<p>I have visited both Yale and Princeton, having been accepted into both. I like both, but I am not leaning one way or the other in my choice. I need help -- please. If I were to major in English, which college would you recommend . . . and why? Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Personally, I’d recommend Yale. The grading system seems to be better. I prefer Princeton culture, though.</p>
<p>Yale does have easier grading. And we probably have a slight edge in terms of English departments. But probably more important is where you’d enjoy living. Spend some time on each campus and it should be pretty clear which one you should choose. The campus cultures are pretty different. I didn’t apply to princeton, i found it… uh… distasteful.</p>
<p>For undergraduate study, you’d really be splitting hairs to try to decide which had the “better” department. They’re both tops. Visit this coming week if you possibly can for their respective admit days and make a decision based on gut feeling about where you the most comfortable. At this stage, it’s not a problem you solve by “reason”, but by “faith”.</p>
<p>Like kwijiborjt I looked at Princeton but was not attracted to the social atmosphere there; I fell in love with Yale, and had a marvelous four years there. But I have many fine friends went to Princeton and they just loved it like crazy!</p>
<p>This very recent thread has both general stuff on evaluating English departments and majors, and a bunch of specific discussion of Yale and Princeton:</p>
<p> <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/907086-how-evaluate-whether-colleges-english-department-good.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/907086-how-evaluate-whether-colleges-english-department-good.html</a></p>
<p>Shorthand: Both colleges have fine, popular English majors. Yale has been at the forefront of academic literary studies for generations, and its English Department is always happening. Anything that’s trendy is well represented there, and often getting led there, although they have comprehensive offerings in all aspects of English-language literary traditions. (Not to mention other traditions as well.) </p>
<p>Princeton has never been hip. It has always been a little stodgy and old-fashioned, but there’s a perfectly good argument that undergraduates are better served by that (and better prepared for graduate school). The Princeton style may also be much more satisfying to someone who likes reading English literature in high school – you are much more likely to find close reading focused on important moral lessons there than at Yale. (It exists at Yale, too. In the end, that’s what Harold Bloom does. But he does it with such obfuscatory vocabulary and theoretical framework that it can be hard to understand that’s what he’s doing. You will never have that problem at Princeton.)</p>
<p>Thanks so very much. This is very helpful information!</p>
<p>This is silly. You are not going to grad school. Yale English is EXCELLENT. Princeton is also EXCELLENT. </p>
<p>1/4 of all your classes will be in English. 3/4 will not! And classes make up very little of your overall COLLEGE EDUCATION.</p>
<p>Decide between schools! Decide between combination of structure (residential colleges vs eating societies), extracurricular life (arts, drama, science?), academic life (grade inflation vs. not, distribution requirements), etc.</p>
<p>If you were to go to Princeton or Yale purely because they have a “better” Englsih Department, you’d be a FOOL.</p>
<p>I totally agree with booyaksha. Stop splitting hairs. Value what’s important to you.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I couldn’t disagree with booyaksha and Lergnom more. It’s true that Yale and Princeton both have “excellent” English departments, but they are excellent in different ways and different styles. If English is what matters most to you, and you are choosing between the two, that’s far more important than the COMPLETELY marginal differences between Princeton’s residential colleges (with or without eating clubs) and Yale’s, or the .1 difference in average GPA, or the extra 40 minutes it takes to get from Yale to NYC on the train. Yes, “value what’s important to you”. If that’s English literature, it’s worth paying attention to what and how they teach.</p>
<p>Personally, I can’t imagine a less legitimate way to pick a college than to look at its grading curve.</p>
<p>JHS, by my guess, only about 35 percent of your college “education” and “learning” will occur inside a classroom. (You spend 2 or 3 hours a day in classes; you spend 21 outside of them!)</p>
<p>By all means, if English is the ONLY thing that matters, then the op ought to choose b/w P and Y based on that. I somehow doubt, however, that one department is the only thing that matters in an undergraduate college.</p>
<p>Just my perspective…</p>
<p>Oh god, congratulations, first of all.
These are two great Ivies, even if I adore Princeton, I think that you should go to Yale. Their literature department is one of the best, and if you are interesting in Drama, you’ll be happier there.
How did you get in ? Do you think I can get into ? this is my profile : <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/909747-can-i-get-into-nyu-yale.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/909747-can-i-get-into-nyu-yale.html</a>
Thank you, and again, congratulations.</p>
<p>booyaksha – Only about 5% of the mass of an engagement ring consists of the diamond. Does that mean that you pay less attention to it than to anything else?</p>
<p>I agree completely that there are lots of factors that matter when choosing a college, and comparing academic departments is only one of them. Yale and Princeton have different vibes, although practically anyone who could handle one of them would be fine at the other, and honestly the most common issues would likely send people to Princeton (e.g., morbid fears of an urban environment or of graduate students).</p>
<p>But if you care about a particular field of study, how strong and vibrant a particular institution is in that area is, I think, more than a legitimate consideration. Certainly compared to stuff like quality of food, bathroom placement within the dorms, and how easy the grading is – criteria that get talked about an awful lot here. You don’t spend so much time inside the classroom, and only a third of your classroom time may be spent in classes related to your major. But. An awful lot of your time spent outside the classroom is spent doing things related to your areas of academic interest – and that proportion increases over time. And a fair amount of it may be spent with people who share the same academic interests. </p>
<p>For me, getting really absorbed in an academic area was a critical part of college, even though I never went farther in that field afterward. It was very important to my development as a person, and I got fabulous opportunities in part due to my engagement in it. And I DID choose my college – Yale, as it happened – primarily because of the strength of one department – English, as it happened – although when I got there I didn’t major in English. (One of the consequences of Yale being the center of the world in English at the time is that it was the center of the world in the whole area of literary studies, whether or not in English.) It was 100% the right choice for me. I loved the residential colleges, etc., too, but I would have given them up in a minute for the teachers, grad students, and other undergraduates in my field.</p>
<p>If a person has a strong interest in old English or perhaps in Chaucer and one school has that area locked up, then I can see that mattering. If a person has an interest in biomedical engineering then of course it makes more sense to go to a school that has that program rather than a school which might be excellent in civil engineering. If one school has a traditional business curriculum and another has one rooted in teams or entrepreneurship experience, then I can see a difference. I don’t see much of a difference between English programs at fine schools generally. </p>
<p>BTW, I went to Yale as an English major and found I hated the critical agenda of many professors - e.g., Bloom - because I found myself repulsed by methodology which allows one to make meanings to that degree. I thought it was egotistical, unfair to the material, was often little more than an intellectual game and had a tendency toward amorality.</p>
<p>I have not had the time to be on here lately, but thank you for all the responses. I still have not made my final decision, but I am leaning toward Yale at this point . . . just a few more days left . . .</p>
<p>Dianebs, Thank you for your post! I think you have an excellent chance of getting into Yale – depending on your SAT scores. I DO think they matter A LOT . . . Also – consider sending in some type of supplement with your application . . . I was told that mine helped my application . . . just trying to help – good luck to you!</p>
<p>Yale. You can almost say that yale specializes in English and the Humanities. Having said that the difference in the quality of education is almost negligible. So I’ll just have to repeat what many cc’ers in the past have said regarding Harvard vs Yale, Yale vs Princeton or Harvard vs Princeton- YOU CANNOT GO WRONG!</p>
<p>Thank you – leaning towards Yale . . .</p>
<p>I read some of what JHS said and it makes little to no sense.</p>
<p>There are only marginal differences between Eating Clubs and Residential Colleges? Let’s be real here. There’s a reason that the most controversial topic at Princeton is Eating Clubs, and the most beloved topic at Yale is any person’s own Residential College.</p>
<p>In my opinion visiting the two schools, those two systems were TOTALLY different worlds–and I cannot emphasize my opinion on that enough. On one hand, you have a system that sort of encourages a family-like atmosphere in the Residential College system. You are immediately in a College (which is, in your opinion, the best College) with a small group of your peers that shrink the Yale community for you. Its a microcosm of the larger diversity pool at Yale, which those in charge of housing try to balance with people from all groups. There are white kids, black kids, athletes, hippies, conservatives, liberals, and etc. There are no stereotypes about the Colleges, and you’re never forced to try out for one.</p>
<p>The Eating Club system is not in any way the same. Like Yale, you are placed into Colleges immediately when you enter Princeton. But it was my feeling that the social life at Princeton revolves around the Eating Clubs, not the residential Colleges. While not everyone wants to be in an eating club, a very large amount of the students do. And not only do they exclude some people, but the clubs have stereotypes. It struck me as almost like high school cliques on steroids (AKA with million-dollar clubs to hang out in). Princeton doesn’t allow the clubs to be open during Princeton Preview, so I can’t act like I know what they’re like when they’re open. But its way different to be in a club that chooses its students, and to be in a club that attracts a certain type of person as opposed to the diversity Yale’s Colleges represent.</p>
<p>That was a pretty positive viewpoint on the Colleges and a negative one on the Eating Clubs, but to be honest, that difference was the largest factor in my choosing Yale over Princeton. I see a lot of positives in the Eating Clubs as well, such as the networks you can create and that the entire idea of an eating club is kind of cool. In addition, I think the coolest thing ever to do would be to get together like thirty of your friends and take over a dying Eating Club.</p>
<p>But I far prefer the Colleges to the Eating Clubs as the center of social activity, and even if you disagree, I think you have to admit they’re fundamentally different systems.</p>
<p>The residential colleges are one of the very best things about the undergraduate experience at Yale, which is why so many other universities have been copying them over the years.</p>
<p>In my view, they’re even superior to Oxbridge, where the actual academic resources vary by college.</p>
<p>bugsliberty, one more thing: I don’t know if you are a writer but Yale undergraduates swept The Atlantic’s Student Writing Contest this year (all top 3 prizes and several honorable mentions). Here is a link to an article about the winner: [Welcome</a> to Yale College](<a href=“Yale College”>Yale College)
Yalies (even many who major in the sciences) love literature!</p>