Harvard University vs. Yale University
The two campuses sit a couple of hours apart on the same New England rail line, and they swap students for the same football game every November, so picture where you'd actually live for four years. Harvard drops you into Cambridge, across the river from Boston, with the Yard and Widener Library under the kind of snow that defines a real winter. Yale keeps you in New Haven, smaller and more self-contained, where you'd belong to one of the residential colleges from the day you arrive and orbit it the whole time. That college system shapes Yale's strengths. Interdisciplinary programs, history, and the humanities grow straight out of it. Harvard leans the other way once you get past the social sciences both schools share: its next tier runs quantitative, biology and math and computer science and the physical sciences, and the catalog points you toward pre-professional work. One more practical split: Harvard makes you sit the SAT or ACT, while Yale lets an AP or IB score stand in. If you want a tight residential home base and the humanities to run your four years, New Haven is your campus.
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Acceptance Rate
Total applicants, admitted students, and enrolled students for the most recent admission cycle.
Early Action
Harvard offers Restrictive (single-choice) Early Action — non-binding, but you may not apply early to other private colleges.
Standardized Tests
Harvard requires standardized test scores for all applicants.
SAT Accepted?
ACT Accepted?
Test Optional?
SAT Scores
ACT Scores
Class Rank
Harvard does not report this.
Not reported
Admissions Factors
How Harvard weighs each part of your application.
Rigor of High School Record
Academic GPA
Standardized Test Scores
Application Essay
Recommendations
Extracurricular Activities
Character / Personal Qualities
Talent / Ability
First Generation
Level of Applicant's Interest
Class Rank
Volunteer Work
Work Experience
Geographical Residence
State Residency
Alumni Relation
Racial / Ethnic Status
Religious Affiliation
Cost of Attendance
Estimated full-time annual cost from Harvard's Common Data Set.
Private universities charge the same tuition regardless of state residency.
Financial Aid
Need-based aid statistics for full-time first-year students.
Major Distribution
Bachelor's degrees awarded in the past year by academic major.
Student Diversity
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduate students.
Student-Faculty Ratio
The number of students for every one faculty member, indicating the average level of access students have to instructional staff.
Campus Life
On-campus housing and Greek life participation rates.
Enrollment by Gender
Since some students did not report gender, totals may not fully reflect the student body.
Acceptance Rate
Total applicants, admitted students, and enrolled students for the most recent admission cycle.
Early Action
Yale offers Restrictive (single-choice) Early Action — non-binding, but you may not apply early to other private colleges.
Standardized Tests
Yale requires standardized test scores for all applicants.
SAT Accepted?
ACT Accepted?
Test Optional?
SAT Scores
ACT Scores
Class Rank
Where Yale's enrolled first-years placed in their high school graduating class.
Based on the 31% of enrolled students who reported a class rank. Yale does not publish an average GPA.
Admissions Factors
How Yale weighs each part of your application.
Rigor of High School Record
Academic GPA
Standardized Test Scores
Application Essay
Recommendations
Extracurricular Activities
Character / Personal Qualities
Talent / Ability
First Generation
Level of Applicant's Interest
Class Rank
Volunteer Work
Work Experience
Geographical Residence
State Residency
Alumni Relation
Racial / Ethnic Status
Religious Affiliation
Cost of Attendance
Estimated full-time annual cost from Yale's Common Data Set.
Private universities charge the same tuition regardless of state residency.
Financial Aid
Need-based aid statistics for full-time first-year students.
Major Distribution
Bachelor's degrees awarded in the past year by academic major.
Student Diversity
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduate students.
Student-Faculty Ratio
The number of students for every one faculty member, indicating the average level of access students have to instructional staff.
Campus Life
On-campus housing and Greek life participation rates.
Enrollment by Gender
Since some students did not report gender, totals may not fully reflect the student body.
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Harvard vs. Yale: frequently asked questions
Is it harder to get into Harvard or Yale?＋
Harvard edges out Yale on selectivity, admitting about 3.6% of applicants last cycle against Yale's 4.7%. Test scores among admits run a hair higher in Cambridge too: a middle-50% SAT of 1510–1580 and ACT of 34–36, next to Yale's 1470–1560 and 33–35. Since both turn away most applicants who arrive with near-perfect grades, the practical gap for any individual candidate stays small.
Do Harvard and Yale have the same testing requirements?＋
No, they differ. Harvard requires the SAT or ACT from every applicant, full stop. Yale runs a test-flexible policy: you still have to submit scores, but you can satisfy that with the SAT, ACT, AP, or IB, which opens up more paths to the same bar. Neither school went test-optional.
Is Harvard or Yale cheaper?＋
On the sticker price Harvard comes in lower, charging about $64,796 a year in tuition and fees versus Yale's $72,500. Families who qualify for aid see that gap close almost entirely, since both meet 100% of demonstrated need and land near-identical average packages of roughly $74,387 at Harvard and $74,353 at Yale. Yale packages its aid with no loans, while Harvard asks nothing of families earning under $85,000.
Is Harvard or Yale better for the humanities?＋
Yale leans harder into the humanities. Beyond the social sciences, its most-conferred degrees include history and a sizable block of interdisciplinary programs. Harvard's top majors skew quantitative after the social sciences, running through biological sciences, mathematics and statistics, and computer science. A student dead-set on history will simply see that emphasis reflected more clearly in Yale's degree mix, though both schools deliver across every field.
How do you show your GPA when Harvard reports one and Yale doesn't?＋
Harvard hands you a number to aim at, publishing an average enrolled GPA of about 4.21. Yale skips the GPA figure and reports class rank instead: roughly 97% of ranked first-years came from the top tenth of their high school class and 99% from the top quarter. Read together, both point at the same admit: top grades earned in the toughest courses a school offers.
Is Harvard or Yale bigger?＋
Roughly the same. Harvard enrolls about 7,038 undergraduates and Yale 6,667, and class sizes stay tight at both, with student-faculty ratios of 7:1 at Harvard and 8.8:1 at Yale. At the undergraduate level you won't feel a real difference in scale.
Source: Harvard University Common Data Set 2024-2025. Figures transcribed 2026-06-05. Esslo aggregates publicly reported data and is not affiliated with Harvard. Banner photo by Chris Rycroft, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
Source: Yale University Common Data Set 2025-2026. Figures transcribed 2026-06-06. Esslo aggregates publicly reported data and is not affiliated with Yale. Banner photo by Gunnar Klack, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).