<p>I am an SCEA admit, and this is what i was thinking about. Harvard, to me, is a place where people are fiercly competitive, often depressed, and at times, disillusioned with their college experience. Yale is marketed to be the antithesis of this - a place where students are happy, down-to-earth, pretty chill, smart, intelligent people. thats the feeling i had when i visited the campus a couple times and what made me apply EA. but, the thing is, im sure that there is a lot of depression/competitive at yale as well? how is this - do any students feel completely overwhelmed/risk suicide? hows the competition? its just to me, yale and harvard are more similar than they are different, so i was wondering how similar they are in this respect.</p>
<p>There are very few people who have actually attended both schools for undergrad so i dont know if you will get a fair, completely unbiased answer from someone in the position to give you a good idea. But my guess is that both schools are the same. people are nice,smart, and interesting. But the nature of these schools bnngs about fierce competition and a sometimes overwhelming feeling.</p>
<p>It’s not like me to post anti-Harvard stuff, but I’m breaking my rule today.</p>
<p>I have numerous friends who went to Harvard undergrad and then Yale for graduate/professional school. All wished they had gone to Yale undergrad after seeing the experience in the not-quite-first-hand eyes of a grad student. All Yale friends who went to Harvard for grad/professional school were glad they had been at Yale undergrad based on what they saw. It boiled down to this oft-repeated quip, “Harvard students are happy they’re at Harvard, Yale students are happy.”</p>
<p>I think Harvard is an amazing place and would be thrilled to have a child attend there, but my anecdotal evidence points to Yale being a happier, more cooperative place. That being said, there is depression everywhere and Yale is not immune.</p>
<p>I’ll chime in with my anecdote: at a large alumni function in Chicago once, then-President Schmidt came to speak. Afterwards, I was chatting with one of the other Y administration that attended. In conversation, he mentioned that he had attended H for college and Y for grad. Jokingly I said to him: “As much as we want to deny it, we Yalies are curious about Harvard. What’s your take on it?”</p>
<p>He said:“Well, graduating from Harvard, I felt there was nothing I couldn’t accomplish”</p>
<p>I thought:“Wow, that’s quite the compliment!”</p>
<p>He continued: “But I LOVED Yale.”</p>
<p>That encapsulates it pretty succinctly in my book.</p>
<p>yayyyyy i’m making the right choice!!!</p>
<p>one of the Dean’s at Y who had worked also at H said that the H kids were always in fear that someone would find out they were not as smart as everyone thought… the Y kids did not have this same constant state of fear…</p>
<p>I do not know if this is true…but this is what I was told when I asked about the difference in their experience having worked at both…</p>
<p>I think it is consistent with what T26E4 is describing a graduate of both having said…</p>
<p>There are many threads on this. As a student, I’ve experienced firsthand just how much I and other Yalies LOOVE their experiences.</p>
<p>I also know many Harvard students, and I actually think they are generally less enthused. One of my H friends complains about being a Freshman boy in the social scene there. Another girl said that many Harvard students “feel privileged just to be there, and that makes them less demanding about getting the most out of their college years or demanding things from the administration.” </p>
<p>As for academic competition, it is present at both Yale and Harvard. At Yale, the competition exists, but it is very individualistic; many care about their GPAs, but they will always share notes and help their peers learn material. I can’t speak for Harvard.</p>
<p>As for suicide and depression, I don’t really know about Harvard but I haven’t heard of anything here. This article – <a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/27924[/url]”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/27924</a> – is the most radical event I’ve heard of, and those students didn’t leave Yale b/c they h8d it; they left for a week essentially to be Romantics and they came back.</p>