Yale University Top Questions

We have to study pretty hard here.

Academics can be found in all shapes and sizes. Want to take 7 credits and study in the library all day? No big that's totally cool. Want to relax and socialize and take an easier schedule? Totally doable. Competitiveness is there, but far less than you'd expect. It's kinda weird....

Professors are friendly, I immediately get back e-mails whenever I have questions. The students are incredibly motivated and it's a GREAT atmosphere to be in. Everyone is excited to be there, to work together, and to accomplish something. It's not competitive, rather it's collaborative. The science department has been making leaps and bounds recently, with incredible funding.

Classes vary widely, in terms of quality, teaching style, size, etc. Apart from one or two classes that I found boring and poorly taught, the vast majority of the 20+ courses I've taken at Yale have been great. I'm an Anthropology major, and my favorite courses have been European Literature; Culture, Power, Oil; and Journalism. Apart from our majors, Yale students need to fulfill distribution requirements, which entail two classes each in foreign language, quantitative reasoning, writing, social sciences, humanities and arts, and science. Each course at Yale falls into at least one of those categories, so you always have choices about what to take to fulfill your requirements. So to fulfill my science requirement, for example, I took biological anthropology and an astrophysics course. Overall, while it's possible (at least outside the hard sciences) to get by taking only "gut" courses, most students try to challenge themselves and genuinely enjoy classes. After all, that's why we're here.

People always ask me if Yale is harder or easier than high school. Answer: it's different. At Yale, we take 4-5 classes on average per semester, which is much less than in high school. We're in class for less time than in high school. But the expectations are different. There is rarely attendance in class - you either go or you don't; the responsibility is yours. While Yale is challenging, I think that every students feels the ability to succeed. There are incredible resources to help each student succeed--from deans to peer advisers to faculty advisers, it's very unlikely you'll fall through the cracks here. Everyone here wants everyone else to succeed, and that provides a great academic environment.

Technically, the entire purpose of going to college is for the academics. That being said, the academics at Yale are what you make of it. Science majors are typically more difficult than humanities, but that's the usually trend in any school. However, there are just as many students who struggle in the sciences/spend hours in lab who can bust out an English essay in under an hour...they just choose classes that cater to their own abilities. Yale is quite good at upholding their "liberal arts education" approach to academics. Before declaring his/her major at the end of sophomore year, each undergraduate is required to take a variety of courses in different subjects. Thus, the difficulty of each class depends on the student's personal strengths and experiences. I've had a class with 14 students, and another with 200 students. However, in both classes, the professor knew my name. Office hours and class participation are stressed, and it's definitely an asset. If you choose to never speak with your professor, chances are he/she will never know you - but then you miss out on valuable classroom experiences that could influence your future studies and current course material understanding. The goal here is to learn for the sake of learning. There are many students who do not know what their future jobs will be, but trust that their dedication in their activities at Yale will open doors. Many students who do not necessarily consider jobs go to Teach for America after graduation, or apply for graduate school.

Classes at Yale come in all shapes and sizes, and most are designed to maximize the teaching strengths of faculty who are also top researchers. So, a large lecture led by the professor breaks down into sections taught by TAs. As you get into 200, 300, or 400-level classes, they get smaller; office hours are more frequent; and you can ask questions during or after class. You can design your courseload to emphasize papers over exams and problem sets, or vice-versa. And regardless of the current trend toward community service, Yale is life-of-the-mind to the core.

Classes are very very hit or miss. I've taken two classes that have been mind-blowingly good: small seminars with David Bromwich and Charles Hill, two veritable legends, where there was great intellectual stimulation every day. And I've even had some great lectures: David Scott Kastan's Shakespeare class springs to mind as a class that really brought the lecture format to life. But many other classes are very uninspired; I've had horrible experiences with math and language, which are commonly cited as poor spots. And there are onorous requirements... I think Yale has great classes if you are committed to the humanities (English, Literature, Art History, Architecture, Fine Arts, German Studies, History, all incredible) and are aggressive about getting into the seminars you want, but there are a lot of people who walk away with very little from their classes.

There's quite a diverse range of the amount of work people have. For instance, people taking loads of humanities or social science classes will have much more reading than science or math people, who will mostly have only problem sets. The professors are genuinely extremely excited about their subjects and the prospect of getting the student body excited about what they do. Academic support is apparently extremely easy to access. The academic requirements are unobtrusive, but they're definitely there, and getting them isn't a joke. Yale's administration is also extremely serious about their deadlines - late schedules etc receive a fine.

I've heard some Yalies tell people not to lose their head, because even though the work is hard, you will probably get a decent grade in the end if you show up and do the work. All of the people who say this are liberal arts majors. In the liberal arts, in my experience, it is easy to get a B, but hard to get a solid A. However, the sciences are a different story. You might work your a** off, and get a C. It's okay! Not the end of the world. Many Yalies do not realize this and end up switching out to easier majors after a couple of poor midterms. Stick with it, and Yale will reward you with some amazing classes and professors.