On November 17, 2023, thousands of Harvard students and alumni will trek to New Haven, Connecticut for a weekend of school spirit, tomfoolery, and camaraderie. This Harvard-Yale football game marks the 139th game between the famous Ivy rivals. The game starts at 12pm this Saturday, but most students kick off their H-Y weekend on Friday for sleepovers in Yale dorms, hotels, and parties with their (or their friends’) friends.
Havard-Yale weekend is a marathon, not a sprint. After driving, busing, and training down to New Haven, hordes of energized, freezing, and intoxicated college students will populate Toads, Yale’s college bar, or buy $42 tickets to attend a party with Yale’s favorite up-and-coming DJ. After passing out on random Yale students’ floors or in an overpopulated hotel room, they will jolt awake at 7 AM to pregame and head to the tailgate. After drinking the day away, they will attend—hopefully—some part of the game.
We know who wins each Harvard-Yale game. But who wins the Harvard-Yale weekend? Surprisingly, and perhaps upsettingly, Yale.
At Yale, Greek life, secret societies, and the notorious undergraduate bar, Toad’s Place, dominate the social scene. Yalies love Woad’s, the affectionate term for Wednesday Yale-only night at Toad’s. Opportunities for a good time don’t stop there—Yalies also enjoy Greek life parties or, for the few second-semester juniors selected, secret societies.
Meanwhile, on a typical Harvard weekend, students flock to final clubs and student organization parties in Cambridge. Students over 21 can enjoy Boston’s nightlife for a change of pace.
“Yale has more diverse options for socializing at the game because you have Toad’s, and you have societies, and you have Greek life,” said Chloe Kimball, a Yale alum who graduated in 2019.
During years in which the Game is hosted at Yale, Harvard and Yale students often race to Toad’s on Friday or partake in Yale’s fraternity or society parties. Conversely, final club lists and ticketed events in Boston make Harvard-hosted years tough for college students who aren’t of age or don’t have connections to the final club scene. Last year, clubs co-hosted events at Boston sports bars or nightclubs, restricting access to students over 21 or those who could purchase tickets ahead of time. Many finals clubs were unable to host in their respective spaces because of alumni in town for the weekend.
Nico Checa, a junior at Yale, described Yale students’ trouble finding a social outlet Friday night at Harvard.
“A lot of [Yale students] found the tickets for these events to be financially prohibitive or morally prohibitive; they just didn’t want to pay. Typically, people don’t pay for these events at Yale. And if they are, the price is typically much lower.”
“Most of my friends agree that the game was so much more fun [at Yale]. And that we also have better parties,” said Yale junior Evita Thadhani. “There was one frat [at Yale], and it was just crazy. The party was so crowded, and it was so fun. I feel like at Harvard, it didn’t feel like there was one particular place where people were.”
For Harvard first-years who have yet to cement their roots in clubs and organizations, attending the game at Yale is arguably much better. “Freshmen wouldn’t probably have anywhere to go out; so yeah, [the game at Harvard] would suck as a first year,” said Kieran Kelly ’25.
Kelly also reflected on the novelty of being in a new environment when the game takes place at Yale, particularly for freshmen. “It was so fun to be in a new place. Also, I think it felt more spirited because we were at Yale, so we felt like we needed to, like lean into it more.”
Many Harvard upperclassmen who have settled into their niche social scene prefer the Harvard-hosted games.
“Now feeling more comfortable at Harvard and within a Harvard social scene, I think that I would be more excited about a game and tailgate at Harvard. While it does have the potential to be really exclusive, I think that if leaders of social organizations on campus made an effort, the game at Harvard could be really fun,” said Abby Fennelly ’24.
“As an underclassman, I think I would have preferred Yale. Harvard’s social scene really excludes freshmen for the most part. So I think that it was nice knowing that like, everybody could go to Toad’s. If I were a first-year at Harvard, I don’t know that I would have [had access to parties]. But now, I would definitely say I prefer Harvard,” said Fennelly.
While some might argue that Yale wins the nights of HY, who rules gameday?
Both schools’ pregames and tailgates begin early. Students barely settle into their hangover before starting again. “I woke up at 7:30 on Saturday morning and took a shot,” said Kelly, reflecting on his experience at the Yale-hosted game his freshman year.
After finishing their pregame, students rush to tailgate.
“There was a lot of running around [at Harvard], trying to find a place where everybody could congregate,” Fennelly stated.
In years since COVID-19, Harvard did not allow organized student tailgates until this year. Thadhani corroborated the fractured feeling of the Harvard-hosted tailgates. “Because [the tailgates were] so spread out, it made it difficult to coordinate with friends. It was hard to find the community that I felt at Yale the previous year,” said Thadhani.
The lack of organized student tailgates at Harvard contributed to the feeling of exclusivity at the Harvard-hosted game that lingered from the night prior. “I think that [the disorganized nature of the tailgates] made [Harvard’s social scene] feel more exclusive because there was no intentional space for a tailgate, so people were fractionating off,” said Fennelly.
While the social scene in the game varies between Harvard and Yale, a contagious energy permeates both. This energy of running into old friends and acquaintances, sleeping on strangers’ floors, and navigating foreign campuses is exactly what differentiates the Harvard-Yale game from other college football games.
As you eagerly await the potentially superior Harvard-Yale weekend—both Friday night and Saturday morning—at Yale, take a final few notes from upperclassmen who’ve been there before.
Fennelly shared, “Make sure your phone is charged. There’s no cell service anywhere in the bowl, so make sure you have a plan with your friends of where you’re going to meet up. It’s going to be really hard to contact them once you’re in the stadium.”
“Stay at the game until the end,” Kelly shared, as he reminisced on missing Harvard storming the field in 2021. “This year I’m going to stay until the end.”
Julia Torrey ’27 (juliatorrey@college.harvard.edu) hopes she will be able to wake up at 7 am Saturday morning, and Hannah Davis ’25 (hannahdavis@college.harvard.edu) just finalized her Yale housing.