<p>It is what it is.</p>
<p>Basa visited Harvard and Yale.</p>
<p>Basa did not get a good vive from Harvard.</p>
<p>Basa has narrowed his/her enrollment decision down to Yale/Stanford.</p>
<p>no more</p>
<p>no less</p>
<p>In reality the kids that enroll at HYPS are not much different from each other, as a whole.</p>
<p>^ahh yes, at the beginning they may indeed be all the same. But what about at the end? Who’s going to finish up having loved their experience and their class mates? Ready with a great and salient education fully prepared to take on the world? Who will finish HYPS with a positive view on life and ready to make an impact on society? Big deal… so you got in. Now comes the really hard part!</p>
<p>^^^^ oh that part is easy - Princeton undergraduates seem to be the happiest upon graduation compared to the other HYPS students. Part of this is underscored by the significant edge in Alumni Giving participation that Princeton exhibits over its peers…60% for P v. 34%-38% for YHS</p>
<p>by the way, on #41 above, vive = vibe</p>
<p>I turned down H because I wanted a more intense academic experience (versus pre-professional intensity or extracurricular intensity). Of course, the differences between the top schools in these things are much smaller than between HYPS and other schools, but the shades are there.</p>
<p>I always heard it was Yalies who claim the “Happiest” prize. Eye of the beholder obviously.</p>
<p>Institutional culture does exist. Ask the past CEOs of IBM, or Tony Hsieh, the current head of Zappos. While the kids at HYPS are all very intelligent, able kids, those with certain temperaments will, on average, be drawn to the university that feels most ‘like’ them. Of course, they have to have the opportunity to actually experience said culture, but it does exist and it can matter to understand it.</p>
<p>I have thought about how to find positive adjectives to sum up the majority temperament, the culture, of these schools. Here’s a stab at it. Princeton, sociable. Harvard, determined. Yale, sensitive. Alternatively, Princeton, affable, Harvard, ambitious, Yale, emotive.</p>
<p>Princeton, on the lawn, Harvard, in the city, Yale, in the courtyard.</p>
<p>None of which is to say that Princeton kids aren’t ambitious, Yale kids aren’t affable, and Harvard kids aren’t emotive. I am just looking for a CEO’s cultural summary. Were a CEO in place, of course:).</p>
<p>Now tear me to shreds. I’m prepared.</p>
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<p>That sounds logical in theory, but in practice, I doubt it holds much water.</p>
<p>First of all, it assumes that all HYPS students visited all campuses before applying, applied to all of them, were admitted to all of them, and then chose the one among them all that felt most ‘like’ them.</p>
<p>The reality is much different. They may have applied to a couple or admitted to only one and may never have seen the campuses, or were rejected from the one they liked best, or their parents would only pay for one, or the one they liked least had the major they really wanted, etc, etc, etc.</p>
<p>I’ve said this before, but my impression is that the “vibe” comes from the location of the college, not because the students are so different. </p>
<p>Harvard’s campus in incorporated into a bustling, sophisticated city - hence the colder, more impersonal vibe of big city dwellers;</p>
<p>Yale’s campus is like a being marooned together on a desert island - hence the “we’re trapped in this together and we’re going to make the most of it!” spirited, close-knit vibe; and</p>
<p>Princeton’s campus is in an upscale somewhat isolated suburban neighborhood - hence the more relaxed, elitist country-club vibe.</p>
<p>I rejected Harvard during the search process.</p>
<p>Bay, I agree that the location is the prime determinant of the culture. And I am not saying that choosing someone ‘like’ them means deeply, embedded, hardwired personalities, per se. I am saying in a ‘apt more often than not to behave in a certain way.’ </p>
<p>Certainly you have seen this effect in large corporations, correct? I worked at Sun Microsystems in the early 2000s and I could pick out a Sun guy, and I use the gendered term advisedly, a mile away. Or do you feel that universities do not have 'corporate cultures?"</p>
<p>And almost anyone would agree that Harvard, Stanford, and MIT have very different vibes. Why can that not be true (to a much lesser degree) among Harvard, Yale, and Princeton?</p>
<p>^ Well for one, Stanford’s in California. West Coast and East Coast culture differ by quite a bit sometimes. You could say that because MIT is considered more engineering/hard science-heavy, different types of people are attracted to it.</p>
<p>If anything, you can also argue that Harvard, Yale, and Princeton tend to get lumped together because they’re all top Ivies on the East Coast, while that same distinction doesn’t hold true when comparing Harvard, Stanford, and MIT.</p>
<p>Since Basa has been ripped apart, no one else even wants to say thay are turning down Harvard? There should be at least 600 people doing so and we should see about 20 here.</p>
<p>^tex, how do you come up with those numbers? I see 2100 admitted with an 80% yield. And why should we see 3% here?</p>
<p>I never understood how the yield works. Harvard announced a 78% yield last year with 1663 class and 2110 admits but took 94 off the waitlist. This gives us a true yield at 75% at best because we dont know how many from waitlist did nt accept an offer when it was made for 94 to be admitted. I look at it as a minimum of 541 people to have turned down for them to get to 1663 with 94 additional offers (2110+94-1663). This year they admitted 2158 and 75% they should lose 540 (extreme rounding error on my part to get to 600).</p>
<p>20 was just a made up number with no base reference on my part.</p>
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<p>I really don’t blame them, to be honest</p>
<p>Alumother: what would you say about Stanford in your little one-word characterization? :)</p>
<p>Unless more students turn H down this year, H may not need to go to their waitlist. </p>
<p>Using H’s 2014 data: </p>
<p>2110 (accepted students) - 1663 (matriculated students) = 447 (students turned H down). </p>
<p>447/2110 X 100 = 21.18 percent of students did not matriculate, for a yield of 78%. </p>
<p>Using the same formula for 2015:</p>
<p>2158 (accepted students) X 21.8 (percent of students who do not matriculate) = 470 students. </p>
<p>2158 (accepted students) - 470 (students who will not matriculate) = 1688 matriculated students.</p>
<p>1688 is 25 seats higher than last year’s 1663. Assuming that H will not be increasing the number of available beds this year, those figures do not bode well for waitlisted applicants.</p>
<p>I know plenty of students (and faculty) who have turned down Harvard for Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Dartmouth for a variety of reasons (location, climate, focus on graduate students, size), including arrogance of faculty, hostility towards athletes, the feeling that many students attend Harvard “because it’s Harvard” and not because it fits them.
And, yes, I agree with Alumother. There are distinct cultures on the various campuses whether it’s because of location or seeking like-minded peers, or both.</p>
<p>I have never perceived a single member of the faculty to be arrogant; I suppose that’s the image that people who have not attended Harvard get when they hear the names of the faculty.</p>
<p>I also don’t believe there exists much “hostility towards athletes”. </p>
<p>I agree that location, climate, focus on graduate students, and size can be reasons to turn down Harvard, though. Stanford is sunnier, Dartmouth smaller, and Princeton closer to NYC.</p>
<p>Yale and Brown are the ones who have been cutting back on athletics lately, although Harvard does have the second lowest athletic budget (behind Brown), despite having the most sports.</p>