affects the party scene in several ways. some of the clubs are known to throw “list” parties. to get on that list, you have to have connections with the so-called “elite”. on a typical saturday night, a freshman guy may get lucky and be let into a club if he brings 4 or 5 girls with him, but sometimes, even that isn’t enough. one club doesn’t allow ANY non-member males into its house as part of some long-standing tradition. </p>
<p>yale doesn’t experience this kind of dynamic in their social scene because they don’t have any final clubs. they do have secret societies which are very exclusive, but these are much smaller than the harvard clubs and don’t really play a role in the school’s social scene. because their frats are officially recognized by their school, while ours are not, they impact the scene a lot more. we only have three frats on campus, and only one of them has a house, so they really aren’t powerhouses when it comes to throwing parties. </p>
<p>but, as i said before, there is a lot going on every weekend. to put it bluntly, harvard kids damn well know how to party.</p>
<p>The bottom line is, if you’re one who is determined to party, then chances are you’ll be able to do it at either Harvard or Yale. I think that arguing over which school has the has the better party scene is pointless because I would imagine everyone’s idea of an enjoyable party is different. </p>
<p>I for one have been to a couple “parties” at Yale and found all of them to be boring an unappealing. But then again, I feel that way about partying in general so I’m sure my opinion isn’t going to going to influence anyone one way or another. </p>
<p>I will say that Yale is pretty good about providing stuff for students to do. For pretty much all of first semester, there was something to look forward to. Each of the 12 residential colleges hosted a “Screw” (which is basically a dance with a DJ - think homecoming or prom), so there would be 2 or 3 each weekend for a while. Then there was the 80’s Dance and the Harvard-Yale dance. </p>
<p>Suffice it to say, there’s always something to do on the weekend and all of it is open to everyone. The latter doesn’t hold true for Harvard, but I’m sure it doesn’t actually matter much.</p>
<p>Yale and Harvard seemed pretty similar to me in terms of the student population. That makes sense. Their admissions pools overlap.</p>
<p>The big difference was between New Haven and Cambridge/Boston. New Haven is small and largely run down. There are payday loan outlets and houses with broken windows a five minute walk outside of the campus. The contrast is stark and I can’t imagine that part of the town is very fond of students.</p>
<p>Cambridge is geared toward colleges and high industry. That place is packed to bursting with students, academics, scientists, and entrepreneurs. The atmosphere is friendly and there are gobs of bars/restaurants/college kid stuff.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The truth is, though, that students rarely, if ever, make it out that far anyway. Cambridge may be more college-friendly as a whole, but the area immediately surrounding Yale (that students frequent) is FAR from run down.</p>
<p>I’m a senior at Harvard and I have to agree with the person who posted last…I have been to Boston twice in my entire Harvard career and most students say the same–people don’t go off campus. My brother is going to Yale next year and the area around New Haven is really nice. In general, there has been some crime on campus in Cambridge especially in the last two years so I would just ask students before making a decision based on location. Concerning prestige, yes Harvard does consistently rank number 1 but it really depends on what you’re interested in and how important “prestige” is to you. For example, if you go to an Ivy League, at that point, its more important WHAT you’ve done in college than where you went…and this also includes the other top schools (i.e Duke, Stanford, etc). Furthermore, ranking number 1 means nothing. Many of these ranking systems include faculty research–as an undergraduate, is that important to you? Dartmouth College followed by Princeton and Yale are actually ranked best in undergraduate teaching according to USNews and World Report. This long post is only to say that people should be very careful in choosing colleges.</p>
<p>I cannot contribute any information on a comparison of the two school’s party scenes. </p>
<p>What I can comment on is the impact of Harvard’s location on my daughter. While yes my daughter has not gone into Boston often in her first semester (4 times that i can think of and I expect this to change during her next semester), she ventures into Cambridge almost every day/night (CVS, Dunkins, starbucks, pinocchio’s). While she loves this access and I sure she would have also been fine had she gone elsewhere and not gotten acclimated to this lifestyle, all these small purchases add up and she has gone through somewhat more spending money that I would have expected (I would guess $1200+ first semester). Consequently, she has opted to work (ski coach) over x-mas break to put a little more cash in her pocket.</p>
<p>I think the New Haven location (and the fact that there are sketchy areas 10 blocks away) make Yale a more campus-focused school. All the parties/activities take place on campus and people really bond as a student body. Not to say that this doesn’t happen with Harvard, either, but I would imagine that all the other colleges nearby (Cambridge is, after all, a college(s) town) makes the Harvard campus a little less cohesive.</p>
<p>^See? Back on post #5 I predicted:</p>
<p>“Yale fans will say that living in New Haven focuses student life inward toward the campus and produces a more unified, cohesive student body.”</p>
<p>Congratulations on your awesome psychic insight :D</p>