Bad things I have heard about Yale

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
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<p>I need to make up my mind! Here are the very few bad things I have heard about Yale. Confirm, disagree, answer all one or some -- anything appreciated: )</p>

<p>Bad:</p>

<p>a) Bad dorms. The courtyards may be great but the dorms are small and drafty.
b) over the top academic intensity - more so than most other top schools.
c) 'questionable' New Haven.
d) undergraduate advising could be better.
e) A good number of classes are taught by TAs.</p>

<p>Questions:
a) Any statistics on graduation rates to medical schools?
b) Do faculty give private lessons to amateurs (i.e. good but no particularly, not a Music student, not a member of the orchestra or anything).
c) Any difficulties or perks of pursuing pre-Med at Yale.
d) How difficult is it to get onto the newspaper team?</p>

2

<p>A quick reply to your concerns:</p>

<p>1) The "bad dorms" have mostly been renovated, as each college is getting a face lift, currently one per year. I think the new colleges are supposed to be fantastic.</p>

<p>2) sure, its intense, and you have more work than your peers at other comparable institutions due to harder graduation requirements (36 classes instead of 32), but its not competetive at and everyone is extremely supportive.</p>

<p>3)New Haven is has really changes over the past 15 years, gone through sort of a renaissance. many people on this board attest to that. go check it out - tons of bars, museums, stores, clubs, shops... and the campus/surrounding area is very safe.</p>

<p>4) potentially true, but still pretty good, with the Dean of your college and DUS's helping quite a bit. I thought the college system was great because from day 1 you were affiliated with a dean and upperclassmen who could really guide you and give you the nitty gritty on majors.</p>

<p>5) No class, save for language and writing, are taught by TA's. Sections are taught by TA's. Otherwise lectures, seminars, and sections are taught by faculty professors. </p>

<p>Questions:
1) No clue, but Yale does extremely well. Pretty much you can't do better than yale in terms of helping you get into medical school - they're probably one of the best feeder schools for professional schools. No one is going to think otherwise. Name goes a long way. </p>

<p>2) No clue</p>

<p>3) No drawbacks, but get used to a nice walk up science hill on cold winter mornings. Sciences at yale are great, they just invested 1 billion into new buildings, and the medical campus is awesome too. Incredible and available research opportunities abound at both medical and basic science levels.</p>

<p>4) don't know</p>

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<p>about the academic intensity, i've heard that there is a fair amount of grade inflation at yale (the most common grades are As and Bs, not Bs and Cs or even Ds, which is what I was originally thinking). that's not to say that classes aren't very difficult, because i'm sure they are, but i think you can be relatively confident that you're not going to fail out your first semester. :) also, they wouldn't have admitted you if you couldn't handle the workload so i wouldn't be too worried about it. if you're smart enough to get in, you're certainly smart enough to figure out a way to manage the workload.</p>

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<p>heya,</p>

<p>crimson bulldog seems to have addressed most of your concerns properly, i'd just like to add a few things</p>

<p>Concerns:
1) Yes, the renovated colleges are awesome. HUGE rooms. I'm currently living in an unrenovated dorm and I am beside myself in jealousy. I think all dorms will be renovated by ... 2010? </p>

<p>2) Academic atmosphere here is as intense as you make it. If you are ultra competitive, you will find that crowd, if you are more laid back, you definitely won't be the only one. </p>

<p>3) Having lived there for the past couple of years, New Haven is really not half as bad as most people make it out to be. </p>

<p>4) Although official advising may be a lil on the sparse side, there are numerous student organizations that hook freshman up with upperclassmen, which is probably the best source of information anyways. For premeds, there is also an excellent Pre-med office that can guide you through all stuff related to being premed. </p>

<p>5) None of the science classees are taught by TA's although the sections are lead by them. </p>

<p>Questions:
1) Each year, about 200-300 people apply to medical schools from Yale. We have an extremely strong program and the premed office is excellent in assisting us. Almost all of the students applying get to go to some med school.</p>

<p>2) I'm not really familiar with this, but I have a couple of friends whoare doing this. You can get private music lessons from the faculty here. IT's possible to take it for credit,... i think. You must audition first for the lessons.</p>

<p>3) I wouldn't say there are any drawbacks for doing pre-med at Yale. I'm one, and I'm loving it here.</p>

<p>4) Not really sure what you mean by "newspaper team", but it is fairly easy to get onboard of many of the student/campus publications as they are usually actively recruiting at all times of the year.</p>

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<p>Quite a few introductory language and math (that's right) classes are taught by grad students if I remember correctly and nothing has been changed, and those are the only classes lectured by grad students.</p>

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<p>Guys, thanks lots -- keep it coming!!</p>

<p>Concern 4) chyln, I know I'm asking a lot, but apparently to get hold of Yale's stats (i think in a pdf file) for where med students go, I need to have enrolled already. Do you happen to have those statistics or have easy access to them online? I think it's somewhere on the UCS site and it would help so so much if I could check out the file -- let me know it it's not too much trouble to have a look around? I can easily PM you my email addy.</p>

<p>Question 2 ) I wonder if I'm good enough, hmm...
Question 4 ) Ah, by 'team' , i just want to write, so Yale looks good there.</p>

<p>Thank you once again - any more input disagreeing or agreeing with previous posters very welcomed.</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf&lt;/a> </p>

<p>I don't know if that helps, but HYP are not bad at all in grad school admissions...you don't have to worry</p>

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<p>hey mea, </p>

<p>there isn't a pdf file of stats of med school admissions for yale that I know of, however at the UCS office there are large notebooks of admissions statistics for every year. I don't remember the exact numbers, but I can assure you that Yale has a good track record with getting students into very good medical schools. </p>

<p>If you have any other questions feel free to PM me. Also, if your coming up for bulldog days, I'd be happy to meet up with you and chat!</p>

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<p>hey im interested in going premed at Yale to. Mea, I also tried contacting them for the list, but they wouldn't give it to me either. </p>

<p>chyln, what are you majoring in as premed? What chem did you take as a freshman, and would you reccommend freshman orgo 125?</p>

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<p>which of the colleges are renovated?</p>

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<p>I just have to say one thing about the grad students that teach introductory languages. I had the option this semester of taking introductory Russian with a grad student or an actual professor as my teacher, and after shopping both sections, I decided that the grad student was actually the better teacher, so they aren't always bad.</p>

<p>To answer blurblurblur's question, Berkeley, Saybrook, Branford, Timothy Dwight, Pierson, and Davenport will be renovated by the time you arrive at Yale. Trumbull will be renovated your freshman year (so Trumbull frosh will get a nice new residential college when they move in from Old Campus) and Silliman will be renovated your sophomore year (although the part of Silliman that houses half of the freshmen will be renovated over this summer, so if you are lucky you will get brand new rooms when you arrive at Yale). There are rumors about JE getting renovated your junior year, and no plans have been set after that.</p>

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<p>mr_sanguine:</p>

<p>i'm majoring MB&B (molecular biophysics and biochemistry) which is only Yale's best science major :-P </p>

<p>I took freshman orgo as a freshman and I would recommend that to everyone who is planning on majoring in MB&B and maybe MCDB. It really sets you up and gives you much more options down the road, not to mention the fact that it's very very well taught.</p>

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<p>About the music faculty question-- Yale School of Music Faculty give lessons to few undergrads, and those must be quite highly qualified.</p>

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<p>thanks for your post chyln. </p>

<p>How would you describe the premed program at yale? From your personal experiences, where are students you know getting into med schools? Is it very tough to maintain a solid GPA? Research opportunities? Any thoughts are very helpful!</p>

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<p>Heya,</p>

<p>There really isn't an established 'premed' program at Yale per se, but we prepare the kids well for applying for medical school. </p>

<p>As mentioned before, maybe in this thread even, Yale has a VERY good track record with getting kids into good med schools. You name any of the top medical schools and I know somebody getting into them from Yale. </p>

<p>While it's not necessarily easy to maintain a 'solid' gpa, it's definitely very doable. If you work hard, you're gpa will definitely reflect it. </p>

<p>Research opportunities are abundant and highly encouraged. Undergraduate participation in scientific research is definitely not something Yale is lacking!</p>

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<p>thank you chyln, fiddlefrog, chasgoose, encomium.</p>

<p>chyln, about scientific research, I know there is a perspectives on science program which sets up their students with research, labs, and funding. If I weren't in this science program, woudl things be more difficult for me since I wouldn't really be first in line? Might you know how my opportunities would compare if I went to stanford or pton? [Thanks so much for coming back here so much to answer my persistent qs, btw : )]</p>

<p>fiddlefrog, : /, I'm thinking I'm not quite good enough for faculty. Where else can I get affordable music lessons? I really don't want to let anything slip.</p>

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<p>There's a community music school in New Haven that's pretty close to the Yale campus.</p>

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<p>mea - Even if you're not good enough to take lessons for credit (from music school faculty), you can still get lessons through the university. There are auditions at the beginning of every year, and everyone who auditions (I think) is assigned a teacher based on their current skill level. For people who dont' qualify for lessons for credit, these teachers are often grad students in music performance, but that's okay. They're still really good.</p>

<p>In case you're wondering, these music lessons are pretty reasonably priced. If you qualify for lessons for credit, they're free... otherwise, $200 for 12 (or ten? I can't remember) half-hour lessons a semester, $400 for hour-long lessons. Seeing as I paid about $150 for four forty-five minute lessons before I came here, that's an improvement :-P</p>

<p>scientific research - even if you're not in Perspectives, it's still possible to find reserach opportunities as early as the summer after freshman year. You just have to be a little more proactive about it :-P I know several people who aren't in Perspectives who've gotten research jobs for this summer simply by emailing a ton of professors and asking for something to do, and one of my professors helped me find a research job at a university near my house by putting me in contact with faculty there. Admittedly, if you're not in perspectives, it's sometimes more difficult to find funding, but the research opportunities do exist and they aren't tooooo hard to find, and if that's something you really want to do, you'll find a way to make it work.</p>

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<p>hey mea,</p>

<p>athena answered your question about scientific research quite well! opportunities to do research is quite abundant even as a freshman without being in perspectives. you just need to show the proper amount of interest and enthusiasm for a project. Many professors are looking to pick up freshman that they keep for the next couple of years, which is better for both you and them. </p>

<p>I can't really compare the opportunities here with other places as I've never been to those places, but I can tell you that the demand for undergraduate researchers at Yale seems to be excess of the number of undergrads willing to do research. So if you start early, I can guarantee that you will find a lab that you like. </p>

<p>If you are coming to bulldog days, the Yale Undergraduate Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology will be holding a table at the bazaar who will be more than happy to answer any of your questions too!</p>

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<p>Thanks for your post chyln. </p>

<p>How difficult would you characterize the science courses in terms of the curve? Very harsh? </p>

<p>And coming from yale, what are your plans for this summer, if you dont mind me asking? I'm just trying to get a feel...</p>