This isn’t really surprising (students choosing Harvard over other schools). I believe that according to Parchment, Harvard has always been the top choice for cross-admits at the other schools you mentioned. It is incredibly appealing beyond just the reputation/prestige factor. The campus is fantastic and well-located in Harvard Square which has such a cool vibe, and adjacent to wonderful Boston. Academics are stellar pretty much across the board. The myth about the school not being undergraduate-focused gets dispelled pretty quickly upon talking to actual students who frequently dine with their professors and note the preponderance of classes being under 15-20 students, enjoy top-notch research opportunities beginning freshman year, etc. The student body is incredibly impressive yet charming and frequently humble. Given the large endowment, Harvard offers possibly the most generous financial aid, contributing to an amazingly diverse and stellar student body—so even if you don’t qualify for financial aid yourself, as a student you benefit because the FA is part of why your fellow students are so amazing. One of the most appealing aspects is probably the fabulous house system that builds great communities within the university (which is similar to Yale’s residential college system—both are inspired by Cambridge & Oxford’s housing systems, but have no other real peers in US. A few schools are trying to emulate these systems including Dartmouth & Princeton, but they aren’t really there yet). Harvard attracts the most incredible speakers and visitors (while all of the top schools attract wonderful visitors, the Harvard name and location probably makes it the biggest attraction). The faculty is astonishing. There are cool partnerships such as being able to cross register at MIT and I think possibly Berkeley School of Music or NE Conservatory or other area schools. Many incredible opportunities are available in concert with some of the graduate schools (the Harvard Innovation Lab comes to mind as an unbelievable resource for budding undergraduate entrepreneurs, taking advantage of resources from Harvard Business School and other grad programs). A brand new 500,000 square foot state of the art engineering center opening next winter. A newly opened, incredibly vibrant student campus center in the middle of Harvard Square. A gorgeous river running through the campus, with a riverside park—great place to exercise. There are so many reasons why these students you know might choose Harvard (climate is probably not one of them, though!). Of course, the other schools you mentioned are absolutely incredible, too. In the end, it is a personal decision and no school is right for everyone. But I think it’s hardly surprising to see students choose Harvard.
I knew the names of three universities/colleges when I arrived in America. They were Harvard, Yale and Norte Dame. Harvard and Yale I understood to be the US equivalent of Oxford and Cambridge. Norte Dame I knew from the football team, indeed, I was looking forward to seeing them play The New York Giants! I would imagine for most kids who’ve grown up been told that Harvard is the pinnacle of further education it would be tough to turn down. I think the Fiske Guide describes an acceptance to Harvard as The Gold Standard.
What to do with those t shirts if you decide not to go to Harvard? You’re going to need something to wear on laundry day where ever you do attend.
“which is similar to Yale’s residential college system—both are inspired by Cambridge & Oxford’s housing systems, but have no other real peers in US.”
Uh, Rice and Caltech, among others.
Oh that’s great to hear (about Rice and Caltech); I think these communities are amazing. I do not believe they have anything similar at the schools the OP mentioned besides Yale though (Stanford, MIT, Princeton). Princeton has added a version of residential colleges, but the majority of upperclassmen do not live in them, and dine elsewhere. Princeton still is fabulous, but the residential college system operates differently there. I also heard that Vanderbilt is trying to add them, and doing it right (building residential colleges from scratch to include dining halls, etc). Anyway, I guess the point is just that one appealing aspect of Harvard is the tight-knit communities formed through the Houses.
Harvard (and similar)'s high yield relates to several factors.
- Selectivity Bias --- Students who prefer a more selective colleges tend to apply to less selective colleges as a backup, so if these students get admitted to both, they tend to increase the yield of the more selective college and decrease the yield of the less selective college. Students who instead prefer a less selective college often do not apply to the more selective college as a backup, so they do not decrease the yield of the more selective college in spite of preferring different schools. A such, yield tends to follow selectivity, among similar types of colleges. Harvard and Stanford's yield is well above the other top academic type colleges, just as their admit rate is below the others.
- Use of Early Admission -- The larger the portion of the class that is admitted early, the higher the yield. During the final year of the lawsuit sample, yield was 94% among SCEA applicants and 68% among RD applicants. As a college admits a larger portion of their class through earlier admission, overall yield increases. Harvard admits a larger potion of their class through earlier admission than most other similar academic colleges, but probably does not depend on early admission as much as schools like Chicago.
- Holistic Admissions -- Admitting based on varied holistic criteria rather than stats tends to result in fewer cross admits among highly selective colleges, increasing yield. I suspect this is one of the reasons why Caltech tends to have a far lower yield than other similarly selective academic colleges.
- Top Financial Aid --- When cross admits are comparing offers, cost is usually a key factor. Harvard has one of the most generous FA offerings among colleges in the United States, including among highly selective privates that cross admits are most likely to seriously compare. Many colleges that charge little or no tuition have an especially high yield, such as College of the Ozarks, which has a higher yield than Harvard.
- Uniqueness -- Harvard has a reputation among many students for offering benefits that other highly selective cannot. It's not just another highly selective college. Whether this reputation is deserved is debatable. Colleges that have something more clear that sets them apart, such as a focus on religion or a unique location, often have higher yields than similar colleges without that unique aspect. For example, BYU has a similar yield to Harvard.
A list of yields in the most recent IPEDS year is below: I only included colleges I am familiar. There are many small colleges I am not familiar with that reported yields in the listed >50% range, particularly religious schools.
**2017-18 Yield/b
Colburn – 100%
USMA – 98%
USAFA – 97%
USCGA – 95%
U of Puerto Rico – 88% (flagship RP)
USNA – 87%
Ozarks – 84%
Harvard – 83%
Stanford – 82%
BYU – 81%
Curtis – 80%
MIT – 76% (81% among males)
NM M&T – 73%
Berea – 72%
Chicago – 72%
Webb – 70%
Yale – 69%
Juliard – 67%
Princeton – 66%
Penn – 65%
Olin – 63% (72% among males)
Columbia – 61%
Brown – 59%
Soka – 59%
Dartmouth – 58%
Cooper Union – 57%
Cornell – 56%
U of Louisiana – 56%
U of Nebraska – 55%
Northwestern – 55%
Notre Dame – 55%
Duke – 54%
Pomona – 54%
CMC – 53%
Yeshiva – 53%
Barnard – 51%
Bowdoin – 51%
Weslayan – 51%
…
Caltech – 41% (48% among males)
@hariputralake Yes, the Harvard president was a sharp speaker who managed to come across as both very intelligent and practical/down to earth. He and most of the deans and others who presented were very good communicators and as an institution Harvard has its game together as expected. Surprisingly #2 in terms of impressive on campus pitches attended was U of Miami followed by NYU, UPenn/Wharton, Yale, UF.
Prestige.
You have heard that some other college is the “Harvard of the midwest”? It’s not the Yale of the Midwest or the Princeton of the midwest.
getting a job right away.
“getting a job right away”
If that’s the reasoning, that seems like a poor reason as there’s virtually no drop-off from Harvard to peers by that metric.
I did not attend Harvard. I have a son who applied but did not get in. I may be wrong, but when you are at a school that prestigious, you make connections, you get a job quickly, and you probably have an edge over kids like me who went to a state school when it comes to law school and grad school.
@woodlandsmom, I’ll repeat again:
“If that’s the reasoning, that seems like a poor reason as there’s virtually no drop-off from Harvard to peers by that metric.”
The OP wasn’t wondering why kids pick H over an average state school but why kids pick H over YPSM.
However, here is an example of a student who was initially very interested in Harvard, but turned it down (in favor of Stanford) after visiting, due to unfavorable impressions of other students at Harvard.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22235103/#Comment_22235103
@PurpleTitan thanks for the kind post. Ha. I guess I misread the original post. Sue me. 
@ucbalumnus That one kid’s overall impression:
"Pros:
If you’re looking for prestige, Harvard is the one
World renowned institution that will get you any job you want
Great overall breath in undergraduate education
Lots of post graduation opportunities (Law school, medical school, etc.)
Study amongst some of the brightest minds in the world
Grade inflation
You literally cannot fail out of Harvard
Cons:
Lots of cocky people
Some sort of social hierarchy built around money
Clubs and organizations seem to be very exclusive
You’ll be competing against kids with lots of money"
Since that now Stanford kid came from a low socio-economic family, I’m pretty sure he would have similar complaints at all of the top private colleges as they no doubt will have many students from well off families. The one freshman I know very well at Harvard is one of the brightest, yet humble and kind kids I know, and her parents are in the top1% of family income but very frugal. She had her pick of Harvard, Brown, UPenn, Cornell, Duke, and UCB Regents and chose Harvard. She absolutely loves the environment and fellow students.
I know forums like CC like to bash “elite” colleges but these world-renowned institutions of higher learning are doing many things right…
Harvard has a high yield because of many factors - prestige, well known in many areas of study, generous FA etc. OTOH, there are many students who routinely turn down H for Stanford or MIT or Princeton.
Fit is more important.
One of the frequent posters on this forum mentioned her son chose CMU over Harvard, and worked out great for him.
@hariputralake your kid got into many selective colleges this year. I hope you are not second guessing his decision.
- All the money in the world. Probably the most economically successful secular private organization in the history of the world. If you want to associate yourself with a long-term winner, you can't do any better. Also, as a result, often best financial option for doughnut-hole families.
- The oldest, in this country at least.
- Among the peer group, the location that best fits current tastes. Urban (but not in a campus-less downtown). Wealthy community. Great public transportation access. Princeton and Stanford are too suburban, Yale's city not as up-scale or interesting.
- Academically, best average strength across multiple departments and disciplines (although Stanford and Berkeley give it a run for its money).
- Association with top-line professional schools. (Stanford more or less matches, Yale almost/not quite, Princeton not in this competition.)
- Significant alumni mafia in Hollywood and New York media continuously reinforces public culture image of Harvard as collegiate ne plus ultra.
- Are there dorms anywhere more breathtaking than the river houses?
- John F. Kennedy. Bill Gates. Mark Zuckerberg. Natalie Portman.
- Love Story.
- Muted crimson tends to look better on people than navy blue, orange and black, and cardinal red.
Not everyone agrees on all of those points, but lots of people agree on lots of them.
As many have pointed out, from an academic or reputational or financial standpoint, there’s negligible difference compared to its closest peers. In my world, it increasingly loses cross-admits to Stanford, and it has always lost some minority (but largish minority) of cross-admits to Yale, Princeton, and MIT. Almost nothing significant is at stake for a student who is choosing among two or more of those colleges. So things like the location and popular culture loom larger.
It’s just a great school with a long history, and an eye to the future as it evolves meet new demands on academics.
D1 was very focused on MIT throughout most of high school. But in her junior year Harvard moved way up on the list after we toured. She was very impressed with the Harvard tour guide - a young woman who was very poised, polished, and gracious… She just seemed to be operating at a level way above what you normally get for a student tour guide, even at peer institutions. I was impressed too. She was a very effective representative of the school
When the acceptances were all in the big three she had to choose between were Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. Stanford was never seriously in the running, because D1 was born and raised in CA and was looking to try another part of the country for college. She was still torn between MIT and H. She knew that both were very prestigious and would set her up equally well for employment or grad school. In the end she said it came down to the incredible breadth of what Harvard offered. MIT’s sell was “Here you will find the finest science in the world (and some other stuff too).” Harvard’s sell was “We have everything here. Everything. Come and get it.”
Except maybe the science and engineering. But they’re working on it 
Presumably, even though Stanford and other most selective private schools have similar parental income/wealth distributions, the student found that the students encountered when visiting Stanford were much less obnoxious about family wealth than those he encountered when visiting Harvard. A few posts after, a parent of a Stanford student speculated about old money versus new money.