I was just curious if anyone can speak to whether or not Yale shows a strong commitment to Under grads. I know a lot of top schools really have great grad programs and funding for Grad students but often short change undergrad education. Have you ever felt like Yale, or any institution for that matter, cared less about your education as an Undergrad than say a graduate students?
I’m just a parent, but from what I understand, Yale is known for its dedication to undergrads. DS agrees.
Yale’s commitment to their undergraduates is well known and respected. I will be a Freshman in the Fall, and it was one of the reasons why I accepted their offer.
My general impression is that undergraduate education is emphasized more at Yale than at Harvard, Columbia, and Penn, but not as much as at Princeton and Dartmouth. But I do hear that all full professors at Yale are required to teach undergraduate courses, which is not the case at other peer schools.
I’m not sure what a strong commitment to undergrads really means.
My son just graduated from Yale, and during his four years there, he took about 8 courses that were taught by noted (famous) graduate professors who were also teaching undergrads. Is that what you mean?
My son also was able to take several graduate level courses and have them count towards his undergraduate degree. Is that what you mean?
During my son’s senior year, his thesis mentor was Marvin Chung a very famous graduate level professor at Yale (http://psychology.yale.edu/people/marvin-chun). Is that what you mean as well?
FWIW: My daughter graduated from Harvard and was able to have the same access to graduate level professors there as my son did at Yale. The rule of thumb at both schools (and I imagine this is true at Princeton and Dartmouth as well): Students need to take initiative and make the first contact with professors, be they undergrad or graduate. A famous graduate level professor is not going to seek out an undergraduate student. But if a an undergraduate student approaches a professor, they are very amenable to conversation, mentorship, research, etc.
+1 to seeking out the professor. My son was shy for the first half of the first semester. He then approached some professors in whose classes he had a special interest. He was very happy with their responses.
Thank you all so much for your replies, I’m visiting there, on their dime :), this summer and generally when you visit a school they always talk about undergrad research ops but they don’t tell you how rare they are.
^^ Let’s imagine you are doing a research project and you need to hire a research assistant. Who would you want to hire to help you: (a) a fellow 17-year old student, or (b) a 13-year old eighth grader who is about to enter high school?
My guess is that you would hire the student closer to your age. Is that correct? Well, it’s the same way with college professor’s. If they have a choice between hiring a graduate student or an undergraduate student, they are almost always going to hire the graduate student to be their assistant. And that’s true no matter where you eventually go to college.
@gibby - I don’t think its true if you go to an LAC that has no grad students
^^ That’s correct. But, if you attend a major university that has graduate programs, that’s what you will encounter!
I don’t know that it’s true that a college professor would hire a graduate instead of hiring an undergraduate. My understanding is that the grad students have basically year round jobs with certain professors and aren’t really “competing” for the summer research fellowships or academic year assistant positions.
(Just to give context: I was hired for the summer by one of my professors to work on a project with him, another professor, a post-doc, and a grad student).
^^ That’s fantastic, but I think your experience is the exception not the rule.
My son was able to volunteer for a summer in a professor’s lab as a local high school rising junior based on nothing more than an email query. YMMV.
Of the Ivies, Yale has the reputation of catering to undergrads. The living on Old Campus freshman year, residential college system, freshman counselors, etc. all factor into the overall freshman/undergrad experience. Yale undergrads are a very happy bunch. I am however, very biased as a grad and a mother of a now sophomore.
I think my DH would argue that Princeton has more of a focus on undergrads than any of the other Ivies (other than Dartmouth) due to the much larger proportion of the school which is UG. Of course he’s a P’ton grad 
Myself, I went to Swarthmore so I’m not going to comment.
I know people who graduated from all the Ivies or go to them now (my D’s friends). They are all pretty much happy at their schools though there are some built in processes at some that make them less undergrad friendly. I always say that one should visit the Ivies. They are all so different - definitely not one size fits all. You can be happy anywhere but I would google on the Internet about student happiness at the different Ivies.
I think you have to look at what attention undergrads actually get, as opposed to looking at how many grad students are around. I’m also biased, but I think undergrads at Yale get plenty of attention. They probably get more at some LACs, but I doubt if it’s much better at any other Ivies.
I’ll just say that my husband’s comment was based on experience (his at P’ton and our daughter’s at Yale).
The attention that matters the most is from the professors. At schools with large and dominant graduate programs, it is inevitable that professors pay more attention to graduate students. Teaching undergrads is often a distraction to these research focused professors. Therefore, I stick to my original opinion that, regarding focus on undergrads, Yale is better than Harvard, Columbia, and Penn, but not as good as Princeton and Dartmouth. But in the larger picture, this issue is of little significance given the overall calibre of professors and especially students at these elite schools. I wouldn’t choose a school based on this.
I think the ability of undergraduates to attract the attention of faculty is the single most important factor in selecting an undergraduate institution. My DS isn’t interested in a small liberal arts college, so I am working hard to convince him of the importance of attending a university where undergraduates come first. We were both very impressed by Princeton in that regard (Dartmouth is too rural for his taste so he isn’t looking there). Going to Yale later this month - it will be very interesting to see how convincing it is in discussing faculty-undergraduate interaction. Princeton repeatedly made the point that it has twice as many undergrad as graduate students and it made an impression.