Yale University Top Questions

It's good.

I love Yale. I couldn't have asked more from a college experience.

I absolutely LOVE Yale. Juggling everything can be stressful at times, but there isn't anything major I would change about it. The residential college system in particular is great - being in a community of about 500 students makes it easy to make friends, and it means you have at least two professors (your college's Master and Dean) who know your name as soon as you walk onto campus as a freshman. It makes Yale feel much less anonymous than it could otherwise. The other amazing thing about Yale is the other students. My classmates are brilliant, passionate, and interested in everything under the sun, but still manage to have fun and avoid taking themselves too seriously. To be surrounded by such intelligent people is a great experience.

Yale is amazing, at least for me it is. I love Yale because of many aspects and even the city of New Haven itself has become dear to my heart. The reason I initially chose Yale was because it is not a small school <2000 students and it is not a large school>10,000 students. For me at least, it was right in between with about 6,000 students. I wanted a campus where I would be able to see familiar faces as I walked down the block, but not know everyone as I walked down that same block, and that is exactly what I got. Moreover, Yale is in the city of New Haven, which, in my opinion, is an average-sized city. It has all the benefits and downsides to being in a city. Some of the benefits include: night clubs like toads, lots of amazing restaurants, a rich community to get involved in, and so much more. One of the major downsides is the crime, but generally if you have some common sense you'll be fine. Besides, Yale does a fantastic job of having tons of security and security escorts/cars if you need to get around at night. I, nor has anyone I have known in my time at school, ever felt unsafe here. More than anything though, Yale is a school of tradition. The traditions that students take part in here will stay with them forever. I wanted a school that had an amazing academic program, but also a fun social atmosphere as well, and I got the whole package in Yale.

I really believe that Yale is the best college I could have gone to. Academically, it's incredible and students have access to great professors and extraordinary resources. In terms of housing, Yale's residential college system provides a family-like, community atmosphere from Day 1 on campus. Socially, Yale is great. People don't take themselves too seriously here and we have a lot of fun.

Yale has been a great fit for me. I love the variety of experiences available here that I wouldn't necessarily find anywhere else. There's diversity everywhere - from class sizes, to course topics, to teaching styles, to extracurriculars...even to the students themselves (ethnicity, religion, home country, out-of-the-box abilities). I absolutely love the chaotic harmony of different thoughts, opinions, and backgrounds. The campus is small enough where I will never feel lost in a sea of people, but big enough where I will always discover something new and make new friends. I spent most of my time running around on campus - from Science Hill laboratories, to our dozen coffee shops to meet with friends, to our English department seminar rooms. The change in scenery everywhere I go is wonderful - there are different types of people and thinkers in every niche on campus. To me, the biggest issues on campus have been the Title IX complaints (on sexual harassment) and campus security (New Haven is has often been labeled as one of the most violent cities in the US). Personally, I have been informed enough by administration, student groups, and the police department enough times when incidents have cropped up that I feel pretty safe. These issues shouldn't happen, but they do - and the best way to avoid getting hurt is to stay alert and think smart.

Yale is forever. It becomes part of your identity, your sense of self. And you only have to pay for those first four years. If alumni are quick to mention they went to Yale, it's usually out of a lingering awe, like the ultimate brush with greatness, like being able to say you went to the original Woodstock or the party at Ben Franklin's house right after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. You get a seat at the table. Any table you want. Often, it's a dining hall table. There, dinnertime conversation can be like a capstone seminar in any topic - especially if you join different tables and even eat in different dining halls. One night the folks at the table could include a playwright beginning his journey toward a Pulitzer prize; a football player/theater studies major destined to metamorphose into a quadriplegic motivational speaker; an art major later listed and thriving in New York; a Hollywood insider trying on the very large shoes of her literary giant father (and soon walking very gracefully in her own shoes); and some soft-spoken history major eager to see her dad - your childhood idol - when he visits later that week. To stay in earshot of these conversations, next thing you know, you've offered to sew together little spermlike dance costumes for an upcoming production of Cabaret whose costume designer, too, goes into the business.

I think Yale is a good school. I think. When I first started, I thought it was great, but now I'm not so sure... you have to know what you're getting into. Even though it is not as intense academically as some of its peer institutions—Harvard, Reed, Chicago, Swarthmore are all probably more difficult in that sense—there is a certain intensity and unrelentingness about the school that isn't initially apparent. During Finals Week, everyone is "SO STRESSED OUT." During The Game, everyone is "SO EXCITED." On Spring Fling, everyone is "SO DRUNK." And even though that seems like a great thing, there's a certain boring performativeness to it all... there are few people here who don't sometimes wish they went to Brown or Wesleyan, where it's much more relaxed and laid back and there isn't the same kind of pressure and drive. It doesn't help that New Haven is so dirty and, if not actually super-dangerous, dangerous feeling. There's just nothing relaxing about life at Yale. It's bad for the mind. That said, there are some amazing, fantastic people here, there are good parties, an absolutely incredible art and theatre scene, some awesome classes and professors... most things, taken individually, seem like they could not be improved. It's just that the whole picture taken together is somewhat unsatisfying.

The best thing about Yale is the fact that everyone is here for a reason. There are no admissions flukes. Even athletes, who probably receive a lot of flak for being recruited, are extremely intelligent. With that in mind, it allows everyone to relax a bit and help each other out. There is much less of a divide between school and fun here - we choose our own classes, so there's no real reason not to enjoy them, and when we're out at parties, we can choose to be "intellectual" or not.

One of my favorite things about Yale is the residential college system. When you are accepted , you are sent your residential college assignment along with your acceptance letter. Each freshman is randomly placed into one of 12 residential colleges: Silliman, Timothy Dwight, Trumbull, Saybrook, Ezra Stiles, Morse, Berkeley, Branford, Jonathan Edwards, Davenport, Calhoun, and Pierson. This becomes your community for the next four years. You get to know the approximately 120 students in your class in your college (for example, Silliman class of 2010) extremely well, and they are your support group through the good and the bad. For a girl from an incredibly small town, like myself, it made going to college a lot less scary than it could have been. In fact, the frat scene here is much smaller than in other colleges, in part because we get that brother-sister feel in our residential colleges. Plus, there is layer upon layer of administrative support in the colleges for all you academic and social problems. The system makes it easy to make friends, and everyone is so wonderful-- how could you not??