Three things I’d like to hear back from current/recent Yale students about:
I’m going to be joining Yale as a freshman at the age of 21, turning 22 during my freshman year. I’m not too worried about this, but at the same time I’d like to hear what you think of as to whether or not I should have any concerns. Something that I have thought about before is maturity difference and also being at a disadvantage for club leadership positions because I may be seen as separate.
Also, I’m from eastern North Carolina. The weather there is hot in the summers and like 30’s in the winter. I’ve never lived in the north, so I think it’s fair to say that I’ve never experienced a winter like that which I’ll be experiencing at Yale. I also have a habit of sitting in the sun whenever possible because I kind of really like the way sun feels on my skin. I’m worried that I might not survive Yale’s winters; and I’m also worried that they will be a bit depressing for me. Any thoughts or experiences of your own? Please tell the the snow makes up for it or something haha.
Finally, I’d like to know how much undergraduate and graduate students interact. How much do undergrads and grad students interact just by going about their daily activities? How much opportunity is there for ugrads to interact with grads if they wish to do so? Are undergrads isolated to their fellow housemates/undergraduates? Is there much of any need to worry about this? This question and my first question tie in together.
I can’t speak to club leadership. Yale tends to being inclusionary, and the only things I’ve heard about being “left out” have to do with singing clubs and such (i.e., many require auditions). There are a percentage of jerks anywhere (they can’t ALL attend H :)) ), but generally I think Y kids are welcoming. You are not that much older than the other students, many UGs are 21 or 22.
NH weather is colder than you’re accustomed to, but if you can handle 30s, handling the occasional 20s is easy, and the rare teens is possible. Nobody deals well with lower than that, so you’ll have company. I don’t know if snow makes up for the winter, but the classes do.
If you’re worried about Seasonal Affective Disorder, get some lights.
DS interacts quite a bit with grad students, but I’m not sure he did as a freshman. I don’t think feeling isolated has been a problem for him, but YMMV.
@Adrianro96 , i wasn’t sure what I said about Directed Studies, and then “dawn broke over Marblehead” and I realized that you were referring to DS. DS is CollegeConfidential (CC) shorthand for Dear (or Dearest) Son.
For the most part, graduate students do NOT interact on a daily basis with undergraduates. That’s true at Yale and most other colleges. For example, Yale’s Graduate School of Drama is right across the street from two Yale undergraduate houses (Branford and Saybrook) but I doubt any Yale undergrads actually interact with Yale School of Drama students on a daily basis. And for that matter, I doubt many graduate students from the Yale School of Drama interact with in graduate students studying architecture, even though the architecture and drama buildings are next door to each other. Once you get to graduate school, students studying law tend to hang out with their peers stuying law and not those studying medicine, philosophy or any other subject.
Not much. Most grad students, who are 22-25 years old have no interest in hanging out with 18/19 year-old undergraduates, so while there may be some interest on the part of undergrad students, there is little interest from grad students.
Undergraduates spend time with other undergraduates in their houses, although you might meet a few grad students when you go to the gym or pool. And in your junior and senior years at Yale you might take a graduate level course, like my son did.
No. My guess is that because you are of legal drinking age and can purchase alcohol, you will become very popular with your fellow classmates. Whether you want all the attention is another matter.
Re gibby’s post: DS takes a fair number of courses that are UG/Grad (I think it’s called being a cross-listed course). That said, I think that applied only to courses he took after freshman year.
My daughter who is 19 and a Sophomore is close with many ages from 18 to 22. Most of her friends had no clue she was young for her grade because its not really a thing to talk about. They all take classes together and hang out together and party together. Like mentioned before, international students can be older and the same with one of her friends that was home schooled. The same with students that took a year or two off before attending. Her Froco last year was an international student that took two years off.
There are certain deadlines to join certain groups but that is based on year and not age. For instance- the A Capella system is only for the first three years and not based on age. So you don’t really audition if you are a Junior but a 21 year old freshman could.
As for working among grad students. I know that she had grad students in her Latin class last year. She was the odd man out as a freshman. So it is possible. Socially, I have not heard anything about that from her at all with the exception of her cheering last year with one. Part of the problem is that the grad students do not all have the same undergrad experiences therefore they don’t have as much in common past their studies. She has not mentioned any instances where she has had much interaction other than cheer and literally working among them in her campus job.
My advice - unless you tell them your age, your classmates will never know. There are students that take gap years and years off during their time at Yale, so there are a wide range of students. There are also grad students and spouses of students in many classes so you won’t stand out. Also, a 22 year old does not usually look that much older than an 18-19 year old. As far as the weather, students come from tropical climates and adjust well to the cold climate. Dress warm. Believe it or not, a cool crisp day can be invigorating.
My roommate freshman year was 16 - so that meant she was in school with folk upwards of 6 years her senior. So it goes both ways. Congratulations on your admission. Boola Boola!!!
I have to add that I agree with @gibby in that you will be very popular with your classmates due to your ability to purchase libations.
I entered Yale at 21 (after finishing my mandatory military service), and I wasn’t the only one - there were people who took gap years, as well as other internationals like me. I found age to be irrelevant in virtually every social/academic setting. I don’t know the age of most of my friends, and even the ones I knew to be older weren’t particularly more mature than average. After all, the difference between 18 and 21-year-olds is a lot smaller than that between 13 and 16-year-olds, for instance.
With regards to the weather, I came from a sweltering, humid tropical country, so this was a refreshing change. There are a few days in Dec/Jan where it can get uncomfortably cold and you scurry quickly from one building to another, but on average most winter days hover in the low 30s so I presume it isn’t really much colder than North Carolina.
I have a friend that graduated in 2008 who had a husband and three kids when she entered Yale. She moved her whole family across the country to pursue her degree. She had a great undergraduate experience and is now one of the most active alumni that I know.
“My guess is that because you are of legal drinking age and can purchase alcohol, you will become very popular with your fellow classmates.”
Probably not so much. According to YDN’s survey, “almost 16 percent of the incoming class arrived with a fake I.D.” In other words, on average every suite has 1-2 fake I.D.
