As to smiting the heathens, hey, he is going off to college and there will be plenty to smite no matter where he goes but when you smite Ivy League "master of the universe" heathens, you know you can smite any. Some that he would encounter at Harvard may well become the Harvard equivalent of John (did you know he served in Vietnam?) Kerry (regrettably a Yalie and every bit as despicable there as in later life). Of your choices, your son would likely not regret choosing Harvard. If your income were modest, Yale would be practically free but IIRC all the Ivies have "need-blind" admissions and university scholarships to match. If he is a warrior, he is needed there to be involved with those already here. Also, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and likely the rest of the Ivies to a lesser extent are in the centuries long process of graduating what Tom Wolfe called: "masters of the universe." The advantages of Ivy League rolodexes are not easily matched.
I would describe Notre Shame as anti-Catholic rather than pseudo-Catholic. Google The Land 'o Lakes Conference of 1967. It has not improved since. Rather the contrary.
I can think of only two disadvantages of Harvard. First, the weather in Cambridge is not pleasant in the worst of winter. Then again, if weather were the determinant, Florida and California have many schools describable as "Beach Blanket University." I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that weather will not be a major consideration in your son's choice.
Second, if your son were a seriously talented variety football player type, my household would prefer that he not attend Harvard and possibly win the annual contest with Yale known as The Game. But, that's just us. Yale's mascot is an English Bulldog named Handsome Dan (the 47th or whatever number). You would not willingly allow your son to break the puppy's heart, would you?
In the totality of circumstances and in your son's cornucopia of outstanding choices available, you may reasonably be forgiven for sending him to Hahvard and to believe that Harvahd should be allowed player personnel who make the Cantabs quite competitive which they all too often tend to be in games against Old Eli.
I would have preferred Princeton so that he'd have been able to take classes with the estimable Robby George, but they told him to go fly a kite. Oh, well. Also, they have civil engineering, Harvard doesn't.
Fortunately for all lovers of things Yale, my son is not especially athletic. He loves the outdoors, riding his bike, doing lots of physical things, but any delusions of sports scholarships ended at the level of county (middle school) baseball, LOL.
He would have liked to have gone to Yale, in fact, he preferred it over Harvard, but again, only Harvard took him. And this after the Yale interviewer told him he was practically a shoo-in! Oh, well. If he goes Ivy, he'll have to console himself with a Harvard degree.
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