<p>P.S. All this talk about how Harvard is the "ultimate brand" may actually be a turn off for kids who are not thrilled with the idea of being surrounded by students who feel that being #1 is so important. Think about it. There are plenty of kids chosing Yale over Harvard. More choosing Harvard over Yale I'm sure, but who would you rather hang with?</p>
<p>That's rather a dubious rationalization (Harvard kids are all shallow jerks and Yale kids are "fun to hang with") when you realize that a number upwards of 20% of the Yale freshman class actually were admitted there but rejected it for Harvard, and that a large but indeterminate number of the new Yalies actually applied to Harvard but were not admitted. </p>
<p>Yale WANTED these hundreds of kids, but didn't get them. So because they rejected Yale, they're all shallow jerks and "prestige-whores" (to use another Yalie sobriquet for those who prefer Harvard)? </p>
<p>And all the people admitted to Yale but not admitted to Harvard were turned down in Cambridge because they were far too much "fun to hang with???</p>
<p>Spare us!</p>
<p>Please stop making attacks and talking about dubious rationalizations and Harvard-bashing when everything that the OP posted has a great deal of accuracy and truth to it.</p>
<p>Insecurity is a typical Cantab symptom, given that Yale undergrad has been more selective than Harvard for two of the past three years and will be for the foreseeable future. </p>
<p>Another sign of the times in terms of what is most desirable is that Yale Law's yield rate has steadily been climbing to the point where 90% of admits choose Yale (versus only 60% of Harvard admits choosing Harvard Law). Like Yale undergrad, Yale Law receives many more applications per spot than Harvard - in fact, getting close to twice as many.</p>
<p>The great majority of those applicants who have a choice continue to pick Harvard over Yale by a wide margin, as they have done for some years. </p>
<p>The typical Harvard freshman class is also more accomplished, as measured by GPA, SAT scores etc. The percentage of admits who agree to enroll is also higher at Harvard, and has been so for at least 40 years.</p>
<p>As the Yale Daily News ruefully confessed:</p>
<p>"We have matriculated at the mathematical limit of perceived institutional greatness; we are forever approaching perfection but never arriving at it. As the eternal runner-up, it is Yale that represents what my 11th-grade English teacher would call The Human Condition.</p>
<p>... What is Yale if not Achilles, a tragic hero of incredible greatness, a being so close and yet so far?</p>
<p>... We perceive our awesome dominance over (almost) all else, but humbly recognize the existence of One above us. Thus is life; how good things get is never how good we would wish them to be.... It's the tragedy of human existence, and the sooner we can appreciate it, in Yale and in ourselves, the better off we will be. And if not, we can always look down on Princeton."</p>
<p>just as the harvard crimson ruefully laments not going to Yale...</p>
<p>[edited out - Mod JEM]</p>
<p>true, the freshman class is 10 points better in the SAT's and 0.02 points better in GPA, and supposedly they can plagiarize extremely well... they are far more "accomplished!"</p>
<p>Nice article, Crimsonbulldog!</p>
<p>This thread is brilliant. Post a bunch of ignorant rubbish about Harvard. Then decree that no one can discuss it. Then suggest that the mods make it an "IMPORTANT" sticky. I must say, Yale students are quite clever!</p>
<p>Do we need this? I agree Flowerje posted what seemed to me if not a bunch of ignorant rubbish, a rather sophomoric perspective on what is important in choosing a university. I felt bad about seeing her post it. She seemed so much better than that.</p>
<p>When you have an otherwise indefensible position, I guess the instinct is to build a fence around it!</p>
<p>Byerly, I'm not sure if I get your point. To anybody in the know, the difference between Harvard and Yale is tantamount to the narcissism of very small differences. From the beginning, Flowertje, had stars in her eyes about Yale. She got in. Good for her. She did not get in to Harvard. Tant pis. It says nothing about either Yale or Harvard or for that matter about her. Why post an ignorant "Manchester United" type of article to articulate why you prefered Yale to your other choices? The sane reason to prefer Yale to peer institutions, which I would see as Princeton, Harvard and Chicago might be a perception of greater intimacy of the college experience there. How real is this? Probably not very unless you get into a signature program like Directed Studies.</p>
<p>well, all these arguments...I think yale, yalies and yale wannabes will be a lot better off if they stopped comparing yale to harvard and if they start to like yale more for what it is rather than for the fact that it might be better than harvard-The very title of this thread as far as I am concerned points to the inherent insecurity of yalies- I have never or I believe that there is a very very low probability that I'll see a thread titled "why u shud choose harvard over yale."
The ultimate mark of greatness is your ability to be comfortable in your own skin and not worry about convincing others about how great you are- that's one major reason why I greatly respect UChicago- UChicago doesn't bother- It is distinguished in its own rights and will easily beat Harvard in some departments such as Economics which to me is fine- Threads titled like this frankly, only further diminishes how much at par I view yale with Harvard- And in my opinion, the points the postmaker raised didn't do a good job convincing me.</p>
<ul>
<li>why all the harvard bashing in the post? both institutions are great institutions, those were completely unnecessary and that is what's motivating me to clarify a few things-</li>
</ul>
<p>The need to compare itself with Harvard is and always has been key to the Yale psyche, going back to its founding, when a group of right-wing pastors decided that there should be a conservative antidote to "Godless Harvard" - which had actually chosen a non-cleric named Leveritt as its president - rejecting that fearsome divine, Cotton Mather, as successor to his dotty daddy, Increase Mather.</p>
<p>Cotton Mather never forgave Harvard, and helped found Yale out of spite. So the rationale for Yale has always been, quite simply, that it was "not Harvard."</p>
<p>It has often seemed that there is no internal compass in New Haven - that everything is measured against Harvard. Yale is "almost as good as Harvard" here, "equal to Harvard" there, or even (bulldog hearts aflutter!) <em>better</em> than Harvard in some obscure but now happily highlighted respect!</p>
<p>My favorite example was the the campaign to get 2-ply toilet paper in the Yale bathrooms. Why? Because HARVARD had it, of course!</p>
<p>lol Byerly!</p>
<p>not to be annoying, but I think the thread shud be titled "why I chose yale" period- screen out all the "anti-harvardism," zoom in on highlighting yale's positive qualities without all the hate, leave HARVARD alone! then yale's good to go-</p>
<br>
<p>My favorite example was the the campaign to get 2-ply toilet paper in the Yale bathrooms. Why? Because HARVARD had it, of course!</p>
<br>
<p>and Yale just had to re-ply?</p>
<p>ewwww! Puns are the lowest form of humor!</p>
<p>Are you thinking 'spatially'?</p>
<p>I have never understood the widespread disdain for puns,..</p>
<p>never can get anyone to explain the reason, though.
Jimmy Joyce, he liked a good pun,..</p>
<p>puns are good for the world-good job rorosen! hilarious!</p>