Ask a recent Yale grad anything!

Colleges & Universities A-Z Yale University
1

Hi all,

It’s been years since I was last on CC (to the point I find I can’t log into my old account), but various recent events brought this place back into my mind, and I thought I’d make a thread here to answer questions from prospective students and applicants about all things Yale related.

I feel I have a somewhat unique perspective among CC regulars because (1) having recently graduated, I’m still very aware of what’s happening on campus and what Yale is like today – in contrast to parents or mentors who attended decades ago – and (2) having been in the workforce for the past 1.5 years, I have a perspective on what life is like after Yale, especially with regards to job applications, employment prospects, how the degree is viewed, what my friends are doing, etc. – in contrast to current students who are still focused on their coursework and club activities.

So if you have any questions about how the CS department is or what I think of the Halloween incident or why I would (or wouldn’t) pick Yale over X or anything related to Yale, I’d be happy to answer them. I’m not an admissions rep, and I’m not beholden to the university in any capacity, so I’ll make it a point to be honest, even if that’s at the university’s expense.

A bit of background about me: I graduated from Yale in 2014 and I’ve been working in a V10 law firm in NYC since graduation, with the intent of applying to law school in the fall. When I was in high school, I was deciding between Yale and Harvard/Stanford. At Yale, I was involved in a bunch of different activities, from the YSO to the YPU, and have at least some knowledge of most of the big organizations on campus.

MODERATOR’S NOTE: Anyone with knowledge of Yale is free to answer questions in this thread.

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@Yale2014Grad

Thanks for starting this thread. I guess I’ll start the questions by asking:

  1. What made you choose Yale over Harvard or Stanford? I’m especially curious since you mentioned that you studied CS.

  2. How was your experience studying CS at Yale? Would you have chosen Yale again for CS knowing what you know now?

  3. What were the best aspects of your time at Yale? What were the worst?

  4. Overall, would you choose Yale again?

Thanks in advance for answering my questions!

3

My questions were all asked above by @Multiverse7. My son is studying CS as a freshman at Yale, very much like to hear your experience and any advice(s) for a freshman. Thank you!

4

Thanks for doing this @Yale2014Grad. One thing I’m curious about is, how important was major for you and your friends, in terms of job opportunities and/or graduate school options?

I assume it matters to some degree, e.g. in the current job market CS majors are probably going to have more opportunities than classics majors, although for folks who end up going to law school (as you mentioned) maybe major is less important. Anyway I’d appreciate any thoughts on the topic of major and opportunities after graduation.

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How large did you find the classes at Yale ? How large were most lectures? Did you find it easy to take a lot of seminars? Was there room for discussion and individual attention with your professors? Is “the undergrad experience” truly a thing?

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Could I still get accepted into Yale if I took Global History 9 Regents instead of AP World???

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@writer80, I don’t know the specifics in regards to your question, but I would say that, in more general terms, what matters is whether your GC will be able to say that you took the most rigorous classes available to you in your high school.

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Your question does not have a simple YES or NO answer.

All selective colleges, Yale included, judge you in the context of your high school. In fact, when you apply to college your guidance counselor fills out a Secondary School Report (SSR) on your behalf and they must rate your course rigor against all other college bound students at YOUR HIGH SCHOOL. Yale and all selective colleges are looking for students who have taken THE MOST DEMANDING course selection available to them at their high school. If the majority of students at your high school are taking AP World but you are not, the AP World students might receive a better rating from your guidance counselor than you. That might – and I’m stressing might – lessen your chances at any selective college. My advice would be to have a discussion with your guidance counselor to see if your course selection would result in you receiving a rating below “Most Demanding.”

FWIW: The Common no longer provides a pdf of the current SSR, but here is one from several years ago. Please look at page 2, especially the upper right hand corner where your GC supplies your academic rigor rating: http://admissions.duke.edu/images/uploads/process/school_report.pdf

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What can you tell me about biomed at Yale? and why did you pick Yale?

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Just helped a friend’s son, an unhooked student from westchester, NY, with his application to Yale. He was accepted indicating that he wanted to double major in physics and English. He never took honors math in high school, which in our public school leads into AP cal AB (the honors track leads into BC). His SAT scores were 680 M, 720 CR, and 780 W. Not sure what his GC checked off for rigor, but his schedule was not the most rigorous available just in terms of math. Otherwise, he took 3 APs in junior year and 5 as a senior. His ECs were all school based and he won no national, regional or state awards.

So, I don’t think you need to be in the most rigorous courses for every subject, apparently even when that subject is closely related to your professed major interest (he stated physics but never took the most rigorous math and his math SAT was weak for Yale as an unhooked applicant). His other college results: he was rejected from Columbia and Georgetown but in addition to Yale, was accepted to Cornell and JHU.

Hope this helps.

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@Yale2014Grad I’d like to hear from you if you are still on this thread. Thx.

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@myyalieboy OP promised more than he/she could deliver. Made this one thread. Came back one day later – and hasn’t come back to CC since Apr 5th.

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Could you please elaborate about the job opportunities, prospects, how your degree is viewed and your friends as you mentioned. :slight_smile:

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@LocoRoco, see T26E4 reply above. Responding for DS, even as a CS/Math sophomore, he’s had great opportunities. His future’s so bright he’s gotta wear shades. 1986 reference; before your time :slight_smile:

15

As OP has made a thread and not answered any questions, I’ll answer a few here even though this thread may be dead. Also apologize if this response is a bit TL;DR (I’m going to answer everything I’ve seen on the thread so far).

Background:
I was also Yale 2014, and a Biomedical Engineering Major. I won’t really say what I’m doing now because the 2014 BME class is small and a Google search of my year, major, and current activity would instantly reveal who I am. So I’ll just say that I am having a good progression post-college.

I chose Yale over other top schools and some of the guaranteed medical school programs because of the atmosphere, academic flexibility, amazingly great financial aid package, and brand name. I had a fantastic time and my education was incredibly affordable. While everybody bashes on huge donations to Yale for random buildings, if I’m ever that wealthy, I will most likely have Yale to thank for it and will be doing the same thing.

Time at Yale:
I can’t really answer the CS questions, but with many friends who did major in CS they really enjoyed it - as far as exit opportunities go they were all snatched up by top firms, tech startups, consulting, etc. I couldn’t really give you details of their experience while studying CS, but the feeling and results all seemed positive from my perspective.

Class Size, etc: Lectures are huge if they’re basic, introductory, or a common prerequisite for more advanced classes/tracks in larger majors. There are plenty of small seminars available right off the bat as well, just don’t go in expecting Chem 118 to not have at least 100 freshmen starting in it. I was almost exclusively in small seminars once I entered major track courses by junior year, where the professor knew everyone by name. In BME it’s not a huge program so that was my experience; small seminars are in more abundance in larger majors like Political Science since the curriculum is a lot more varied, and those professors will also probably know you very well.

Importance of Major: It’s important depending on what you want to do and have decided to do. It’s especially important if you change your mind halfway through. If you plan on going to medical school or law school, major in whatever you want, just make sure you take any required classes, get the right recommendations, take the standardized tests, etc.

If you go into finance or consulting you can also pretty much major in whatever you want, just prep for the technical interviews and demonstrate some kind of interest in those areas (extracurriculars, internships, etc.). If you want to go into tech and do software, please major in CS. If you don’t, good luck making it past the resume screen (unless you do one of those coding boot camps afterwards). I know a guy who majored in Philosophy but was a great programmer with plenty of CS course experience, but on paper he always got dinged in job applications (he’s now applying to law school).

Best Aspects of Yale: academic opportunities, collaborative and friendly atmosphere/nature of students on campus in general, connections of course, being generally surrounded by similarly high achievers with drive, ambitions, and intelligence (who still happen to be nice and great people!)

Worst Aspects of Yale: I had a phenomenal time, but I think that is contingent on having a close group of friends. If you’re a lone wolf, or generally don’t make those kinds of bonds, then you might not get the shared experience and collaborative nature of Yale. There are a lot of systems in place to help people make those bonds (residential colleges, majors, classes, freshman counselor groups, extracurriculars, etc.) but you’re still responsible for making that effort.

Another small downside I gathered was as a junior/senior, most of the career recruiting that was advertised primarily came from finance and consulting sectors. There are plenty of other opportunities that were shown and available, finance and consulting just happened to be the most “in-your-face”. Not sure if that has changed in the last couple of years, however, but seriously doubt it as the Ivy League feeds into those fields.

Sorry about the long post - feel free to ask any more questions about life at Yale or if you want thoughts on the application process that I went through.