Harvard, Princeton or Yale?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do love New Haven. The restaurants are great, the New Haven Hotel is very nice, and the campus is gorgeous! I went to Princeton, and I am very glad that DD decided to go to Yale. The atmosphere at Princeton is cold by comparison. Yes, I gush. Can't say enough about how wonderful Yale is.

New Haven is not great, really. There's a lot of poverty right across the green on Chapel St. Even the green is sketchy. There are a few good restaurants but that's about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale is too cold. Plus, the class jerk of my DC's class went there.

Princeton is fine.

Ted Cruz went to Princeton, so sometimes jerky assholes slip through in the admissions process anywhere.

My former CEO went there as well, and he is almost as much of a jerky asshole as Ted Cruz.

[Anonymous]

If you are a minority, definitely not princeton.

That said, it depends on your interests.

Yale CS is horrible. Yale stem is no where near the class of the other two.

Princeton has the hardest grading standards.

H and P have better recruiting on consulting and banking than Yale.

I personally would pick Yale but my interests are suited for Yale.

If I was into STEM, then H. P only if that was my only choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Princeton, no question.

It just seems more cosmopolitan, more glamorous, more artistic than the other schools to me.

Plus F. Scott Fitzgerald went there and that's pretty much the match point.

The idea that people who think like this go to Princeton is enough to turn me against the school.

[Anonymous]

Yale

I went to none of them, but I work in fields where I've come into contact with grads from all of them. I always like the Yale grads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Princeton, no question.

It just seems more cosmopolitan, more glamorous, more artistic than the other schools to me.

Plus F. Scott Fitzgerald went there and that's pretty much the match point.

The idea that people who think like this go to Princeton is enough to turn me against the school.

+1 and I don't really care about FSF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't apply to Harvard, but I chose Yale over Princeton in part because of the exclusionary feel of having to "pledge" the dining clubs just to eat lunch. Maybe they have changed it since my day, and I know there are some "admit anyone" clubs.

I loved Yale. I'd advise my kid to go there in a minute if it seemed like the right atmosphere for her. Bright, happy kids in a fun, supportive environment. Sadly it's so much harder to get in than it was in my day, and I was a first generation college student so I would have had that going for me in the admissions office.

Gag!

It's Princeton that has the eating clubs. The PP chose Yale because she didn't like that aspect of Princeton.

Hands down, I'd pick Yale. ITA about the country club aspect of Princeton, and the undergrad experience at Harvard is not great.

Now, for grad school? Harvard, no question.

Same. (DH went to Yale undergrad and we both did Harvard for grad school.)

[Anonymous]

Stanford

[Anonymous]

So much of this has to do with field of study, because the presence (or lack) of graduate professional programs on campus in certain fields can impact the undergraduate experience. So, for a kid interested in international relations, I'd choose Princeton for Woodrow Wilson, but for a kid interested in business, I'd probably look harder at Harvard. For STEM, being at Harvard gives you the option to cross register at MIT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Princeton, no question.

It just seems more cosmopolitan, more glamorous, more artistic than the other schools to me.

Plus F. Scott Fitzgerald went there and that's pretty much the match point.

The idea that people who think like this go to Princeton is enough to turn me against the school.

+1 and I don't really care about FSF.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the PP was doing a bit of an homage to a passage by F. Scott Fitzgerald in This Side of Paradise where the narrator explains why he wanted to go to Princeton rather than Harvard or Yale.

People here really do get seriously bent out of shape over nothing. Is it that hard to remember that all of us who attended these schools were lucky to have that opportunity or that others so positioned in the future will be equally fortunate?

[Anonymous]

That's totally true. I was PP on the first page saying Princeton's dining clubs made me choose Yale, but honestly if my kid got into Princeton I'd do a little dance of joy. They're all amazing schools that open so many doors to kids later in life.

[Anonymous]

Columbia.

UG in NYC = awesome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Columbia.

UG in NYC = awesome.

I went to law school at Columbia, and met some undergraduates at Columbia who were pretty lost. For the typical kid headed off to an Ivy, HYP will be a better environment. The potential to get distracted and fall through the cracks is considerably greater at Columbia. Kids should be fairly independent and not expect much hand-holding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's totally true. I was PP on the first page saying Princeton's dining clubs made me choose Yale, but honestly if my kid got into Princeton I'd do a little dance of joy. They're all amazing schools that open so many doors to kids later in life.

Here's an explanation of that passage, taken from the Yale Alumni Magazine:

"Fitzgerald's most famous quote about the Ivies—it's not clear whether it was his opinion or just that of his teenaged protagonist—comes in This Side of Paradise, when young Amory Blaine explains: "I want to go to Princeton. I don't know why, but I think of all Harvard men as sissies, like I used to be, and all Yale men as wearing big blue sweaters and smoking pipes. . . . I think of Princeton as being lazy and good-looking and aristocratic—you know, like a spring day."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's totally true. I was PP on the first page saying Princeton's dining clubs made me choose Yale, but honestly if my kid got into Princeton I'd do a little dance of joy. They're all amazing schools that open so many doors to kids later in life.

Here's an explanation of that passage, taken from the Yale Alumni Magazine:

"Fitzgerald's most famous quote about the Ivies—it's not clear whether it was his opinion or just that of his teenaged protagonist—comes in This Side of Paradise, when young Amory Blaine explains: "I want to go to Princeton. I don't know why, but I think of all Harvard men as sissies, like I used to be, and all Yale men as wearing big blue sweaters and smoking pipes. . . . I think of Princeton as being lazy and good-looking and aristocratic—you know, like a spring day."

These colleges and the nation have changed a tad since This Side of Paradise was published, no? It's no more Fitzgerald's Princeton than it is Cole Porter's or even George H.W. Bush's Yale.