Harvard vs Brown: Why you should Tailgate this Friday
Harvard-Brown (or Brown-Harvard, if you want to show some school pride) is the one day of the fall semester that we pretend we care about Brown Athletics and that we can darty like a real school.First years - go take some photos. Nothing says "college" quite like dressing up in a ton of Brown apparel (yes, you should cut that shirt your mom bought for you at the bookstore into a crop top), holding a beer and posing in a field in front of a car with your roommate and ten other kids you don't really know. Juniors - go make your friends who are studying abroad this semester jealous that they chose Spring Weekend over #BrownState. Minimum four snap stories, please.And the rest of you? While Harvard-Brown may not be the biggest rivalry for Harvard, it's essentially the only football game anyone at Brown cares about. And since we're not likely to beat them in football, we can at least try to outdrink those kids.Plus, the fact that it's at Brown (only happens every two years) should sway your judgement. Here's why...
WHEN THE GAME'S AT HARVARD
- You get to take a bus/ train/ other fun form of transportation. Nothing quite like drinking on the move, amirite? +3
- You get to see some unfamiliar faces. Junior year onwards, kinda starts to feel like whenever you go out you see the same seven Sigma boys. Go look at some Harvard frat boys (final club boys?) instead. Try flirting with the Harvard kids. Boston's not that far away. +6
- You get to look around another college campus. Nothing says "yeah I go to an Ivy League school" quite like popping that Harvard College geotag on your Instagram. +2
- The Harvard football stadium is actually pretty impressive. +2
- The Harvard tailgaters give away a lot of free food, drinks and stuff. +3
- You get to see your smart friend from home/ camp who goes to Harvard. You may even end up staying the night. +2
- You have to see the meanest girl from your high school who won't shut up about Harvard, because you can't pretend not to notice them in the crowd. -2
- One of your friends blacks out on the train and you have to take them home. You get lost walking around Harvard Square and have to buy something at the HS Qdoba (the poor man's Thayer Street Chipotle) in order to charge your phone. -3
- You take one of the unofficial frat party buses and you have to watch that kid from your engineering class throw up out the window of a moving vehicle and/or pee into a beer can. -3
- You take one of the official Brown school buses and you miss the whole thing. -2
- You over/underdressed for the weather and you can't go back and change. -2 (EDITOR'S NOTE: the forecast for Friday looks good. Bring out the crop tops).
- You use $300 of data because your phone won't connect to the Harvard wifi. -2
- You travelled for so long that you actually feel obliged to watch the game. It's boring and we lose. -2
TOTAL SCORE = 2
WHEN THE GAME'S AT BROWN
- You don't have to worry about transporting yourself to the tailgate. And walking there is free. Honestly, this is huge. +6
- You can actually pregame. Wriston should be popping after twelve. As someone who tends to get a little motion sick on buses/ trains, this is nice. +6
- You get to use the game as an excuse not to do any work on a Friday afternoon. The weekend starts at happy hour, right? Right? +2
- You can leave whenever you want which means you can drink more and get food whenever you're hungry. Catch me at Andrews for some post-tailgate pizza. Then Bajas for some post-tailgate nachos. And then Jos for some post-tailgate fries. +3
- You don't have to worry about, like, buying tickets online or whatever. All you need is your Brown ID. Ha. +3
- You suddenly find yourself running around screaming "Go Bears!" and high-fiving people on the street. What is this feeling? Is it... school spirit? +2
- You have class until 4:30. You have to sit and watch everyone walk past the window while you're seething with rage and FOMO. -3
- You waste like $40 at the bookstore on Friday morning buying Brown socks, tshirts and baseball hats to wear to the game. I mean, you can always wear them next year. -2
- There's only, like, one table of free food and all the free tshirts were given away hours ago. -3
- Your friend from Harvard comes and wants to stay with you. They spend the whole night making subtle digs at the Brown party scene and making sure you know that they're tapped for all the best final clubs. -2
- You see your professor at the game. -2
- You have to watch that kid from your engineering class in a tank top, attempting a keg stand on top of a car. -2
TOTAL SCORE = 8
AND THE WINNER IS? Brown (duh). #rollbears. See you on Friday night. Images via Lauren Shin '19, via, via, via