<p>LOL
I got a dog. It is now blue and white.
Harvard has nothing on Yale dude. I have so much school spirit, it is no joke.
… and i am not even a student. </p>
<p>There is no YIC. Never will be true too.
And oh, I should mention that I applied only to Yale and one other school.
Do not ask me why. I have no reason, no lie.</p>
<p>Nick017: I find it hard to believe it could possibly be true that a plurality of HYP cross-admits chose Princeton. First of all, until last year, Princeton had ED. So a huge number of highly qualified Princeton-lovers never even had an opportunity to be accepted at Harvard or Yale. The revealed-preference study from that period showed both H and Y as smoking P (H got at least 70% of cross-admits), which really reinforces the idea that Princeton having ED distorted those numbers, but also makes it completely unlikely that, prior to last year, P would win lots of three-way cross-admit battles. Second, Princeton’s yield on RD admittees in the ED era was generally around 50%, way lower than Harvard’s or Yale’s, and last year it admitted more applicants per slot than H or Y did. So it’s hard to figure out how it could be getting more of the three-way cross-admits than the others.</p>
<p>Third, anecdotally, I have never known anyone in that position to choose Princeton. Which is not to say it couldn’t happen; of course it could.</p>
<p>A Revealed Preference Ranking of Colleges
rank College Name Elo pts
1 Harvard 2800
2 Yale
3 Stanford
4 Cal Tech
5 MIT
6 Princeton
7 Brown
8 Columbia
9 Amherst
10 Dartmouth
11 Wellesley </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nber.org/papers/w10803.pdf?new_window=1[/url]”>http://www.nber.org/papers/w10803.pdf?new_window=1</a></p>
<p>LMAO, Hunt. I know this was not your intention (or was it?), but word choice is key.</p>
<p>“Thirty years after graduation, Yale alumni are still talking about how great it is”</p>
<p>IT IS. As in, how great Yale is.</p>
<p>"Thirty years after graduation, Harvard alumni are still talking about how great they are. "</p>
<p>THEY ARE. As in… nothing about Harvard as being a great place. Just how great “they are”… which just plays into the stereotype as arrogant Harvard kids. </p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>^Pretty sure that’s what the poster was getting at. :p</p>
<p>I’m deciding between Harvard and Yale now, too. I must say I’m leaning more towards Yale, but I’m going to leave it up to the visits next week.</p>
<p>@ Hunt: LOL! That’s exactly the impression I have of Harvard/Yale! Hahaha.</p>
<p>And I know what worknprogress means too: I feel like there’s so little separating Harvard and Yale academically, but Yale makes sooo much more of an effort to attract its students, to make it stand out from the other schools, etc. It’s like Harvard feels entitled to us for no other reason than their name.</p>
<p>^Not necessarily true.</p>
<p>I agree that Yale is better in some areas. The admitted students website is definitely way better. Plus they sent a pennant, a poster, and a free shirt. They also like to send out a lot more emails publicizing BDD and other stuff. I also received a hand-written note on a typed letter that specifically referred to my essay topics.</p>
<p>But…</p>
<p>I live in NYC, and both Yale and Harvard hosted receptions. When I went to the Harvard reception, I actually met the lady who read my app. As soon as I said my first name, she remembered my last name and which school I went to. I asked her about my friend, and she knew him as well. Both of my interviewers for H emailed me to say congrats, and asked if there were any questions, etc. I asked about 5-6 questions, and I got a very elaborate response, too.</p>
<p>Also, I’ve had a Harvard professor email me about the computer science program at Harvard, even though I am by no means a computer whiz. I only indicated that I might be interested in Economics/CS on the application. I asked him a couple of questions, he emailed me back, and offered me additional contacts at Harvard.</p>
<p>So, all-in-all, I think the top colleges do a lot to draw admits.</p>
<p>Midaji - when we went to Bulldog days my D was standing in a group of people with a shirt with logo from a unique activity. A young man made his way over and asked if she happened to be “Jane Doe.” </p>
<p>When she said she was, he said he was her regional officer and remembered her essay about her experience. </p>
<p>I was impressed. </p>
<p>Look, here’s what I think. Any kid who is blessed with the talent and determination to be admitted to EITHER school is so lucky. You really can’t make a bad decision and any bickering about which school is better is just silly and counterproductive. There are so many people who are quick to make inferences about who you are if you attend any of the Ivies, so I would hope that at least among the schools there is a sense of respect for what it took to be admitted.</p>
<p>^Yes, I agree that Yale does do a lot to draw kids in, and seems to pay a lot of attention to the applicants and accepted students. The note I received was pretty heartfelt as well. I was just making the point that Harvard doesn’t just stand idle and assume every student will go there automatically, as was suggested by another poster.</p>
<p>My son will have to make the same choice, with Princeton in the mix as well. It’s a very tough decision to make and they are all fine schools. People who don’t go to these schools seem to have preconceived notions of what they’re actually like. The truth is, unless you go there, you don’t really know what it’s like to be a student at H/Y/P. He is going to all of the admitted student days and will have 3 days to decide afterward. Though the math dept is better at H & P, the social environment will also weigh heavily in his decision. It comes down to only one question: Where will he be happier?</p>
<p>^Well… Princeton is not really at the same level as Yale</p>
<p>JHS, that makes sense. I think the prof I talked to just had a gut feeling that people were choosing P and no statistical basis, and I believed him because he seemed like a very knowledgable person.</p>
<p>Princeton is at the same level at Yale, though, I’m not sure what you’re talking about jomjom. It does worse on some rankings only because it doesnt have certain cookie cutter grad schools, but that’s not really relevant to the discussion of the comparison on ug experiences.</p>
<p>While I would defend the superiority of Yale to Princeton with my dying breath, in any logical, objective sense it is silly to say that Princeton isn’t “really at the same level” as Yale or Harvard for that matter. My comment about Princeton and cross-admits was based on math, not any evaluation of the relative merits of the colleges.</p>
<p>The revealed preference data is quite old now. Also, at the time, it was more like:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard = Yale</li>
</ol>
<p>(huge statistical gap)</p>
<ol>
<li>Everyone else</li>
</ol>
<p>If you go to Harvard you get MIT for free and vice versa. Now if there was a CIT then maybe I’d suggest Yale, but…</p>
<p>Honestly it’s like this:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Stanford/MIT/Harvard</p></li>
<li><p>Everybody else</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I change my mind, new haven’s got good white castle.</p>
<p>Shalashaka:</p>
<p>First of all, you’ve prob never even been to New Haven b/c there are plenty of nice areas/restaurants/theater/hotels/etc. Yes, it may not be Cambridge, but there’s plenty of life and it is plenty safe. New Haven has completely changed over the last decade so anti-Yale sentiments based on New Haven r pretty unfounded. </p>
<p>Second of all, I wonder why you spend all your time trashing Yale… at this point you r just offering us legitimacy. Perhaps because you r trying to avoid that Yale is certainly one of the best if not the best undergraduate educations in the country, and that many ppl are lured to Yale over HPSM for its culture, resources, undergrad focus, res. colleges, etc.</p>
<p>Get a life. HYPSMC are all great institutions, as are many others, but trying to say that one is way better than another is just downright crazy. I think you’re the one who has an inferiority complex. Sadly, you only can wish you were as happy as we are in “sh***y, grimy, gun whippin’ New Haven.”</p>
<p>My sense is just about every student everywhere has an inferiority complex of some kind- with the possible exceptions of Harvard/MIT/Caltech and Stanford.</p>
<p>In terms of the ivy league, Harvard is in a league of its own obviously. It is the most renowned internationally and across the broadest range of academic subjects. No other name opens more doors or has quite the same effect. Telling people you go there is the “H-bomb” afterall.</p>
<p>At the risk of repeating myself, no other ivy can compete with Harvard’s money, prestige and brilliance of the faculty.</p>
<p>That said, if one were to specialize early, it makes sense to go to Yale for the humanities, Harvard for math, science and econ and Princeton for engineering.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I never said yale sucked, it’s better than princeton imho. I’m just saying Yale is the lil wayne of top colleges.</p>
<p>this is the stupidest thread ever. And sheh sheh, what did I tell you about speaking?</p>