What could be better than Harvard?

College Search & Selection
41

<p>This is kind of a silly conversation, but I’ll chime in. There are really two questions here:

  1. For any specific student, is Harvard the best college? The answer to this is so obviously no that it’s hardly worth asking. Many examples have been given above.
  2. On average, and across its entire range of offerings, and taking its other features into account, is Harvard the best college in America? Maybe–supporters of Princeton, Stanford, Yale, and Harvard can fight this out–but yes, taking everything into account, one of them is the “best.” </p>

<p>So what? If the best restaurant in the world is a steakhouse, and you’re a vegetarian, why would you care?</p>

42

<p>Georgetownnnnnn</p>

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<p>Where did you get this number? Every source I have seen puts Harvard at 60-70%?</p>

<p>I don’t think Harvard’s overall yield would be as high if this were true either.</p>

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<p>Well since Harvard’s yield is 82%, then 18% of admitted students DO turn down Harvard for somewhere else.</p>

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<p>I imagine they just heard it somewhere and repeated it. I believed that it was false because I remembered reading that the university that won the most cross-admit battles between Harvard was Caltech. Admittedly, though, that’s not too surprising considering the students who’d apply to both. </p>

<p>These days I think Stanford wins against Harvard around 40% of the time in cross-admit battles.</p>

46

<p>I would assume that number is very regionally biased, with students in the West favoring Stanford, and other students favoring Harvard.</p>