Harvard, Yale, or Princeton (Undergrad)?
I’ve received all the answers necessary to make my decision: from both online and in-person sources. I’ve removed all information on this post accordingly.
Can’t go wrong with Harvard. Congratulations man
congrats. think these are similar in terms of career prospects and just comes down to what works best for you. I would consider school culture, financial aid package, proximity to home etc when making the decision, putting the most weight on what matters most to you
From what I have read across this forum and others, at all three you can pretty much place at will at almost any firm if you do well at any of those three. I think I would just ask myself, 1. "What are my non-negotiables for where I go to school?", "Which schools do or don't hit all my non-negotiables?" Do I want a big city (harvard) small city (yale) or something a bit more suburban/small town (princeton)?", You should also think about general culture and fit, if you can, I would recommend visiting because as I am searching for colleges, I feel like I am really getting a sense of if the place is right for me based on that immediate "sense" when I step on campus. In general congrats, I am also in HS currently, I hate to be that guy, but would you be willing to send me your stats or EC's because getting accepted to all 3 is just insane.
If you really “hate to be that guy,” then you should aspire to literally not be that guy who hijacks the thread for yourself. Stats are widely available on CC if you want and getting accepted to all three is more luck than anything else
I made an effort to answer his original question and politely asked if he was willing to share his stats. I'm not "hijacking" anything, I responded to his original question and asked what he did to achieve the almost impossible trifecta of acceptances, only if you were an admissions officer would you know if it truly is "all luck" more than anything else. Asking for advice on WSO is commonplace among financial professionals, let alone HS students. Asking for help is the entire basis of alumni networks and this forum. Also, buddy, you gotta chill, you have chosen to be "that guy," a presumed working adult who calls out HS students on online forums for asking a fellow student how to achieve in higher education😹
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I honestly wonder how many students in the entire US get admitted to the trifecta every year. It must be quite astonishingly low. I don't think I have accomplished anything this impressive my entire life!
Ignore title - current senior at P. Can't really go wrong with any of them. H gives you the biggest & most useful network by far (undergrad + HBS + HLS + other grad alum). P alumni are extremely helpful and will respond to most coffee chats/networking requests, assuming you have some intelligence and are generally sociable. Y is Y. Surprised H is cheaper than P for you - P gave me a ton of financial aid (didn't get into H but have friends with comparable economic backgrounds).
Finance is not the end-all-be-all - you will end up fine regardless of which of these schools you go to. Social life and the overall school environment should frankly come first before squeezing out some iota of advantage by choosing one of H/Y/P over the other two. P really does have a gorgeous campus though and the traditional finance folks (consulting, IB, PE) are generally fine. Slightly full of themselves (myself included) but that sort of comes with finance and doubt it's unique to P.
You absolutely cannot go wrong here-- you have achieved what very few people have. Massive congratulations.
The only axis I would offer you advise on is if you want a bigger class size or a smaller class size. As the dude above me said, if you go to Harvard, you get more networks, but probably less of a close knit squad. If you go to Princeton, you probably have a tighter alumni network/ more professor interactions etc.
As a Dartmouth grad, I would go Princeton, but again, no wrong answers here.
Dude congrats man cant go wrong with either 3
Fuck Princeton. Absolutely heinous grade deflation.
Absolutely correct - and not a widely know fact in the marketplace which makes it worse. With the diversity push over the last 10years the ivy name doesnt have the pulling power it used to. Most companies prefer a high GPA from a semi target than a lower GPA from an ivy. I recommend noone goes to Princeton because of the grade deflation.
Grade deflation is helpful, really. Maybe you guys can reach a point where some people actually walk around with fair grades. Like whats the point of having grades, if everyone easily gets the best one? In our class of business administration we had 400 people. exactly 5 of them hit the perfect 1.0 (4.0 equivalent). Its just unlucky that it only happens for one school.
Harvard no question
I picked Harvard only because they have fantastic grade inflation - know several people who went there recently. My daughter went to Princeton and because of the grade deflation - its tough. We have seen internal Princeton data/graphs and the average GPA for Econ every year is put at around 3.2 and Engineering is 3.4. It's brutal unless you major in eg slavic languages. We know kids who went to Harvard - pick Harvard for the grade inflation!
3.2 or 3.4 is brutal ???
Thats very surprising. Now I dont have to wonder anymore, why grades are only such a small factor in recruiting. If you get a 3.4 (equivalent) in engineering undergrad here, it would put you in the upper 5% immediately.
I’m sure you’re correct - but the question was just about an HYP comparison.
I went to Harvard for b-school. Great experience, great location, undergrad campus is very nice.
I would not consider the money at all—unless you have personal circumstances in which near term money is very tight. If it’s a matter of $50k loans vs $100k vs $120k, I would not consider it at all.
I would just base the decision on where you get the best feel on campus. All of them are so on par academically that that won’t be a differentiator. The differentiator will be where you have the best cultural fit which will bring out the best in you. That will be the biggest factor in determining your trajectory out of school
Congrats!
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/harvard-announces-free-tuition-families-making-200k-annually-rcna196729
I'm gonna assume that USD 100k of debt from H is in the form of him needing to cover all non-tuition related expenses. My read is that if the P financial aid package has him taking out anything more than USD 160k in debt, he should go to H. Otherwise, I think that incremental USD 60k (or less) of debt is worth it as a price for going to your dream school (especially when its Princeton).
How much does P leave you in debt? If it's anything less than USD 160-170k, you should take it. That additional 60-70k in debt is a fair price to pay to go to your dream school.
Other commenters have given great insight into the other considerations at play.
You can get any of them to match the lowest one's financial aid usually. Just contact their admissions or financial aid office.
Also worth a try. H has an absurdly high matriculation yield rate (80% I believe), so I think P's fin aid department would throw some more money towards you if you insist to them P's your dream school (which since it is it'll be an authentic ask).
Where did you ultimately decide to matriculate into?
Harvard College
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