Anonymous wrote:Previous posters stated 10 SFS students were accepted early at Yale. How many were recruited for sorts teams or other specific talents? Ten students seems like an unusually high number these days coming from any day school unless something else is at play (14 would be about one percent of the freshman class). Thanks.

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Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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.

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Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Anonymous wrote:DD chose Yale over Harvard and Princeton. She has been incredibly happy there, and has never felt unsafe. The residential college system makes the experience at Yale unparalleled, in her opinion.

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Anonymous wrote:I think "eye rolling" might be a bit melodramatic, but I've met several people who were interested in applying to Yale and not Harvard. For one thing, more of Yale's graduate programs (chemistry, molecular biology, math, business, economics, etc.) are top tier, as in top 10 or top 20, but not #1-5 in the field compared to Harvard. There are also less than half the number of total graduate students at Yale compared to Harvard--there are 6,000 grad students at Yale, compared to 14,000 at Harvard. This means to some that there appears to be more focus on undergraduate education at Yale, while still providing access to a top notch research university. Since a lot of the time, the more hot shot the professor, the less interaction they have with undergrads, having fewer completely powerhouse graduate programs is not necessarily a bad thing for one's undergraduate institution.

There are other aspects like the intangible fit of the campus for the individual student. But I can totally see why one might prefer the overall vibe of undergrad at Yale vs. Harvard.

I agree with your analysis of the schools, but that leaves out the fact that New Haven is a pit and unfortunately Yale is surrounded by a cesspool of violent crime.

You realize that's how most people outside of this area describe DC as well? Cambridge is nicer for sure (and many will pick Princeton over Yale for the idyllic surroundings), but New Haven looks pretty good these days and the student safety statistics are excellent. If you've spent time on the Yale campus, the residential areas are inside nice quadrangles with Oxford-y looking lawns and gates that are key access and thus secure.

This made me smile -- I grew up in Princeton and DH did his undergrad there -- it's a suburb -- tony, yes, but, far from idyllic.

I'm familiar with Princeton, the Dinky, the black squirrels, etc., but the point is more that for many people the campus itself (which is not in the middle of a big city) fits with what they think of when they think "college campus" (similar to how people react to UVA). From what I can recall, generally people admitted to both Harvard and Yale picked Harvard something like 80-20%, and the Yale-Princeton split was closer to 50-50%, with those who picked Princeton not infrequently citing the campus (or citing New Haven as a negative). I'm a loyal Eli myself, though.

Ah, yes, the charms of the Wa-Wa -- somehow I'd forgotten. I'm a loyal Stanford alum myself, but, sheez -- that's a 'burb too. If you want idyllic, take a look at Middlebury.

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Anonymous wrote:I think "eye rolling" might be a bit melodramatic, but I've met several people who were interested in applying to Yale and not Harvard. For one thing, more of Yale's graduate programs (chemistry, molecular biology, math, business, economics, etc.) are top tier, as in top 10 or top 20, but not #1-5 in the field compared to Harvard. There are also less than half the number of total graduate students at Yale compared to Harvard--there are 6,000 grad students at Yale, compared to 14,000 at Harvard. This means to some that there appears to be more focus on undergraduate education at Yale, while still providing access to a top notch research university. Since a lot of the time, the more hot shot the professor, the less interaction they have with undergrads, having fewer completely powerhouse graduate programs is not necessarily a bad thing for one's undergraduate institution.

There are other aspects like the intangible fit of the campus for the individual student. But I can totally see why one might prefer the overall vibe of undergrad at Yale vs. Harvard.

I agree with your analysis of the schools, but that leaves out the fact that New Haven is a pit and unfortunately Yale is surrounded by a cesspool of violent crime.

You realize that's how most people outside of this area describe DC as well? Cambridge is nicer for sure (and many will pick Princeton over Yale for the idyllic surroundings), but New Haven looks pretty good these days and the student safety statistics are excellent. If you've spent time on the Yale campus, the residential areas are inside nice quadrangles with Oxford-y looking lawns and gates that are key access and thus secure.

This made me smile -- I grew up in Princeton and DH did his undergrad there -- it's a suburb -- tony, yes, but, far from idyllic.

I'm familiar with Princeton, the Dinky, the black squirrels, etc., but the point is more that for many people the campus itself (which is not in the middle of a big city) fits with what they think of when they think "college campus" (similar to how people react to UVA). From what I can recall, generally people admitted to both Harvard and Yale picked Harvard something like 80-20%, and the Yale-Princeton split was closer to 50-50%, with those who picked Princeton not infrequently citing the campus (or citing New Haven as a negative). I'm a loyal Eli myself, though.