<p>what are the long run benefits of doing Directed Studies, besides for personal enjoyment?</p>
<p>You get a really comprehensive overview of the classics.</p>
<p>Other than that, it's not going to help especially in your college career. Do DS if you want to, and you're interested in the subject matter. If you want to do it because it's "prestigious" or because you think it will somehow help you get into programs w/e later on, don't take it. It's a wonderful program if you love the topics, but you will HATE the whole year if you don't.</p>
<p>While it is true that there is no better reward for D.S. other than actually getting some semblance of an education in the Western Canon with small classes, and great students and professors, it does have several other benefits: You will actually know your professors and have personal relationships with them that can help down the road. You will have literally half of your distributional requirements taken care of. It might be looked favorably upon if you plan to apply for Ethics, Politics, and Economics, or Grand Strategy. Also, you will have 125 friends with which you can discuss everything from Plato to Paradise Lost. And between you and me, you will learn so much more than other freshman!</p>
<p>Well, from what I understand, you're basically getting the best of Yale (small classes, best professors) from day one...however conducive this might be to helping one succeed down the road in college and after I don't know...</p>
<p>I'm a Yalie taking DS right now, and I heartiliy recommend it. </p>
<p>~DS gives you a great, interdisciplinary tour of Western Civ and provides a nice intellectual background for anything else you'll take.</p>
<p>~Reading the same books, going to the same lectures, eating together after those lectures promotes a great feeling of fellowship among DSers. We joke that it's the thirteenth residential college. I've made a lot of my closest friendships through DS.</p>
<p>~SMALL CLASSES! I cannot possibly overstate the importance of this. Remember that when colleges talk about "average class size" they average in all kinds of one-person independent studies you'll never take. Most freshman end up in at least one enormous intro class, and, even with a great lecturer, they still leave you wanting more. Small discussion sections, actually getting to talk to your professor about your papers... DS is what you think about when you think about college.</p>
<p>~The Workload: We all complain a lot about the workload, but it's fairly reasonable. There's a ton of reading to get done, but, even though everyone complains about "a paper a week" each of the three classes in DS requires only 3 papers a semester (less than my intro psych class). Plus, your papers will never be due in the same week, cutting down on stress.</p>
<p>I'm wild about DS, but it's not for everyone. If you're coming in premed or engineering, make sure you can work your huge prereq schedule around losing 3 slots each semester freshman year. I have no idea what I'll major in, so taking DS will make it harder for me to explore as many majors as I'd like before deciding. Still, I'm really happy to be taking DS.</p>
<p>If you guys have any other DS q's, I'd be happy to answer.</p>
<p>For those of you who have taken DS, what other classes did you take at the same time? Did you take one other class a term or two? Are a foreign language and a math class doable at the same time as taking DS?</p>
<p>I wouldn't even think about doing 5.5 credits with DS, especially not your first semester at Yale. That is crazy talk. Almost everyone does just 4 credits with DS, or 4.5 if you are taking a foreign language. 2nd semester, there are more doing 5, but still not a ton of people. Also be warned that many of the lower level math classes are notoriously bad as far as teaching quality goes.</p>
<p>Thanks, drummerdude. That's helpful. We'd read that students usually take 4-5 classes per term, but thought with DS four might be the way to go.</p>
<p>Take DS if you're really interested. The people i know who are taking it because they're excited about are enjoying it very much. Most of the people i know in DS like the program a lot. Be sure that you like analyzing literature and philosophy ad nauseum, bc that's what most of your year will be. And you can't be afraid of essay writing either, bc you'll have one almost every week. Don't take it just bc you're preadmitted or think you should do whatever is the most challenging course. If you're really looking to kill yourself there are much harder schedules to be assembled. The point is that you should do DS if you're interested and willing to put in the effort, and in that case you'll probably enjoy it very much. </p>
<p>In terms of admission, i think most people who are persistent get in. If you're not preadmitted and your application isn't accepted, petition to get in at the beginning of the year. Lots of people drop, and nearly anyone who really wants to be in DS can get in. </p>
<p>Advantage: you finish three distributional areas (Humanities, social sciences, writing). You're guaranteed a lot of small classes.
Disadvantage: If you're in DS, you'd probably satisfy those areas pretty easily anyway, and the four quantitative reasoning and science credits that you have left probably aren't particularly appealing to you. Your progress in your major might be stalled bc of the large block of credits DS takes up. You'll have considerably less choice of classes in your freshman year, and there will be lots of classes you want to take in the blue book.</p>
<p>DS sounds very interesting to me but I have some questions about it:</p>
<p>How and when do you have to apply for it? After admission to Yale? Can anybody take it, or do you have to qualify for it? If yes, how do you do that? Also: can you only take it in your freshman year, or is it still possible to take it let's say in your senior year? Thanks!</p>
<p>Some people are admitted to DS at the time of Yale admission (in April, even for EA admits), on the basis of the admissions committee deciding on the basis of their Yale applications that DS would either help attract them to Yale or that they would be a good fit for DS. Everyone else applies over the summer (June, I think), but those who are not admitted can try to get in at the start of the term by talking to the program director, as many DS-admits will decide to drop the program at the beginning of the semester. It's a freshman only program, but it has no other specific admissions requirements other than filling out an application.</p>
<p>some people indicate interest in their admissions application, and get accepted that way...otherwise, everyone else must apply over the summer. current yalies, is this true?</p>
<p>wow, I guess than I should have mentioned it in my "why yale" 'essay'. That program seems extremely interesting to me. Too bad that it's so limited.</p>
<p>How is the grading for DS? I've heard it was a bit tougher than regular classes. Also, if I am looking at Math and Economics or Math and Physics as my major, would taking DS hinder my ability to get ahead as far as taking the proof based Multivar+LinearAlg plus rigorous intro to physics first semester?</p>
<p>You'd probably want to kill yourself if you take DS/hard math & physics classes in your freshman year. Trust me, you want to take it easy at least in your first semester.</p>
<p>Do the admitted students get any additional information about how/when etc. they can apply?</p>
<p>This is just a sidenote, but are there any courses similar to DS but less taxing workwise? It also seems like DS emphasis works of antiquity more than anything else, but I think it would be cool to have a class that just reads, discusses, and analyzes great novels based on more of a contemporary era of literature, i.e. period of 1800s and up. That ways, we can cover authors such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Zola, Joyce, Faulkner, etc.</p>
<p>The same goes for the history and philosophy components of DS.</p>
<p>Admitted students are provided a link to a DS application site (I want to say late May/early June).</p>
<p>I'm not going to lie, I am incredibly pumped for DS. It sounds like something no other college can offer, even though I'm most likely going to major in something quantitatively related. </p>
<p>I went to the DS site and small an intriguing page reaching out to alumni. I know we probably have a few around on this board, and I would like to know what they end up doing after DS in Yale and after Yale.</p>
<p>yeah i'm also wondering about how DS afters ppl in yale. do you have time to hang and do extracurriculars, or does work time override social time?</p>