Admitted! It feels unreal.

Opensecret
Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:50:33 +0000

Harvard and Princeton are both, obviously, very strong, but they have distinct personalities. If you know what you want in a college, one should fit better than the other. One question is whether one or the other offers more in the particular academic and extracurricular activities that are most important to you. (Princeton usually has stronger basketball, for example, but only Harvard does policy debate.) Harvard is much larger, more urban, and more heavily oriented toward graduate education (more graduate than undergraduate students). The ideal Harvard student is a very intellectual self-starter who is happy making her own way and isn’t looking for anyone to hold her hand. Princeton is more small-town, compact, undergraduate-focused, and leafy; it’s more rah-rah, and the social side of things looms larger. Ideal student is very bright, balanced, and looking for a strong sense of community. But I don’t want to overstate the differences – the ideal Harvard student will probably do fine at Princeton, and vice-versa.