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posterX · 07-10-2007, 09:45 AM

The financial aid numbers above are highly misleading because they only give figures for students receiving direct grants (and not the actual amount of those grants), and therefore do not give you the entire picture. Columbia and Yale are by far the most socioeconomically diverse Ivies, overall.

The problem with the eating clubs at Princeton is that campus social life revolves around them. They involve students from all four years and dominate the "party" scene. That makes the social scene at Princeton totally exclusive: in my experience, the eating clubs are just as (if not more) snobby, segregated and exclusive as anyone might fear. Be prepared for that. At Yale, in contrast, the secret societies are limited to a handful of seniors who spend Thursday and Sunday nights having dinner together. They purposefully try to get a diverse group of 10-15 kids together, and invite non-members to their parties, as opposed to the eating clubs, where it is much more about status and exclusivity. The secret societies at Yale also don't operate on Friday or Saturdays, and since they only involve seniors, their overall impact on campus social life is practically nonexistent. As a result of the lack of eating clubs, as well as the residential college system (the only randomly assigned, comprehensive 4-year college system in the Ivies), Yale is much less segregated, so you find that many different groups are constantly interacting with each other. Harvard is in-between the two in terms of exclusivity because the finals clubs involve younger students (which makes them notoriously exclusive for freshmen males (!); however, Harvard is large enough that, luckily, the campus social life does not *completely* revolve around them and the campus is therefore less segregated. But don't take my word for any of the above - visit each school for 2-3 days each, including a weekend day, sit in on classes and dining halls, and talk to as many students/faculty as possible. That's the only way you'll really get a sense of what the culture of each school is like. I think if you really do this level of research on all three, you'll agree with my characterizations above.

07-10-2007, 09:45 AM	#30
posterX Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Threads: 105 Posts: 2,153	The financial aid numbers above are highly misleading because they only give figures for students receiving direct grants (and not the actual amount of those grants), and therefore do not give you the entire picture. Columbia and Yale are by far the most socioeconomically diverse Ivies, overall. The problem with the eating clubs at Princeton is that campus social life revolves around them. They involve students from all four years and dominate the "party" scene. That makes the social scene at Princeton totally exclusive: in my experience, the eating clubs are just as (if not more) snobby, segregated and exclusive as anyone might fear. Be prepared for that. At Yale, in contrast, the secret societies are limited to a handful of seniors who spend Thursday and Sunday nights having dinner together. They purposefully try to get a diverse group of 10-15 kids together, and invite non-members to their parties, as opposed to the eating clubs, where it is much more about status and exclusivity. The secret societies at Yale also don't operate on Friday or Saturdays, and since they only involve seniors, their overall impact on campus social life is practically nonexistent. As a result of the lack of eating clubs, as well as the residential college system (the only randomly assigned, comprehensive 4-year college system in the Ivies), Yale is much less segregated, so you find that many different groups are constantly interacting with each other. Harvard is in-between the two in terms of exclusivity because the finals clubs involve younger students (which makes them notoriously exclusive for freshmen males (!); however, Harvard is large enough that, luckily, the campus social life does not completely revolve around them and the campus is therefore less segregated. But don't take my word for any of the above - visit each school for 2-3 days each, including a weekend day, sit in on classes and dining halls, and talk to as many students/faculty as possible. That's the only way you'll really get a sense of what the culture of each school is like. I think if you really do this level of research on all three, you'll agree with my characterizations above.