<p>Hi all,
I'm a current senior planning on matriculating to Yale next year. I just received a letter from the Directed Studies program at Yale, stating that I have been pre-admitted to the program.</p>
<p>I've actually never heard of the program until today, but I spent about an hour on the Directed Studies website, and have mixed feelings about it. Basically, it seems like it would be an amazing intellectual experience, but it also seems like it's a little overkill. Two weeks to read War and Peace, while simultaneously reading and writing a ton about ten Greek philosophers for the philosophy and "historical and political thought" classes? Whew!</p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with the program? Is it possible to take it along with math/science classes and still have a life outside of the program? It sounds really cool, but like I said, really intense. </p>
<p>I'm also curious as two why I would have been preadmitted to it. I applied as a prospective math major, and that is still what I plan on doing, albeit while taking classes in the humanities on the side. I didn't express interest in it - like I said, I didn't know it existed - and it seems it might be more suited for humanities majors.</p>
<p>So, I'd appreciate any insight about the program from current or previous students, parents of students who have taken it, or anyone else who is familiar with it.
Cheers</p>
<p>I’m a pre-admit too and would love to hear more about Directed Studies as well!</p>
<p>Also, clandarkfire, based on the email I received from my regional admissions officer, they nominate students for pre-admission based on their profiles.</p>
<p>“they nominate students for pre-admission based on their profiles” …</p>
<p>and that means you both have outstanding profiles that would very much fit those who have done DS quite successfully - even among the very select few already admitted EA.</p>
<p>Fiske guide says… “DS examines the literature, philosophy, history and politics of Western tradition” … “Prospective DSers should be prepared for some serious bonding with their books-they don’t call it “Directed Suicide” for nothing”. </p>
<p>"Freshmen with strong science backgrounds can enroll in “Perspectives on Science” - their version of DS</p>
<p>Echoing a previous poster- use advanced search and search for the keyword “Directed Studies” within the Yale subforum. The pros and cons have been discussed in considerable detail.</p>
<p>My daughter did it and she loved it, but she is a humanities major. She was able to participate in some time consuming extracurricular activities as well. She does know some people who were simultaneously taking some serious math and/or science classes. If you are a math/science major, taking DS can be one way to get a whole lot of distributional requirements out of the way. But yes, you must love books, and be willing to spend a lot of time reading them, discussing them and writing papers about them.</p>
<p>DS is basically a great idea if you were attracted to the Columbia Core Curriculum. My wife and I both did it many years ago (though not at the same time). We both thought it was great. I was a hard core literature student, she was more a social science type. </p>
<p>In retrospect, we could have done even better picking non-DS classes intelligently, but that’s a lot easier to say with hindsight and sophistication. For example, a good section of English 25 would have been a much better literature course than the DS class I took. But if what you want is a solid grounding in Western philosophy and literature, and small seminar classes full of great students, with whom you are likely to share more than one class, DS is a good bet.</p>
<p>Two weeks to read War And Peace? War And Peace is a pretty easy read. I remember having only one week to read Ulysses. But maybe I procrastinated. Yes, you are going to have a lot of reading and a lot of short papers. But that should be true no matter what non-STEM classes you take as a Yale freshman.</p>
<p>I think the comments posted by nickknack, obtained by following the link above, pretty much say it all.</p>
<p>My D is in DS and was in the same position as the OP last year, being told out of the blue that she was in a program she knew little or nothing about. What I’d like to add is that she has been able to participate in a fairly demanding extracurricular activity that takes her to other college campuses almost every weekend for 1.5 days of competition/travel and that requires preparation and practice on other days. She also has other extracurricular commitments. She was able to do these things and still obtain excellent grades first semester.</p>
<p>When I mentioned this thread to her, she felt, though, that it would not be correct for people to infer too much from her experience. She mentioned that she is a particularly fast reader and efficient writer. Some others have found the workload to be more time-consuming.</p>
<p>My daughter is not going to be a math or science major, but the fact that she can spend so much of each week on activities that are not related to DS means that it should be possible to combine some very heavy course work in those areas with DS.</p>
<p>She very much enjoys the program, by the way.</p>