<p>so i posted a similar thread in princeton.</p>
<p>in short, i am torn btwn princeton and yale. for those of you who had similar decisions and chose yale, what made you do so? how have ur experiences at yale been? have you had much interaction with people from other residential colleges at yale (thats the one thing slightly bothering me)? and also, how was new haven for you?</p>
<p>thanx in advance to anyone willing to help :)</p>
<p>Both schools are amazing and offer great academics. You should try to visit each, preferably overnight during the school year and apply early to the one you think you would be happier living at for the next four years. It would be hard and subjective to make any sort of argument saying you should go to yale or princeton. Its really up to what makes you feel right. As for residential colleges, they are the best part of yale, and do not isolate you from having friends in other colleges. My senior year I moved into a house with four other guys, all of us from five different colleges. Freshman year on old campus, academics, and extracurric's all serve to integrate the social spheres of colleges - that and college sponsored parties which everyone goes to. Re New haven, well that's up to you. It has made some serious improvements over the past 10 years and has an amazing offering of cultural activities. Tons of books stores, bars, clubs, cafes make for what I thought was a great college town. I think that there is alot more going on in New Haven than in Princeton, much more to do for college kids at least. But of course New Haven has its bad parts, but they are removed from campus . New Haven also has its extremely rich parts (near east rock) and they are also removed from campus. Pretty much you have to weight the pro's and cons of living in an urban setting and whether the benefits of it outweight the negatives for you. Which brings me back to the original piece of advice - stay at each campus at least overnight, and then decide. good luck</p>
<p>thanx- i have already visited both twice, maybe ill consider overnight if i really cant decide</p>
<p>An overnight is essential...in any case, I applied ED to Princeton, was deferred, and later rejected; I got in RD to Yale (with a much improved application). That deferral was one of the best things ever to happen to me. I can't imagine myself at Princeton; Yale (or Brown, or Columbia) was and is a much better fit and it almost a year of being "set on" Princeton (just because) to realize that. It really depends on what fits you best...go visit, stay overnight, and TALK TO STUDENTS (especially those with similar interests). BTW, Yale (to me) seems much more close knit, in part thanks to the college system, the academics seem more about passion and collaboration than competition, and the school seems less insular and a bit more free spirited (it's most def more liberal, which was a big + for me).</p>
<p>wow yea i had a similar experience. yale and harvard were both 1st choices for me but i applied to harvard EA (actually for a stuipd reason - i didnt feel like writing the 2nd yale essay)...anyway my early app also was a lot worse and i got deferreed, WLed...also the best thign ever bc it made me realize how much i actually wanted to go to yale. so im REALLY glad i applied EA to harvard and was able to improve my app by RD so i could get into yale. but yea, to the OP, visit and apply to both. then decide.</p>
<p>That's totally my take on it...I feel like you should either start your app early...or (if you have to force yourself, like me) apply early (action, preferably) somewhere. That early application and the subsequent improvement is what got me into all the other schools I applied to. Thanks Princeton!</p>
<p>i'd never visited either before applying, and after getting accepted in april i visited both for 2-3 days each. i agree with two points made above, first that my EA app (it was to yale, i got deferred and later sent in more material) was much worse than my RD apps, and that choosing between princeton and yale (or any other ivy, really) is a matter of personal preference. i found that i was by far a yale person. yale is much more urban (new haven is definitely not a scary ghetto around yale, it's quite nice actually with a lot of cute shops and cafes and such), and princeton is much more isolated and suburban. princeton also has a much more spread-out campus, while yale's feels more close-knit, in particular because all freshman live on old campus and later shift to their residential colleges. somehow the yale campus just felt more alive, more social, more interactive than princeton's. i've always lived in the middle of a city, so i suppose it makes sense that princeton's campus would not suit me. in any case, apply to both, see where you get in, and visit overnight.</p>
<p>Lions? Tigers? Bears? Oh my.</p>
<p>"princeton also has a much more spread-out campus, while yale's feels more close-knit, in particular because all freshman live on old campus and later shift to their residential colleges."</p>
<p>yale actually has the most far-flung campus in the ivy league, at two miles long from one end to the other, as noted by the authors of its "framework plan" for future building (pp.15-16):
<a href="http://www.yale.edu/about/YALEFRMW.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.yale.edu/about/YALEFRMW.pdf</a></p>
<p>how eerie! i had the EXACT same experience as you with my EA app. i sent it to harvard cuz i was lazy about writing another essay, and of course my subsequent apps were a million times better. im glad i sent my crappy app in to harvard (got WL'ed in the end), and am now going to yale. :D</p>
<p>im actually kind of surprised that anyone can be torn between princeton and yale. they just give off totally opposite vibes imo. i only visited campuses on their april hosting days, stayed overnight. princeton's architecture did not awe me. all the wide green spaces just felt really empty - where were all the students?!! surrounding neighborhood was quiet and upscale; shopping consisted of really expensive boutiques. the dorm i stayed in (butler) did not feel cozy/ homey. princeton was just too QUIET and ISOLATED.</p>
<p>yale appealed to me because of the bustling, urban atmosphere. students were really friendly and it seemed like there was a lot of stuff going on everywhere. the people i met were less quiet/ subdued than the ones at princeton. and, the place was gorgeous!</p>
<p>wow yumpop thats crazy that we had the same experience. hope to see you around yale...what college are u in?</p>
<p>f.scottie, I think you've grossly misinterpreted the "campus framework" you've linked to. Anyone who's spent time at Yale versus the other ivies immediately realizes that Yale is by far the most compact campus. All the u-grad dorms and central classroom/library buildings are across the street from one another. It takes no more than 2-3 minutes to walk from one end of the central campus area to the other. This explains why Yale easily has the most vibrant campus life/social life of any Ivy League.</p>
<p>Just because the medical school is a 1/2 mile away from the central Yale campus doesn't change the undergraduate experience at all (and if you counted medical schools, Harvard's and Cornell's are orders of magnitude more "far-flung" than Yale's)</p>
<p>sorry, but i trust the assessments of the professional architects hired by yale to study its campus over yours</p>
<p>You are taking one quote in a 1,000-page report completely out of context. All I'm saying is that I disagree with you, and it's pretty clear to me that anyone else who spent much time on the campuses would as well. It's a matter of how long it takes for an undergrad to walk from one dorm to any other, and/or to the library. In that sense, Yale is far and away the most compact Ivy League school.</p>
<p>I got into Yale and Princeton, along with a few other decent schools. I chose Princeton, which I felt had a better faculty in my area of study (economics), a better social life (I have a few friends at Pton, so this is just a personal thing), equally good connections as at Yale, and a better rounded curriculum (Princeton is good in Creative Writing, Physics, a lot of Chem/Bio in comparison to Yale, Economics, and Financial Engineering).</p>
<p>I liked Yale's campus better, and students seemed more cheerful. There are not eating clubs. Academically, I think Yale is better in fine arts, and has a quickly developing engineering department (although it is still not as good as Princeton's).</p>
<p>you read a 1000 page report by architects working on future buildings?</p>
<p>I chose Princeton because of its strong program in economics. Also, the WWS is great (hope i can make it in)</p>
<p>I think the difference between Princeton and Yale's campuses is purely subjective. They're both beautiful campuses and while Yale has really pretty buildings, I liked Princeton's better because it seemed to have more greenspace and I thought the buildings were just as nice. I also didn't like New Haven all that much but in my time there, though it was far better than what I had expected. I just liked Princeton's quaint town better but that too is simply a matter of opinion. And by no means is Princeton's campus spread out though, any part of campus is less than 10 minutes away from any other part. I personally think that Princeton and Yale have two of the nicest campuses anywhere and noone can really say that one is better than the other.</p>