So I got in SCEA to Yale, and I really don’t know anything about it…
Can anyone describe the academic “climate” to me? I am not asking for the typical student, because I don’t know if that ever is really productive. But are people generally intense? laid back? I’m assuming there is a strong sense of intellectual passion amongst the students…?
Thanks!
Are you going to be able to visit?
Yeah I will probably be able to in the spring, but I am just so excited I gotta know
Based purely on parental observation of DS’s friends and associates, and some feedback, I’d say that the students are overall “casually intense.” I think there’s an attempt to be laid back and casual, but very few (if any) of these kids got there by being slugs.
There is also an ethos of not broadcasting accomplishments, so most of these kids don’t “wear it on their sleeves.” To paraphrase Winston Churchill to the point of turning his phrase upside down: “these kids are humble, and they have so little to be humble about.” Kids collaborate (ethically) on p-sets, have study groups, etc. DS helps his math friends prepare for CS internship interviews; they help him with other things. There are exceptions, but mostly kids are collaborative rather than competitive.
Congratulations on getting accepted. You are right to be excited. Yale is imperfect, as any human product is, but I think it is a Goldilocks kind of place: not too intense, not too laid back 