Yale vs Harvard for student interested in public health and maybe pre med

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I’m a current senior deciding between Harvard and Yale (absolutely crazy but I’m so grateful to have this opportunity). I’m interested in pursuing a career in public health or medicine, so I’d be choosing the history and science/history of science, medicine, and public health concentration at Harvard/Yale respectively. I’d also like to do a certificate/certification in French and study abroad in a French speaking country. As for ECs, I’d love to get involved in some student run theatre projects (nothing fancy, but I love costuming and would love to work on some shows, even if they’re not campus’s biggest events). I’d really appreciate any insight into my two choices!

Yale:
What I like-

  • assigned a residential college right away
  • gorgeous campus
  • associated with Yale School of Public Health
  • students all seemed so enthusiastic and happy when I visited
  • lots of support within residential colleges
  • felt very collaborative
  • different options at each dining hall
  • ample research opportunities
    What I don’t like-
  • located in New Haven
  • no global health secondary
  • worried that the party scene might be a bit more intense (and I’m not someone who wants to go out every night)

Harvard:
What I like-

  • located in Cambridge/near Boston
  • global health secondary
  • lots of research/fellowships (more than Yale?)
  • more opportunities just because it’s Harvard and “the best”? (But not sure Yale has significantly less)
  • people say it’s collaborative but I’ve heard otherwise on here
  • world class professors
  • associated with School of Public Health
    What I don’t like-
  • potential to be more competitive
  • students didn’t seem quite as interesting/engaged
  • not as much common green space
  • first years are more isolated
  • houses aren’t assigned from the start
  • campus wasn’t as pretty to me and more spread out than I’d like

Basically, I LOVE Yale but there are parts of Harvard that were also great and I’m worried that Harvard might have more opportunities for me considering its ranking/prestige (but I also want to enjoy college). Any help is greatly appreciated!

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Based on what you wrote above, it seems like Yale is a no brainer - and some of your cons for Yale - like the party scene - they party everywhere - and guess what, many don’t party.

And in your Harvard pros, you say lots of research. Hmmmm - you can go to UMASS Boston and get research - so while you’re sort of giving a con of Yale in your Harvard pro, I don’t think it’s a con at all.

If you seek out research, it will be readily available to you.

Also, you note Harvard has first class profs (but you don’t note that about Yale) so I take that as a slap - and I highly doubt that Yale lacks in this regard.

So you might want to talk yourself out of Yale - but why?

It’s clearly, based on your writings of both schools, the better fit for you.

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So this is not totally definitive but I think it might be helpful for you to see. This is a “top” MD school feeders list, and the second version is per capita:

Harvard and Yale are literally right next to each other (only after Stanford), with the exact same top two med schools–Harvard and then Yale in each case.

My point is just that there is no material difference in institutional placement here. What will matter, though, potentially a lot, is how well you actually do. And how well you do can often be in part a function of how happy you are.

So I would personally choose the college where you think you would be happiest, understanding that is ALSO your best bet for future highly selective next steps like med schools, highly competitive grad programs, and so on, due to this happiness=>performance effect.

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Congratulations on these amazing results.:tada::clap:

Both are stellar. The academic differences you listed are immaterial. There are no differences in terms of support, faculty quality, … or even partying, etc, etc.

There is no possible wrong choice.

It all comes down to subjectives.
Since you prefer the residential system, it seems that Yale is your answer.
But if you ask yourself: which do I prefer? Where feels like I belong? … what answer do you get?

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Here is a point of view from a Yale alum with many Harvard friends who have a similar observation. New Haven does not compare to Cambridge/Boston. However, because of this, Yale students tend to stay on campus for social activities (not just parties), especially on weekends. This creates a better and stronger sense of school community if that is something you value. If you want the Big City experience, NYC is just an easy and cheap train ride away.

There is no difference in opportunities (research, grad/professional school, career) between the two. That will be driven by your own efforts and talents.

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Absolutely, and I think it is important to understand that this is an extremely long-standing branding thing. Yale has long claimed to be the most fun-loving/social option among its closest competitors. And in fact that may well lead to a real effect based on what sorts of students that branding attracts, versus the students who find other branding strategies more attractive.

But the truth is people who go to Yale are mostly still very smart, reasonably hard working, and very ambitious (just like at all these colleges and indeed many more).

Moreover, their specific tastes for what they think is fun will vary by the individual, and indeed evolve over time in many cases.

So, while most Yalies may be inclined to find their own way of holding up the tradition of the fun Yale student, what they actually do for fun? How often, for how long, and so on?
All that is going to vary quite a bit between different Yalies.

Which, again, is really true of all these colleges, it is just maybe a bit more central to the Yale self-conception/self-selection.

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Harvard kids have fun too.

I hope you are visiting both. And maybe on days other than the official visiting days. Maybe you could do an overnight, or at least attend classes and eat in a dining hall. Go to the bookstore, the library, hang out.

I like the way Harvard is integrated into the community (I like to sit in the yard) but get that you might prefer a more contained campus. Make sure to go to the river houses at Harvard.

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@24pm, I got an impression from your post that Yale could be a better cultural fit for you, considering the range of your plans and interests. I think you already made the decision. Both are amazing schools! Congratulations!
I am a little biased, my daughter is a freshman at Yale and absolutely loves it! Seems it was easier for her to join clubs/music ensembles she was interested in, compared to experience of her friends in Harvard. There is a lot of built-in support for undergrads at Yale. Visit both schools and decide!

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Yes, I completely left the professors out of the Yale pros!

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Net price is similar?

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New Haven is New Haven. My Yalie loved it! They were also a cross admit with Harvard. As a parent there seems to be a lot more support built in for your first year at Yale. More so than Harvard. I think a lot is equal with the schools amazing professors, research opportunities. (you can’t go wrong) I think it comes down to fit and where you see yourself being happy. From all the cross admits I have meet their decision was pretty easy as as similar the schools are on paper they are very different in person.

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should be if not they will recalculate to get closer in price.

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You sound a bit more like a Yalie to me, but if you aren’t sure, go through their course catalogs (and curricula, as well as you can) to decide which is the better academic fit. Then, obviously, visit both – you likely will know which setting and vibe you prefer.

Congratulations on having the opportunity to make this decision.

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Yes, about the same so not a big factor

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Why specifically do you say I seem more like a yalie?

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Sometimes these decisions depend on chance, which is fine since they are really equal if different.

Our Yale tour guide was intense, amped up, and talked a lot about money provided. Our Harvard tour guide was super chill and a small group was singing a capella in the yard. Pure chance.

Also, we noted that Yale required more classes/semester and more gen eds (check this, it was several years ago) and my artist kid wanted time to do EC’s.

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Not the person you asked, but I would agree with that sentiment. The way I would put it, you have concerns about the culture/vibe at Harvard that make you seem to me like the sort of person who typically chooses Yale over Harvard, which of course becomes a sort of self-reinforcing effect.

In contrast, your concerns about Yale mostly seem not so much about thing central to the student experience at Yale, aside from the one about the intensity of the partying. And I would agree that is not really a well-founded concern because I do not think Yale’s social scene is really like that (see above post).

That said, it appears you are struggling a bit with the common notion that Harvard is arguably the most famous/prestigious/braggy college on the planet. Of course Yale is way up there too, but arguably in fact Harvard is the most like that of all.

And if you feel like Yale would be a happier place for you but you choose Harvard instead for that reason, well, so much for you sounding more to us like a Yalie! Because obviously Yalies typically would make the opposite choice.

And I don’t say this to suggest you are wrong to think about all this, but I do think in some sense when you get down to decisions like this, you are kinda deciding what sort of person you want to be in the future. Like, what parts of who you are now are you most going to develop and build on in college, and what parts of you now will you instead treat as secondary? There is no right or wrong objectively, but based on what you have said, for you choosing Yale would be choosing one version of you, and choosing Harvard would be choosing another version of you, and so you have to decide which of those people you would rather become.

Edit: By the way, I want to acknowledge it is hard to write posts like this without some sort of implicit perspective of your own coming through. And I think it is sort of an eternal fact that Yalies often suggest Harvard kids are overly braggy and status conscious, and Harvard kids will often suggest Yalies are insufferably smug. Like, freakin’ Yalies are always acting like they are better, more fun people than the people at Harvard, and they just refuse to acknowledge it can be perfectly reasonable to prefer Harvard for all sorts of legitimate academic or career reasons, or indeed just because it is in Boston, and not because of the name.

And I think in some ways that is a fair criticism, and yet . . . I don’t actually believe they are really identical substitutes culturally and socially, and I do think it can make a difference which you choose.

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The student bodies at these schools are made up of many individuals. The way admissions works is to assemble an interesting class with different backgrounds and interests. I honestly don’t think it is productive to characterize a student body at either school in any general way, as “better for parties,” or “more competitive.” but that’s my view. (I had a laid back kid at Harvard and an intense kid at Brown, go figure.)

I think visits will resolve your dilemma a lot more than any discussion here. Your decision may even depend on some chance encounters and observations. There is no perfect decision process (if costs are equal) and in your case, no bad outcome. Good luck!

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Of course this is a problem with describing the culture of any place with a lot of people–on an individual level there will be a lot of variation.

And yet, having visited and lived in a number of different places, I do think differences in local culture have often made a difference to my experiences in those places.

I think you can reconcile this just by understanding that precise difference, between culture and individual, and having an appropriately realistic expectations for individual variation.

But that’s just my own sense of things based on my experiences.

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They are both superb. In terms of reputation, quality of teaching, and research opportunities, I do not think that there is any meaningful difference at all.

I have not looked closely at the study abroad options for either Harvard or Yale. However, I would be confident that they are both very good.

In terms of studying in a French speaking country, there are some obvious ones (France comes to mind, Switzerland is another option). However, I would also keep Quebec in mind as one option. In Montreal you could choose either an English speaking university (McGill or Concordia) in a largely bilingual part of a majority French city, or a French speaking university (such as Universite de Montreal).

I am not familiar with New Haven. I like Harvard Square quite a bit and think that it would be a great place to spend four years.

Otherwise, I think that you simply have two great choices. Reading your original post to me it looks like you think that Yale is a better fit. If so then I think that it is a great choice. I also think that Harvard is a great choice. I think that there will be lots of research opportunities at either school. I think that there will be some highly competitive and uncooperative students at either school, and there will also be some cooperative and collaborative students at either school. I also think that in the end the collaborative students will gain a lot from being collaborative. This is life, and particularly life among very smart and competitive people.

I think that there will be lots and lots of opportunities at either of these two great universities. I also think that “prestige” is mostly for high school students, and both of these universities are very prestigious.

Exactly right.

Congratulations on these two great acceptances. Plan to work hard regardless of which school you pick.

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