Reply to Early Decision Results at DS or DD school

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "Early Decision Results at DS or DD school"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Harvard people keep claiming that the Harvard house system is identical to Yale's residential college system.  It most definitely is not.  Harvard freshmen have no affiliation with a house.  At the end of freshman year, Harvard students group with friends and "block," ending up in a house for sophomore through senior years.  Residential college affiliation at Yale begins in June of the summer before freshman year and lasts all for four years; the system of support for freshmen through the residential colleges is unparalleled.  Also, Yale freshmen are allotted to residential colleges so that each residential college is (as close as possible) a microcosm of the class.   The residential college system is among the most powerful deciding factors in many students choosing Yale.  It's central to the strong sense of community at Yale.  [/quote]

Your description is 100% accurate.  With the random process of assigning blocks, the Harvard system accomplishes the same mix as with Yale, with the additional benefit of being able to hand pick your roommates.  Same organizing principle, same House Master, same house-based tutoring system, similar library structure, same sense of loyalty to your college/house.  The schools themselves are and feel quite different.  The delta between the housing systems is just a way of "naming" this impression.  [/quote]

Went to Yale and brother went to Harvard.  We were both very happy and both made friends at sibling's school and visited frequently.  The systems are pretty different -- although it sounds minor that freshmen at Harvard are not attached to a House and freshmen at Yale are, it's a major difference.  Moreover, the fact that students apply to get into Houses with a group of friends versus being randomly assigned to colleges freshmen year also makes a difference -- there's less of the stereotyping of "X House is this" or "X House is that" (even though, even at Harvard, there's obviously an element of randomness and the stereotyping of Houses is exaggerated vs. the reality).

Here's a funny Crimson article that's a decade old but actually did seem to get a lot of things right about the affection Yalies feel for the alma mater:  http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2003/11/20/the-cult-of-yale-bfor-god/?page=3

And lastly, good god, who tried to claim that Princeton's system is anything like the residential colleges (or Houses)?  Not close.[/quote]

By the way, not a knock on Princeton educationally or socially -- just to say it is really, really different from the Yale residential college system. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics