Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm a college counselor at a private HS that sends a lot of students to T20s (many have a legacy connection) and keep in touch with the stufents after graduation. The Yale students and grads I know are more balanced and well-rounded with friends across multiple majors and activities, whereas their Princeton (and Harvard) equivalents seem to be concentrated in econ, CS, engineering, government, and neuroscience and mainly interact with students studying those subjects. All anecdotal but interesting. The Yale kids seem to have more time downtime for fun or social studying and hype up experiences like The Game. I'd say Yale kids may also be a little quirkier, still brilliant, but slightly less straight-laced like HP students. Based off of what students have reported back, I would pick Yale for a well-rounded college experience.
OP here. thanks for this insight -- very helpful to hear this from a counselor standpoint. i do think DS is a little bit more laidback than the people we interacted with at Preview, but will report back after BDD for sure.
I went to Princeton, was a SIPA (public affairs) major, roomed with engineers, and had friends with different majors. The idea that a SIPA major would “mainly interact” with just other SIPA majors seems fairly ludicrous to me, so I wouldn’t put a ton of stock in the counselor’s anecdotes. There’s probably some truth to the notion that Princeton students are comparatively “straight-laced” and Yale students are comparatively “quirky,” but Princeton is also looking for kids with demonstrated interests and Yale is also looking for kids who are academically accomplished and not just “quirky.”
I hope your kid comes away with a good sense as to where he’ll be more comfortable after both visits. He’s got two great choices.