<p>Thanks crimson15mom! I attended my local Harvard club’s reception and I met several Fuppies. I am definitely interested in the program! The political agenda doesn’t worry me at all. I mainly will use the opportunity to learn about the volunteering opportunities at Harvard and getting to know the area better. Several students said that FUP is great for potential social studies concentrators–that is what I plan on concentrating in at Harvard. </p>
<p>Thanks for all of the insight.</p>
<p>Hi new H parents! Quillabee, it’s nice to have a new fellow Georgian around here! 
The T from Logan to Harvard is quite safe and costs $1.70. Cab fare is > $40. Pepper spray sounds like a good idea, but you actually need to have a license to carry it in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>Hi
I really appreciate this thread for the amount of information I can get specially since my wife and I are Peruvian immigrants and we are achieving the american dream. My son was accepted in EA. He wants to study Biological Science. I have two questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>My son decided to apply RA to Princeton. We visited twice and he liked it over H campus. However since he was accepted EA to Harvard, I want to know if any parents have been in the same situation and any suggestion how to help him in the decision (if gets accepted to P) will be appreciated.</p></li>
<li><p>My son told us that we need to fill the CSS form to start the financial aid process. Any information or what thread to look for will be helpful. WE have just started to look at the FAFSA form too.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hello espinlh, welcome to the Harvard thread. I don’t have an answer for #1, hopefully someone will answer very soon. We have many parents on here that are fabulous and have lot’s of great info.</p>
<h1>2, yes fill out the CSS profile asap! you can find that on the “collegeboard” website.</h1>
<p>best of luck!</p>
<p>Hi espinlh,</p>
<p>Whilst I am not a parent, I would like to give you my $0.02 as someone who made the decision between the two schools recently. The two schools are very similar. Princeton arguably has a better focus on undergraduate studies (but not so much so that it would make Harvard ‘worse’). And FWIW, I too found that Princeton’s campus is more attractive than Harvard’s. (Quasi-oxibridge feel FTW. ) Moreover, if your son is looking at Applied Sciences, Princeton has undoubtedly a superior engineering program. </p>
<p>That been said, I personally chose Harvard over Princeton, and the reason I did so was merely an issue of fit. I felt that I related more with the campus culture at Harvard than at Princeton and really did enjoy it more when I visited. If and when deciding between these two very fine institutions, fit should be the most important consideration (with perhaps finances and intended area of study coming next). Your son has already expressed and interest for Princeton and that should be indicative. Make sure you visit again during Princeton Preview and Visitas and see whether this preference holds over then next few months. If it so does, he should ‘follow his heart’. (But do note this preference can change over the next few months. I thought I really wanted to go to Stanford, that changed when I was making my decision… :)</p>
<p>Good luck and a hearty congratulations to your son! I really do hope he figures out what he wants!</p>
<p>Hi espinlh
There was no EA last year but my D did receive a likely letter from H about this time. I insisted she waited till april 1st to see what her options were. After she found out she was also accepted to P, she attended both Princeton preview and H Visitas. Though she loved the Princeton campus, she just didn’t feel quite belong. I think the feeling of visiting at Preview would be different from simple campus visits. My advice is to go to both prefrosh programs and go from there.</p>
<p>espinlh,</p>
<p>Below is a post I wrote years ago on the Princeton board to summarize in concise form all the Harvard vs Princeton threads. It’s a joke post, but most of the arguments still hold true today.</p>
<p>Handy Tool to Streamline Harvard vs. Princeton Arguments</p>
<p>I’m concerned about carpal tunnel syndrome breaking out on this board, so I’ve developed this handy tool to make the perpetual H vs P threads quicker, easier, and more efficient. Below are 14 assertions for each school that are made over and over again pretty much every time this argument breaks out, which is about weekly.</p>
<p>The Harvard people should use the numbered points; the Princeton crowd should use the lettered points.</p>
<p>For Harvard Partisans:</p>
<p>1) Harvard is ranked #1 by USNWR
2) The Revealed Preferences Survey shows that when they have a choice students far prefer Harvard over Princeton
3) Princeton has elitist, exclusive eating clubs
4) Eating clubs are very expensive
5) Unlike Eating Clubs, Final Clubs have a minuscule impact on school social life
6) Princeton lacks the academic strength and enhanced research opportunities that professional schools and strong grad programs bring to a campus
7) Cambridge is a much more fun town than boring, suburban Princeton
8) Princeton is just a Harvard/Yale wannabe that can’t get over its institutional inferiority complex
9) I’m a current student at Harvard and I can tell you that all the bad things you hear about it just aren’t true
10) Princeton students are all preppy, elitist snobs
11) Harvard is free for anyone making $60K or less
12) I visited Princeton and I hated it
13) Here is an article from Princeton’s own newspaper confirming all the bad things about it
14) You are just a Harvard-bashing Princeton ■■■■■.</p>
<p>For Princeton Partisans:</p>
<p>A) Princeton is ranked #1 by USNWR
B) The COHFE survey shows that Harvard students are unhappy and dissatisfied with their school
C) Harvard has Final Clubs which unlike Eating Clubs are single sex
D) Anyone can eat at an Eating Club
E) Eating Clubs don’t cost anything extra
F) Princeton has great undergrad focus and isn’t distracted by professional and grad schools
G) Princeton’s Gothic campus is much more beautiful than Harvard’s dreary pile of bricks
H) Harvard is just a famous brand name that doesn’t live up to the hype
I) I’m a current student at Princeton and I can tell you that all the bad things you hear about it just aren’t true
J) Harvard students are all pompous, competitive cutthroats
K) Princeton gives the most generous financial aid of any school
L) I visited Harvard and I hated it
M) Here is an article from Harvard’s own newspaper confirming all the bad things about it
N) You are just a Princeton-bashing Harvard ■■■■■</p>
<p>There it is. Now the way this works is that the next time someone starts one of these H vs P threads, save us all a lot of time and typing by simply posting the number or letter that corresponds to the argument you are making. E.g. when someone posts “F” you can quickly respond to that argument by merely typing “6”, or maybe “6!” if you are particularly worked up about that point.</p>
<p>See? It’s easy and allows anyone to quickly join the argument without knowing anything (although not knowing anything has never stopped anybody from arguing in the past). With my new tool these tiresome threads can be brought to conclusion in just one day instead of the usual two weeks.</p>
<p>Try it. You’ll like it!</p>
<p>Nicely done, coureur. 2,3,5,7,8
To which I would only add, 15) Princeton? Is that in New Jersey?</p>
<p>Haha, coureur! Love it.</p>
<p>espinlh,
My S had been lucky enough to chose between H, Y and P. His final decision came after his visits to all three campus in April. I would suggest that your son visit Harvard for the Visitas weekend before making any final decision. Either H or P would be great for your son and it will really come down to where he will be happiest. From my perspective as a parent, I believe that a lack of professional schools at Princeton is actually a drawback. Without a medical school, there is only very limited top level biological research at Princeton. Harvard’s campus probably is the ugliest among HYP, but being in the Boston metro has its advantage as there are 30-40 really great colleges and universities in the area, it creats a great intellectual autosphere. In this aspect, both P and Y are a bit isolated.</p>
<p>espinlh - Congratulations to your son! Obviously, there is no wrong choice there. You may or may not find a significant difference in financial aid - our second daughter had the Harvard - Yale choice and found that Yale would have cost her over $20,000 more per year (Harvard financial aid is awesome).</p>
<p>With two daughters at Harvard, I’ve been extremely impressed at the diversity and global nature of the campus. It’s a melting pot of the world’s great young people, in the most invigorating college student metropolis in America.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the replies.
I do believe that there is nothing wrong with both but we want to listen to different opinions.
My son will attend Visitas and if gets accepted to Princeton he will visit it too.
I do agree that Princeton campus is more attracting but Boston is more cosmopolitan than New Jersey. I know that Harvard financial aid is probably better, but we want still compare ig he gets accepted to Princeton with a good financial package.</p>
<p>We are also exploring other scholarship options so we can avoid any loans.</p>
<p>In the end it is an arational choice–which is, in reality, how we make all important choices. Your child will have a gut feeling (and the term is more than merely rhetorical as the neural plexus in the gut is profoundly complex and plays a role (what role isn’t yet known) in cognition and decision making) as to where he belongs. And whatever that choice is–it will be the correct one for him. </p>
<p>My S was convinced he wanted to stay in the UK and read maths and instead is at Harvard and concentrating in music (and math–no “s”)–my D was convinced she wanted a urban university where it is “warm” and will be at Williams–cold, rural and a liberal arts college – why because when they made their visits something “clicked” for them at their respective choices where it did not at the others regardless of all of the pros/cons each of them had made on some sheet of paper.</p>
<p>My S is beyond over the moon at Harvard and my D is so happy that she is going to Williams-- so in the end, have them trust their guts. As the Bard put it: “to thine own self be true…”</p>
<p>Just want to point out one thing, H’s financial aid is not always better. I believe it varies depending on your personal situation. Two years ago, our S was accepted EA to Yale, then applied H, P and MIT. The financial aid he received from each school ranked as 1) Yale 2) Harvard 3) Princeton 4) MIT. However, after we contacted H with Yale’s number, H increased the amount though H did not match Y’s number. Since our D is also in H, H increased her financial aid also, so it worked out for us. And both kids are very happy at H.</p>
<p>For people on the very low income end, the financial aid will be pretty much equal for HYP. For people on the very high end, it will be zero for all three. The subtle but not inconsequential difference exists for people in the middle income range. Princeton is clearly less generous than H and Y, and frequently, Y’s number will be better for people who live outside the major metro areas. The reason is quite simple, Harvard makes an ajustment to the cost of living in their financial aid calculation based on geographical locations. Yale’s calculation appears to be less nuanced.</p>
<p>Just want to point out that we live in a major metro area. To this day, I still unable to figure out how do they make the calculation. Our D is graduating this year, that will mark end of our financial aid :(.</p>
<p>Our kids’ grandparents established college funds in each of their names when they were born and we contributed to those over time. We didn’t realize when they were established that students’ assets are typically hit at a much higher rate in the financial aid calculation that are assets in the parents’ names. That’s why our D got much better aid from H than Y; H chooses to assess student assets at the same 5.6% that they do parental assets. Yale assesses them at the more typical 25%.</p>
<p>@cltdad I’m heading to Jr Parent Weekend, too. I booked a flight and hotel, but cannot find any information on the web site. (I did make a few meaningful searches, but they yielded articles from previous years.) Please post anything you have. I’m looking forward to hearing what they have to say about graduate school.</p>
<p>For those interested in FIP, my daughter really enjoyed it and found most of the information useful. It is designed for international students and their needs, so the few US citizens raised abroad might find it a little less helpful. She no longer participates much with Woodbridge, though, so does not know if the program has changed.</p>
<p>I did FIP and for the most part found the panels unnecessary. Though that might be because I went to an international school and thus did not have the ‘culture shock’ that many international students do have. Some panels, however, were extremely useful such as those on employment, visa status and ssn numbers as well as some that gave insightful information of Harvard in particular. Another aspect of the program I really liked is that they took us out to buy cellphones and open bank accounts. What I’d suggest is that your students should do FIP but understand that they do not have to go for all panels. I personally decided to go to only the panels I deemed necessary after sitting trough too many that gave me information I already knew. I really like the knew director of international freshman affairs who heads FIP and I intend to be a FIP leader this fall as well. Hopefully we can tailor this year’s program to accommodate the varied backgrounds of the freshman international class.</p>
<p>Ronsard - I assume that you have looked at this Harvard site [Junior</a> Parents Weekend - Class of 2013 Office of Student Life](<a href=“http://osl.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k65178&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup139464]Junior”>http://osl.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k65178&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup139464) for JPW information. My wife and I went to the JPW in 2010 and 2011 and the schedules for both were similar to the one posted for the 2011 JPW. Last year there was a panel discussion on graduate schools and a lot of emphasis on “What’s next”. I attended lectures by various professors both times and found them fascinating. Be sure to attend all of the events related to your daughter’s house (there is usually a Master’s tea or cocktail party and the parents can attend a dinner in the House dining hall). Enjoy everything you can. Their last year will seem to go by quickly and you will find yourself wondering what you may have missed.</p>