<p>How in God’s name do you say that x is better than y and by a slight margin? I’m sorry but it’s all nonsense. Unless you actually go to both schools, you’re absolutely guessing. Sure Princeton has fewer graduate students but Yale & Harvard have more resources and thus more to put into undergraduate education and, in addition, they attract professors because they work with grad students. Bottom line is no one knows and these are impressions only.</p>
<p>I went to Yale back in the Cretaceous Era and that was because my father said, “I’ll only pay to send you to Harvard, Yale or Michigan,” the last being where we lived and with a bunch of family connections. H & Y then gave you ratings after receiving your application - likely meant you were in, possible was a coin toss and the other was no, whatever word they used. I got a likely from Yale and a possible from Harvard so I decided Yale liked me better - and I didn’t want to room at Harvard with my best friend because I could smell that being a disaster. Michigan sent a handwritten note asking me to come. </p>
<p>These are perfectly good reasons. Maybe you’re a New Yorker and New Haven is closer - and believe it or not stays open later than Cambridge / Boston. Maybe Harvard’s more overt paternalism and snobbishness turns you off. Maybe Yale’s sense of show turns you on. Maybe there’s a particular professor you’ve heard of. Maybe some whack part of your brain thinks Yale is somehow more society. Maybe you want to get into Skull & Bones - or at least Scroll & Key - so you can not tell people you’re in a secret society.</p>
<p>But if you’re not from the northeast, then Harvard stands out more as the big name brand so of course more kids pick it. </p>
<p>But I have to say that once there and now with connections to H and to other schools, I don’t see any real differences other than personal preferences. Harvard has its clubs, Princeton its eating clubs and Yale its societies. One can argue the most excluding and thus least welcoming is Princeton, then Harvard, then Yale but that again is a personal ranking.</p>