<p>actually not anything, please no admissions questions, I guarantee all of them can be answered elsewhere and I know less about admissions than you do at this point.</p>
<p>Anyways I'm a sophomore bored over break so I will try to answer some questions. I'm hoping that other Yalies are lurking around and will help out but I'll do whatever I can. I feel like this forum is only used for boring admissions questions when it could be a good resource to find out about life at Yale... so let's talk about that.</p>
<p>MODERATOR'S NOTE: Any Yale student/alum/friend/parent is free to field questions here.</p>
<p>Thanks, @litotes! Has winter break started already or just breaking for Thanksgiving? When is the semester over?</p>
<p>What do you do outside the classroom? My daughter is very interested in getting into a research lab/assistant-ship. If you are in science - is that kind of thing likely to happen in the first year? </p>
<p>Also, she is a goofy kid who likes dressing up in costumes (costume parties, comic-con, Halloween, etc.) She’s heard that Halloween is a big deal at Yale, but do you think she’d find like-minded goofballs who want to dress up other times of the year?</p>
<p>@litotes: Thanks! I read a recent op-ed in the Yale Daily News, “Tragedy of the Commons” (<a href=“EZE: Tragedy of the Commons - Yale Daily News”>http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/11/21/tragedy-of-the-commons/</a>), and was wondering what the cutbacks there have been like for most students. Have you, as a relatively new student, felt like there was a way (and a place) for you to meet students in other residential colleges who haven’t been in your classes or extracurricular activities? Is it easy for students to find a place now to eat hot breakfasts? </p>
<p>@VSGPeanut101 I’m back for Thanksgiving, which is a week and begins with the H-Y game. Winter break starts around the 16th or 18th this year. I am in science and do research in a lab. I emailed the PI within a week of getting on campus last year and was given a project immediately. It’s so possible to do research the first year if that’s what you’re into. Costume parties aren’t really my scene but I have no doubt that they exist in some capacity. Yes Halloween is a big deal.</p>
<p>@Planner a well written editorial. I personally hate Commons and don’t miss it much at all. After the beginning of freshman year you’d rarely meet people there. I much prefer the residential college dining halls for meeting people and just relaxing over good conversation. In terms of meeting people in other colleges, yes classes and ECs are the main venues, but also parties can also serve this fxn pretty well. There’s plenty of dining halls serving hot breakfast so I don’t think the scaling-back of commons is a big deal but this is just IMO</p>
<p>I’m not convinced that MC or ES are any less safe than any other college. That is a weird, unprecedented incident. I don’t know why they opened their window for that weirdo. If someone is dead-set on assaulting a Yale student then I don’t see how the two-block walk from MC to CC or SM is going to stop him. I wouldn’t worry about it at all; Yale never feels unsafe. At night there are cops and security guards everywhere. It’s just about knowing where to go and where not to… and not opening your window for randos in a ditch</p>
<p>would more work experience prove useful in finding higher-paying jobs? I’ll have a year’s worth of fulltime office work experience by next fall.</p>
<p>What’s the political environment like at Yale? Are people open-minded and happy to discuss with others, or are they more rigid in ideology and prone to arguing?</p>
<p>@billymayshere: Willingness to work in the dining halls is the most important factor into higher paying student jobs. The rest (clerical, lab, minor administrative, grunt) jobs are more or less the same – not bad for $12/hour</p>
<p>@anon029 Think of the types of students admitted. Certainly every ideology is likely represented – but the ideas are quite free flowing. Yale prides itself on being rather intellectual so you’ll rarely find someone who just crosses his arms and pouts.</p>
<p>@anon029 as someone who identifies as conservative, I feel the political environment can indeed be a little claustrophobic at times; Yalies are a bunch of self-righteous leftists. Nevertheless, people are always participating in productive discussions, and you wouldn’t feel victimized unless you were a militant hardcore Tea Party type. The Yale Political Union is a good place to go if you’re looking for open-minded debate.</p>
<p>It’s a pretty decent town, plenty of restaurants and bars and clubs. My biggest gripe is just that everything’s really expensive. There’s one movie theater and it costs enough to where no one ever really goes. The areas right around Yale are really nice, very gentrified, lots of good restaurants etc. Beyond that it gets more dicey.</p>
<p>@dreamchaser50 </p>
<p>man that’s a really broad question, tough to answer haha. A lot of your downtime is spent chilling in your common room with suitemates/other friends, everyone is “doing work” but really just talking, listening to music, etc. People’s extracurriculars take up a lot of their time and that can really be anything. As with any college, drinking (or not) and going out is going to take up most of your Friday and Saturday nights (and more, if you want it to). </p>
<p>Heading to NYC isn’t too much of a chore. You could go there after dinner w/o much fuss. Plus many people live relatively nearby so you can visit the environs (and get a home cooked meal) pretty easily.</p>