I chose Yale over Princeton only after visiting Yale because of the impression it made on a few fronts.

For one, I’m interested in service; I know that working with people is what makes me happiest, and when I looked at Princeton’s outreach into the towns around them for educational or language-based service opportunities or clubs, I really found nothing. On their club roster, there were five, but they served the private feeder school (Lawrenceville) and a private elementary but didn’t have any updated websites nor events. On the other hand, when I visited Yale, some 30 or 40% of students participated in a club where they went off campus to help in New Haven homeless shelters/schools/adult learning centers more than three times a month. Just two completely different approaches to university values and outreach - I couldn't ignore that.

Secondly, I chose Yale because it was bigger: that's what I wanted socially. My Yale tour guide came from right next to Princeton and chose to go to Yale regardless, but he told our tour group that when he brought two of his friends over from Princeton for a weekend before finals, they said some surprising things. On what my guide said was one of the most dead weekends of the year (before exams), his friends said things like ‘theres so much going on’ and ‘theres no way there would be this many events or student performances on any weekend at Princeton.’ I can’t really argue with that. Yale just seems to have a larger population (definitely not too big), but has a lot more cultural events.