<p>welll, the title basically says it all. I just want to hear the opinions of current Yalies as to why they chose Yale, and how they are liking it now. thanks!</p>
<p>i'm wondering the same thing. can ppl also tell us about New Haven? i heard it's pretty unsafe and there are high crime rates and stuff. how "bad" is it exactly?</p>
<p>Yes, PLEASE TELL US ABOUT NEW HAVEN. Yale seems so perfect, but it's in NEW HAVEN. PLEASE TELL US ABOUT NEW HAVEN!!!!</p>
<p>NEW HAVEN</p>
<p>NEW HAVEN</p>
<p>PLEASE TELL US ABOUT NEW HAVEN!</p>
<p>(Oh yes, the majority of my comment was in caps. What are you gonna do about it? Yeah that's right.)</p>
<p>It's become much better over time. The university has led an effort to revialize the city, and there are pockets near campus with decent shopping and dining. The neighborhoods one doesn't wander into are generally more than a few blocks from campus. </p>
<p>It's not as safe as Cambridge or even New York, but it's nothing to be panicked about.</p>
<p>Not as safe as NEW YORK??!! As in Columbia is safer? Do Yallies mind living in New Haven?</p>
<p>lol, cambridge isn't even safe. some guy in teh summer program got stabbed and another got robbed at knifepoint. i can't imagine something worse than that?</p>
<p>I think, if you're a Yale student, you generally won't be stupid enough to walk through the sketchy areas at night by yourself.
The danger of New Haven is horribly overexaggerated, IMO. I haven't heard a single Yalie complain about location...only the prospective students.</p>
<p>I really don't want to be seen as spreading misinformation about New Haven. Perhaps Yalies can comment on the accuracy of this:</p>
<p>"New Haven's crime rate has gone down considerably since the drug wars of the early 1990s, when automatic gunfire peppered the air on a daily basis. The city is safer now than in 1994 when the Latin Kings, New Haven-based African American gangs and drug dealers from Bridgeport and New York battled for turf in the cities' impoverished neighborhoods. There was even a shootout between rival gangs in the cities' heavily policed courthouse, as well as shootouts in front of the police station itself, gun battles at funerals and even violence at church services. Violence in New Haven was downplayed, officials in bed with Yale were doing so as Yales' admissions shrunk with each year, as word of the cities' violent nature spread. Today, despite a heavy police prescence, there is minimal risk involved with traveling to New Haven's tourist attractions as the criminal element there has adapted to preying on unsuspecting tourists and Yale students/guests. Some problems with traveling Yale and downtown New Haven are that New Haven police are away busy fighting crime in New Haven's neighborhoods while the Yale police have only five cruisers patrolling a very active downtown area and most visitors to New Haven are unsuspecting of the element there. Carjackings, muggings and purse snatchings are everyday occurences. Crimes perpetrated by youths on bicycles (bike gangs) are known to be carried out in broad daylight, especially in and around Yale. New Haven's bike gangs may include youths as young as 10 and as old as 18, they have been known to travel in groups as small as 5, to 30 or more. Use common sense, if you are approached by youths on bikes just give them what you have, the worst thing you can do is try and be a hero its almost certain you will be shot, beaten, or stabbed. Even today, travel to the surrounding neighborhoods of New Haven without a purpose is illogical, crime is even worse, plus all the attractions are in the downtown area. Late night travel without someone who knows the area is not recommended. "</p>
<p><a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/New_Haven%5B/url%5D">http://wikitravel.org/en/New_Haven</a></p>
<p>I would compare New Haven, and more specifically the area directly around Yale, to Morningside Heights. Not to New York City, mind you, but Morningside Heights. What I mean by that is the immediate surroundings are gentrified and geared towards college students, however a little farther away brings you into more questionable areas. I've walked around New Haven at night, that said, I wouldn't walk around more deserted parts of the city any more than I would walk through East Harlem alone at night. I guess you just need a little city savvy to stay out of harm's way.
I would say that Columbia and Yale have very similar immediate environs, with the obvious exception of course that Columbia also has all of NYC at its fingertips.</p>
<p>i love new haven. the area around yale is perfectly safe, and very charming actually. im a very small white girl and i walk by myself all the time at night without feeling the slightest bit unsafe.</p>
<p>So.. no one has really answered the question...? Why Yale over others?</p>
<p>There was a why yale thread not too long ago. People probably haven't responded because you could be provided with your answer by using the simple search option.</p>
<p>ummmm, have you looked at the 'why I chose yale over harvard' thread? That would be very helpful for you.</p>
<p>new haven's fine. honestly, the only way you'd have a problem with it is if you've had a sheltered life without exposure to the rougher side of the world. every city has poverty, new haven is no different.</p>
<p>Downtown New Haven is easily one of the best college towns in the country. Certainly there is more to do than any other Ivy League college town, which I think is reflected by the fact that Yale is now the most selective university in the country. The best thing about it is Yale is at the center of downtown New Haven - compared to other Ivies none of which are at the center of their host cities - and therefore Yale students have access to everything. In the case of schools in huge cities (like Harvard and Columbia), students leave the campus altogether and campus life is therefore totally dead.</p>
<p>Downtown New Haven used to be a bit rundown a long time ago. Now there are million dollar condos being built everywhere, and all the upper levels of old department stores, firehouses, factories, shopping malls, etc., have been turned into luxury apartments. There are hundreds of stores, falafel or hookah joints, diners, cinemas, theaters, bars, restaurants, cafes, etc., many open 24/7 or late into the night. Beyond the downtown, of course, it is a fairly large city (with a metropolitan population of 800,000+) and there are a variety of neighborhoods in the city, including suburban ones with multi-million dollar houses, "yuppie" areas with gourmet grocery stores and indie coffeeshops every block, seemingly endless immigrant areas lined with ethnic restaurants and bodegas, old waterfront areas with seafood shacks, etc. Much like a little piece of New York City - in fact, central New Haven has virtually the same demographics as NYC.</p>
<p>That said, from everything I've heard, Yalies choose Yale primarily for the following reasons:</p>
<p>1) Incredible social life - because Yale is compact, campus social life is buzzing around the clock. There are places to sit and hang out, dozens of theaters, and all parties are accessible because unlike other Ivy League schools, all of the undergraduate dormitories are within a three minute walk of each other. Walking across campus on even a minor errand, you are bound to run into a dozen of your friends. And because of this, it's easier to make friends and students of different backgrounds interact MUCH more.</p>
<p>2) Academics - Among all the Ivies and top schools (with the exception perhaps of Caltech), Yale has the most focus on undergraduates. Even David Brooks, a UChicago alum and famous columnist, has written that Yale provides the best undergraduate education in the country. Because the city is small compared to say, New York or Chicago, faculty live nearby and spend more time teaching and interacting with students in general; also, classes tend to be very small.</p>
<p>3) Residential Colleges - Among universities, Yale has the only true 4-year residential college system. It's hard to explain here, but there's a lot of material about it on the Yale website I'm sure, and if you visit and stay over, you'll hear all about it. Other schools have tried to copy Yale's system (for example, in 1986, Princeton instituted a "college system") but to no avail - you simply can't replicate something that's been around since the 1930s and has so much funding, dedicated buildings and dedicated staff.</p>
<p>Even if what you've said about Yale is true, you've misrepresented many other schools in the process. Harvard's house system was set up at the exact same time as Yale's and certainly has comparable funding. Students at most universities, especially compact urban ones, are bound to run into their friends on a frequent basis. Faculty at Chicago and Columbia mostly live in the same neighborhoods as those universities. There isn't a complete flight of social life from Columbia's campus at night, and this is certainly not true regarding Harvard in Boston. And while New Haven has improved substantially, it would be a mistake to compare it to New York, considering whatever the definition of "seemingly endless immigrant areas" etc. is, these cannot hold a candle to anything in Queens or Brooklyn. Nor is New Haven a bastion of the superrich.</p>
<p>Harvard's system is not anything like Yale's, even if it was founded around the same time, but like I said, that's something you'd have to visit and stay over to see for yourself. All of the guides/viewbooks will say a certain thing about the dormitories, usually totally positive, so it's up to you to see for yourself what they are really like. </p>
<p>As far as the flight of social life, it is relative. But I would note that the places considered great college towns - like Madison, Bloomington, Ann Arbor, Athens, Chapel Hill, etc. - are always smaller cities where the campus is at the center. Among the Ivies, Yale is the only school in that situation. Honestly, it's up to you to see what's important to you, but if you visit overnight for a few days and compare Yale with Harvard or Columbia, I think you'll agree there's a major difference. I've tried to point that out as a major reason why Yale is now the most selective university in the country. Honestly, another part of it, like I said, is probably that the dormitories are so close to each other and students therefore just interact more frequently.</p>
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<p>Among universities, Yale has the only true 4-year residential college system.</p>
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<p>wrong, and on many levels. first, in any "true" four-year residential college system, freshmen would live together with upperclassmen IN their residential colleges, not segregated together in one area of campus, as at yale. in this respect, yale's system falls short of "true." second, both harvard and rice have college systems at least as complete as yale's. harvard, in fact, beat yale to the punch in instituting its system. it was, as quipped at the time, a princeton idea, instituted at harvard, with yale money - that of disaffected but rich yale alumnus edward harkness. </p>
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<p>Other schools have tried to copy Yale's system (for example, in 1986, Princeton instituted a "college system") but to no avail - you simply can't replicate something that's been around since the 1930s and has so much funding, dedicated buildings and dedicated staff.</p>
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<p>it is not "yale's system." the system originated at oxbridge, centuries earlier, and was advocated for adoption at harvard, princeton, and chicago as early as the 1890s (see alex duke, "importing oxbridge"). yale, despite having little to say on the matter until the 1920s, implemented the system only after having its hand forced when the aforementioned harkness took his money to harvard. as for princeton, it created its first college not in 1986, but in 1968 (woodrow wilson lodge, now wilson college). it created four others in 1983. after the completion of $110-million whitman college next fall, princeton will have three "true" four-year colleges, to yale's none.</p>
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<p>Harvard's system is not anything like Yale's, even if it was founded around the same time</p>
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<p>they're as similar as any two college systems in the world, with freshmen segregated together (harvard yard, old campus) and three-year colleges for sophomores, juniors, and seniors.</p>
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Blocking is every Harvard freshman's nightmare, but at Yale, first-years know their fate right from the start. Incoming freshmen at Yale are assigned to "residential colleges," the equivalent of Harvard houses, from the very first day. Yalies don't have to pick and choose among their friends come March, and they don't have to dread getting booted off a mile away from their closest buddies. On the other hand, they don't have the option to choose their rooming/blocking groups from the freshman class as a whole. First-years have the option of transferring to another college after their freshman year, but according to Dean Meeske, Yale Dean of Administrative Affairs, very few students (only about 60 each year), decide to do so.
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<p>F.Scottie, there's a major difference between having a few colleges created in the 1980s and having a college "system." Again, visit and see for yourself how they differ.</p>