Harvard undergrad

[Anonymous]

Yale, no question, socially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi! DD was hoping to get a chance to find out about Harvard by attending their weekend for accepted students (which was supposed to take place today through Monday). It's been canceled due to the recent events in Boston. We've never been to Cambridge. She's read a lot about the less-than-ideal social life for Harvard undergrads. If you have a student at Harvard, or know one, is he or she able to enjoy life?

Yes, many friends that went to Harvard undergrad and loved it. Frankly, unless your DD got into Yale, she'd be crazy to turn down Harvard. Beautiful campus and the future presidents/ supreme court justices/ etc. will be in her class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi! DD was hoping to get a chance to find out about Harvard by attending their weekend for accepted students (which was supposed to take place today through Monday). It's been canceled due to the recent events in Boston. We've never been to Cambridge. She's read a lot about the less-than-ideal social life for Harvard undergrads. If you have a student at Harvard, or know one, is he or she able to enjoy life?

Yes, many friends that went to Harvard undergrad and loved it. Frankly, unless your DD got into Yale, she'd be crazy to turn down Harvard. Beautiful campus and the future presidents/ supreme court justices/ etc. will be in her class.

Oops, responded to this before I saw that your daughter also got into Yale. CONGRATULATIONS. Seriously. She should go visit another weekend before deciding; surely, there are many kids in the same position right now. Either way, she won't go wrong.

[Anonymous]

Boston/Cambridge are much nicer than the slums around Yale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi! DD was hoping to get a chance to find out about Harvard by attending their weekend for accepted students (which was supposed to take place today through Monday). It's been canceled due to the recent events in Boston. We've never been to Cambridge. She's read a lot about the less-than-ideal social life for Harvard undergrads. If you have a student at Harvard, or know one, is he or she able to enjoy life?

Yes, many friends that went to Harvard undergrad and loved it. Frankly, unless your DD got into Yale, she'd be crazy to turn down Harvard. Beautiful campus and the future presidents/ supreme court justices/ etc. will be in her class.

The last statement may be recently true of the law or b-schools. Harvard College, not so much

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She should try to visit another time before making a decision. I attended Harvard, and at the time the social scene was fine, but the academics were very far from focused on undergraduates. I overall still enjoyed my experience there and the "name" certainly opens doors, but my time in graduate school there was much more valuable, and in retrospect, I would have been better off at a more undergrad focused institution (Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth or a really good LAC like Williams or Middlebury or Pomonaor Swarthmore) for undergrad, someone would have read and cared about what I wrote I suspect, and seeing my DDs now as students at two of the more undergrad focused institutions I list (one chose to not go to Harvard despite being admitted, one didn't even apply) they are getting a much better experience academically in college than I did. They also felt that the kids from their high schools that ended up at Harvard were really not people they hoped to be in college with, seemed to be too many highly programmed products of tiger moms, kids of billionaires who didn't deserve admission, people obsessed with status and not actually very intellectually engaged, and their older friends who did end up at Harvard found the current social scene to be quite stressful and unwelcoming, which surprised me, that seems to have changed alot with now a big focus on finals clubs and frats/sororities.

The best thing about being the parent of a Princeton student is that you are all Tiger moms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi! DD was hoping to get a chance to find out about Harvard by attending their weekend for accepted students (which was supposed to take place today through Monday). It's been canceled due to the recent events in Boston. We've never been to Cambridge. She's read a lot about the less-than-ideal social life for Harvard undergrads. If you have a student at Harvard, or know one, is he or she able to enjoy life?

Yes, many friends that went to Harvard undergrad and loved it. Frankly, unless your DD got into Yale, she'd be crazy to turn down Harvard. Beautiful campus and the future presidents/ supreme court justices/ etc. will be in her class.

Like Alito, Sotomayor and Kagan. Oops, they went to Princeton.

Honestly, for undergraduate, I would pick Yale over Harvard for the prettier campus and more cohesive social structure. Harvard is a great place for graduate school or law/business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boston/Cambridge are much nicer than the slums around Yale.

New Haven's not that bad, but the Boston/Cambridge area is a really great place to go to school . . . unless, of course, you can go to school in Northern California. (Go Stanford!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. She is choosing between Harvard and Yale. That is why we are asking questions about the social life, as I think that is the deciding factor for her at this point.

I graduated from Harvard College and my husband graduated from Yale (yes there were lots of jokes at our wedding). Unless the schools have changed drastically in the last 10 years I would choose Yale--a much stronger focus on undergraduates and undergraduate education. I had a wonderful four years at Harvard and made lifelong friends, but the education I received there was mediocre. I don't get the sense that socially the schools are all that different.

To this day my DH and his friends feel far more affection for Yale and are more connected to the school than my friends or I are to Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi! DD was hoping to get a chance to find out about Harvard by attending their weekend for accepted students (which was supposed to take place today through Monday). It's been canceled due to the recent events in Boston. We've never been to Cambridge. She's read a lot about the less-than-ideal social life for Harvard undergrads. If you have a student at Harvard, or know one, is he or she able to enjoy life?

Yes, many friends that went to Harvard undergrad and loved it. Frankly, unless your DD got into Yale, she'd be crazy to turn down Harvard. Beautiful campus and the future presidents/ supreme court justices/ etc. will be in her class.

Like Alito, Sotomayor and Kagan. Oops, they went to Princeton.

Honestly, for undergraduate, I would pick Yale over Harvard for the prettier campus and more cohesive social structure. Harvard is a great place for graduate school or law/business.

I'm not sure what your point is. Are you seriously disputing that a large number of presidents, supreme court justices, and other high-ranking government officials come from Harvard? And you dispute the notion by pointing to three Supreme Court justices in the over two-hundred year history of the Court? Good argument. You are clearly not a Harvard grad.

[Anonymous]

Most people I know who went to yale undergrad loved it. Most ppl I know who went to Harvard are meh on their experience. Pick yale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people I know who went to yale undergrad loved it. Most ppl I know who went to Harvard are meh on their experience. Pick yale.

No! US News ranks Harvard as #1 and Yale as #3. As we all know from reading this forum, the UNWR list is infallible, so don't go to the lesser school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She should try to visit another time before making a decision. I attended Harvard, and at the time the social scene was fine, but the academics were very far from focused on undergraduates. I overall still enjoyed my experience there and the "name" certainly opens doors, but my time in graduate school there was much more valuable, and in retrospect, I would have been better off at a more undergrad focused institution (Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth or a really good LAC like Williams or Middlebury or Pomonaor Swarthmore) for undergrad, someone would have read and cared about what I wrote I suspect, and seeing my DDs now as students at two of the more undergrad focused institutions I list (one chose to not go to Harvard despite being admitted, one didn't even apply) they are getting a much better experience academically in college than I did. They also felt that the kids from their high schools that ended up at Harvard were really not people they hoped to be in college with, seemed to be too many highly programmed products of tiger moms, kids of billionaires who didn't deserve admission, people obsessed with status and not actually very intellectually engaged, and their older friends who did end up at Harvard found the current social scene to be quite stressful and unwelcoming, which surprised me, that seems to have changed alot with now a big focus on finals clubs and frats/sororities.

The best thing about being the parent of a Princeton student is that you are all Tiger moms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi! DD was hoping to get a chance to find out about Harvard by attending their weekend for accepted students (which was supposed to take place today through Monday). It's been canceled due to the recent events in Boston. We've never been to Cambridge. She's read a lot about the less-than-ideal social life for Harvard undergrads. If you have a student at Harvard, or know one, is he or she able to enjoy life?

Yes, many friends that went to Harvard undergrad and loved it. Frankly, unless your DD got into Yale, she'd be crazy to turn down Harvard. Beautiful campus and the future presidents/ supreme court justices/ etc. will be in her class.

Like Alito, Sotomayor and Kagan. Oops, they went to Princeton.

Honestly, for undergraduate, I would pick Yale over Harvard for the prettier campus and more cohesive social structure. Harvard is a great place for graduate school or law/business.

Bitter Princetonian who didn't get into Harvard OR Yale. (Like almost every other Princeton kid.) Keep that chip on your shoulder, it's so becoming.

[Anonymous]

Um pp -- Princeton is ranked higher than Yale and is tied with Harvard. Why split hairs? They are all great and I am sure you went to none of those schools.