This past admission cycle, my son has many many friends who were admitted to Haarvard and other equally good colleges. The kids were choosing MIT, Standford, Yale, Princeton or many other good college. But to our surprise a big percentage who were saying thet will matriculate at other colleges, come May 1st lot of them switched their preferances and have since matriculated at Harvrad. The percentage is vey high. I am stunned and not sure what is the reason that it makes Harvard so attarctive and Yield so high.
The name and prestige associated with it is a big pull.
We visited Harvard along with other Ivies last year. Ultimately our daughter chose not to apply to Harvard because she did not like how the freshman dorms were integrated with the city of Cambridge and not right on campus(!) Who knew? Also, one of the majors she has in mind is only available as a minor.
My guess is there are any number of reasons students choose not to attend Harvard. That said, Harvard is known for generous need-blind financial aid, which makes it very attractive. We told our daughter that Ivies aren’t the only kid on the block and to get past the prestige/brand factor, but the prestige pull is very real to high-achieving students.
Personally, I would have loved for my daughter to apply to a Boston-area school because I had lived in the area for 10 years and really would have liked to visit. 
Need blind financial aid is not a thing.
Typo! I meant need-based! There’s need-blind admissions.
Yes very generous need aid is very big attraction. But other schools are offering similar need based aid. What about the kids who are full pay. Why they are selecting?
Prestige, prestige, prestige. People can talk about fit etc but at the end of the day Harvard is probably the best known university in the world along with Cambridge and Oxford and most kids can’t pass that up. If you graduate from Harvard you will be part of an incredibly exclusive club. Why do people want a Mercedes or Maserati when a Honda does the same thing? Because they care what other people think and the image driving those cars projects. Not to mention they’re fun to drive ?. People care about prestige, not all people but many. If you’ve worked incredibly hard in HS and are awarded what is perceived to be the ultimate prize/trophy it’s tough to pass that up.
Son’s HS class:
11 admitted to Harvard, of those: 7 to H, 2 Yale, 1 Brown PLME, 1 UChicago
9 admitted to Yale, of those: 7 to Y, 1 Uchicago, 1 MIT
Tough to turn down H when you have the choice. A kid has to have very concrete reasons for going somewhere else or the default choice is to take H and the prestige that goes along with it.
H also does a good job with Visitas.
What do you do with your Harvard Class of 20XX Parent T-shirt after your son or daughter chooses MIT, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, etc?
Wow @tdy123 those are remarkable outcomes!
There are probably as many reasons for kids and families choosing colleges as there are kids choosing colleges.
Harvard is a great school. There are lots of other great schools.
I can’t imagine why the reasons matter to anyone other than the student making the matriculation decision.
According to Parchment head to head comparison, It appears Harvard is number 1 and Stanford number 2. Also, Harvard does have the most endowment money. You will see that the most prestigious colleges correspond to most endowment money ranking.
@tdy123 son told that Harvard visitas days was very well organized.
I heard that the questions and answers session with the Harvard university president was phenomenal.
@tdy123 is that a prep school?
I went to Harvard and I don’t know why it’s so popular either! Though I don’t have any particular regrets about it.
Most of the freshman dorms are right in the Yard. The few that aren’t are just a block away. The buildings between them and the Yard are all Havard buildings. They are hardly off campus.
@hariputralake HCHS. Public in NYC, but not part of the NYC public school system. Reasonably decent Wikipedia entry.
My son was recruited by many great colleges, including Harvard. We thoroughly researched his options, met with coaches, and toured Harvard, Yale, Penn, Columbia, Stanford, Princeton, and a few others. In the end, Harvard was his 4th choice, after Princeton, Stanford, and Yale.
Why not Harvard? It’s hard to pin down. There were many factors that influenced his decision. But one thing is certain; he considered himself a student first and an athlete second, and believed that Princeton offers the better undergraduate education.
For what it’s worth, many of his college teammates had also been recruited by Harvard but chose Princeton instead. Likewise, surely many athletes recruited by Princeton choose Harvard.
@mathmom, I know! My daughter’s interpretation of the tour was odd and based on the only dorms they visited. It sounded like an excuse, but that’s OK. I was fine that she cut some colleges from her list.
There’s prestige, the faculty, resources, etc. etc. but I get the sense (after observing how it played out with the D of a friend who got in to HYPS) that H is really keen to win those recruitment battles (maybe to keep the yield high, etc.) and definitely does woo those kids who exhibit exceptional potential. It seems more effectively than most of the rest of HYPSM.