<p>I go to MIT but a ton of my closest friends from high school go to Harvard and I’ve spent tons of time there; my impression was there’s an excellent sense of community but you need thick skin. It’s not a school that will hold your hand in that sense of “community” but if you can take the bad days and take everyone not being sweet as pie all the time, people are absolutely thrilled to be there and have a really solid bond with their roommates/entryway/house (Harvard’s like Hogwarts – there’s a house system that you get ‘sorted’ into that really facilitates community, social life and meeting students from all 3 years after freshman year). Compared to my friends from almost every other school including supposedly more “fun” schools, my Harvard friends are by far the happiest with the whole experience (and not just cause it’s ‘Harvard’ – you seem to forget about that a few weeks in).</p>