<p>For what school? For what reason?</p>
<p>After really disliking Visitas, I will be turning down Harvard for Yale or Stanford. I just couldn’t see myself liking a good portion of the people at Visitas, and I didn’t see myself being happy at Harvard.</p>
<p>basa, make sure to attend admit weekend at Stanford - you’ll think you died and went to heaven. Great people, beautiful place… you’re lucky you have east and west coast options, and the best of the lot for that matter. Good luck.</p>
<p>Basajaun, my D is also considering Yale and Stanford. Maybe we’ll see you next week in California!</p>
<p>I wonder how could students at other comparable schools significantly differ from those at Harvard.</p>
<p>They were quite different, at least in the clubs and activities I explored at both Harvard and Yale.</p>
<p>And MidwestPop: I’m going to Stanford that weekend so we may! Is she most likely turning down Harvard?</p>
<p>^^That must inevitably have been due to the small sample size, the chances of the day, and subjective impressions. There’s no way the student bodies would differ so much that one would dislike a major portion of the students at one school and adore a major portion at the other.</p>
<p>I already specified that I was referring to the small numbers of students in the clubs or activities I intend to take part in…those students are of course going to be a small sample size but considering I would be hanging out directly with those people, I’d say it is a pretty accurate.</p>
<p>D has narrowed her choices down to Harvard and Stanford. Not sure what groups Basa is interested in, but when attending our local Harvard and Stanford admit receptions, most of the people were *literally *the same (!) Kind of funny, actually, the parents all joked that Harvard and Stanford should have hosted a joint reception. Could have saved them both a few bucks! 
Anyway, D has never been to Stanford before, so our trip to Stanford’s Admit Weekend will be the key to her decision.</p>
<p>I always get a kick out of the MANY posts which inquire about the colleges that have the hottest girls or guys. Looking for the “friendliest students” is similar. If you try to imagine how that might happen (“I’m sorry, you’re just much too friendly for our tastes - you should transfer to X” or “Gee, we like this applicant’s SATs - if only s/he was smokin’ hot . . .”), you’ll find that it’s really difficult to construct a rational model that could explain student bodies that differ on substantial personal characteristics between schools that are otherwise similar in curriculum and selectivity. As evidence, I’ll note that as I walk around these campuses, I find relatively few students under 5 feet tall or approaching 7 feet, but a whole lot between 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 feet. And by golly, that trend appears to be consistent from one campus to another! :)</p>
<p>^Um…I’m guessing that was directed at me? I already explained what I meant. At Visitas and Bulldog Days, I went to meetings/gatherings for a few clubs/organizations I already know I will be partaking in at college (niche interests that I’ve had for a while and intend to continue). At these meetings were nearly all the current students involved in those clubs/organizations (they’re small to begin with). These current students would be participating in the clubs/organizations in future years, so I would be spending a large portion of my time directly with these people (not with other people at the same school but DIRECTLY WITH THESE PEOPLE). The people who I met in those clubs/organizations at Harvard were not nice. I’m not saying that the majority of people at Harvard are mean. I am saying that a large portion of the people who I know for a fact I would be spending time with are mean, judgmental, or otherwise unfun to be around.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/980166-yale-vs-harvard-world-war-3-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/980166-yale-vs-harvard-world-war-3-a.html</a>
looooooooooollll</p>
<p>Visitas was very heavy on the partying, even considering it was Yardfest… and the drinking? Are you ****ting me? This is H. I know it’s a college, but it baffles me to think the admissions officers would admit all of these jackasses if they saw photos of them in the future at Visitas in their application. And to think future Larry Ellison’s and Richard Branson’s were rejected from their so-called class of 2014/2015…</p>
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If you can say this with confidence after only two days of knowing those people, I would wonder how judgmental you yourself are. I have been here for almost a year, and I haven’t met a single person that I could directly identify as “mean, judgmental and unfun”.</p>
<p>^I get that you love Harvard. I understand that. But you don’t need to denigrate me just because I’m not singing praises of some of your fellow students, ones you probably have never met. I feel that after 3 days of being around a couple groups, I was able to ascertain that their personalities and behaviors didn’t mesh much with mine. Many of the people in those particular groups gossiped about people they didn’t know and made fun of others in front of me. This happened on multiple occasions. I didn’t need to hang around with them for several months to ascertain that these people were not very friendly. I was rubbed the wrong way by these students and it’s completely unnecessary for you to question that and then turn the situation around on me.</p>
<p>Basa, no need to defend yourself, your personal experience is more valuable than anything anyone can say in this thread. If all the students at all these top notch schools were all pretty much the same (as gadad says) why have an admit weekend at all? Yeah, to look at the buildings and learn about the activities, but the fact is you go to the admit weekend primarily to see who your fellow classmates are going to be - and you pick the school and the people that feel right for you. Again, you are definately hot stuff to have been admitted to all of these schools. Have fun in Palo Alto…</p>
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<p>It’s not that you’re not singing praises. It’s that you’re being, well, kind of rude. It does seem like you got pushed into it when people kept asking you why why why, which makes it pretty understandable, though.</p>
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<p>As someone prone to getting too defensive myself, this is where backing down would really help your case. I think your evaluation is perfectly within reason, even if I doubt I would agree if I’d been in the same situation. If, in the above quote, you said “I understand that, but I have my impressions, and even if they’re not scientific, I trust my gut” would give you much more credibility than turning around and snapping at polyglot. Yes, he (she?) was being a bit provocative, and I understand why you’re annoyed. That said, calm down.</p>
<p>I do agree that there are significant differences between the student bodies, though. The people who are saying there aren’t…I think they’re being silly! Even if there’s a lot of overlap between who’s admitted where, it seems to me that people self-select into the school that is a bit more like them. (I could never go to Stanford. I can’t do any school where there could conceivably be frisbee games every day of the year. I couldn’t. That much sun? And just-hanging-out-outdoors focus? I’m a bit of a vampire. I enjoy the sun and warmth a ton when I get it, but I also need the break that is winter.)</p>
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<p>(Insert example here of Ivy League student who gets shwasted on weekends but ends up becoming very successful of the things they accomplish in the other 160 or so hours of the week)</p>
<p>Take your pick of the thousands.</p>
<p>Basajaun, good luck. I hope the kids you interact with at Stanford are nicer than the kids you met at Yale and Harvard. Please come back and let us know what school you finally choose. You really have great choices.</p>
<p>@Gordon ^bump. If you think that the idea of college students making fools of themselves by drinking too much would have the Ad Com people hang their heads in shame or disgust you have a great deal of naivete to shed. As an analyst and an advisor in one of the Houses for over 20 years (and in the times when the cavemen walked the Earth, a student myself) I can tell you that if you were stunned by watch you saw at Yardfest, then not only should you absolutely turn H down, but you should make a bee-line to a college like Ave Maria or BYU. </p>
<p>College student do stupid things, they make asses out of themselves-- it is what they do-- it is part of growing up-- even the Amish, yes, the Amish, know this and have institutionalized it in Rumspringa (sp?) as the time for young adults to go wild before taking on the mantle of adulthood. If you have the idea that H is full of dis-embodied brains which live the life of the mind without any distractions, you may not make it through a semester before you run screaming back home. Save your advisors, your deams, the chaplains, mental health professionals, your parents and you a great deal of trouble and say “no thanks” to H’s offer.</p>
<p>PS–I have a great smile on almost a daily basis when I watch the news or read about public figures, prominent scientists and pundits who I knew, because I was with them, were drunk as lords as college kids.</p>