<p>for people who've visited/go there, how would you describe the academic atmosphere? are people really cutthroat about grades, or is it a communal effort? while we're here, are the people there friendly (yeah, i realize that's a pretty general statement, but usually you can get a feel for this kind of thing....)</p>
<p>someone I know who goes to yale says that people in the scienes, at least, are not very competitive. he says much less competitive than cornell or johns hopkins, for example, which are "suicidal" ... also, in case you were wondering, he has only had to pull one all-nighter.</p>
<p>I think people are very hardworking and they love to learn. They're competitive with themselves, if that makes any sense. They challenge themselves, want to improve, etc. but I didn't feel a sense of the cutthroat. People generally seemed very happy, and yes, friendly. I'm not sure it's a communal effort, I mean yes they help each other at times but it's also very independent. Anyway, that's the feeling I got from visiting twice. </p>
<p>Also, during my interview, my interviewer and I talked a lot about the vibrancy of the academic atmosphere. Just how happy and eager to learn everyone was. "Everybody loves Yale" that's what she said.</p>
<p>If I get into Yale, I'm going to be cutthroat and insane to get into Directed Studies haha.</p>
<p>Directed Suicide?
yeaaaa</p>
<p>I wanna do Ethics Politics and Economics though</p>
<p>Directed Studies sounds amazing. I think I might ask my admissions officer if he could hook me up with it.</p>
<p>what are directed studies?</p>
<p>It's like the humanities core. All the classics. Very hard.</p>
<p>To expand: you basically read every influenctial book throughout the history of western civilization. So, instead of just reading about how Kant wront Critique of Pure Reason, you would actually read the book (he did write that, right?).</p>
<p>To further expand, lol:</p>
<p>the official word
<a href="http://students.yale.edu/oci/ycps/ycpsProgramCourses.jsp?subject=DRST&dept=Directed%20Studies%5B/url%5D">http://students.yale.edu/oci/ycps/ycpsProgramCourses.jsp?subject=DRST&dept=Directed%20Studies</a></p>
<p>Ouch......that sounds like Yale's form of murder.</p>
<p>One of the major things in college that I want to do is learn a butt load of languages......italian, arabic, chinese, continue French, Hindi...you name it....</p>
<p>..im such a dork...lol</p>
<p>I've always wanted to learn German :). I'm considering it for yale. Does anyone know how college language courses compare to high school ones?</p>
<p>ive heard that they are A LOT more difficult....i checked the Yale page for elementary italian and they have you reading literature in the second semester.</p>
<p>They have a lot of speaking in class....some online stuff...idk....it sounds fun.</p>
<p>My sister took German...they used Muzzy in her class.....all i know how to say is Ich bin Daniel. :)</p>
<p>Ha, muzzy the video series? The commercials for that used to be hilarious.</p>
<p>"Yes, that's French they're speaking..."</p>
<p>LOL...there used to be that girl who would say......Je suis la jeune fille! Then Muzzy would talk and he was incomprehensible.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think they just taped someone mumbling and said it was french.</p>
<p>omg!...that reminds me of French 1......there were kids in the class who couldn't care less and they would just babble like a baby and people thought they were speaking french!</p>
<p>"A bougie bougie boo pluage voo too noo la."</p>
<p>Directed Studies = Directed Suicide
Do not even attempt if you are oging to be invovled in a varsity sport or any other time consuming activity. It takes so much time that you had better be prepared to work and not do anything else.</p>
<p>Yeah i bet the yale people were sitting in a dungeon trying to create the perfect recipe to completely destroy a student's life...thats what it sounds like at least.</p>
<p>I don't know......all i know is that i wanted to shoot myself when i had to read aristotle and plato...and all the other weird philosophers....i dont know if thats covered in Dir. Studies though...</p>