<p>It seems to be a matter of degrees for most people. There's "heavy" drinking in a social context, with two thousand kids kicking back a couple of beers (or less) and hanging out, and then there is HEAVY drinking, which is the six kids who are bored sitting around in a room chugging vodka. The former is much more inclusive and preferable, in my opinion. But the latter is what is common on campuses that don't have social vibrancy.</p>
<p>posterX, I think there is more heavy drinking at Yale than you think. Perhaps it's not chugging vodka in your room, but's definitely more than a couple of beers on the weekends.</p>
<p>I had friends at Yale who didn't drink, but they went to all the parties, out bars, etc. If you choose not to go anywhere drinking is present, I agree that there won't be a lot to do on weekends after 10:00 and activities like tailgating before football games won't be for you.</p>
<p>My group of friends was like T26's. We went wild freshman and sophomore years and after that drank more moderately except on certain blowout occasions. Most of my friends did not drink in high school, so I agree with drummerdude that attitudes may change. By the way, I don't think people starting drinking because they felt pressure to from other Yalies.</p>
<p>I loathe alcohol. This will be a constant source of trouble in college, but I am determined to not make it a big deal if possible.</p>
<p>Does Yale have an Objectivist club (i.e. Ayn Rand)? I know, it's off the wall, but I hope they do...</p>
<p>
[quote]
Does Yale have an Objectivist club (i.e. Ayn Rand)? I know, it's off the wall, but I hope they do...
[/quote]
There's actually a somewhat interesting story about this. There's a group called the Objectivist Study Group at Yale (OSGAY) but what it actually is, is a front group for the Party of the Right (POR) of the Yale Political Union. The POR is banned from almost all reservable rooms in the residential colleges because of a couple of incidents involving destruction of college property (notably the burning of pianos on two separate occasions). OSGAY is one of several names that they use to allow themselves to reserve rooms (though some of the colleges have caught on). OSGAY does have occasional meetings as a group of its own, but none of the members of the POR are actually objectivists, so the goal of OSGAY is to convince unwitting Objectivists to give up their objectivist philosophy (often involving converting them to Catholicism) and become either a more moderate form of libertarian, or, occasionally, some form of rightist authoritarian.
There are Objectivists at Yale, but no actual group for them. And many freshmen who enter as Objectivists soon find themselves convinced to leave it for a more mainstream (and, IMO, less insane) philosophy.</p>
<p>HAHA......oh OSGaY. I am actually a member, and it is indeed one of many front groups of the Party of the Right; they will not deny this. The president of OSGaY is simply appointed by the Chairman of the PoR, although not everyone that goes to OSGaY is a PoR member. There are both Independent Party and Tory Party (the party I plan to join) members that come. It is true that currently there are exactly 0 actual Objectivists in the group, and that the odd person or two has converted to Catholicism based on interactions with former OSGaY members.<br>
That being said, OSGaY is officially recognized by the Ayn Rand Institute, and there are a couple of members that know a ton about Rand's philosophy and hold views that are quite similar to Rand's, though they would not call themselves Objectivists (not to ignore the fact that several USED to be objectivists). The typical religious split at an OsGay meeting is half Catholic/Christian, half atheist, and the political bent runs from anarchists and libertarians to traditional conservatives and the occasional liberal.
Meetings do happen every week, and by meetings I mean fun (and oftentimes funny) philosophical discussion for an hour or two while munching on chips or cookies. The conversations can go anywhere, and the focus is more on good thought than just how a topic relates to Objectivism.
As for the PoR being banned from rooms, I would be careful about spreading rumors about them, though I won't claim to know anything about the specifics of this case. There are all kinds of bad things said about the PoR; most of which are heavily exaggerated or made up, and mostly passed on by people who don't actually have any experience with the PoR or any of its members. And though I have decided to join the Tories, all of the PoR members that I've met are upstanding people, not to mention some of the best minds at Yale.</p>
<p>My reports of them being banned from rooms are not in any way meant to disparage them - it's simply a factual statement. And it is as a result of a couple instances of property destruction, though, strangely enough, I think both occurred at POR alumni events.</p>
<p>Whoa. I'm actually really excited about the YPU and I can't wait to join if I get accepted. Sounds like some pretty crazy things go on though. Does the YPU have a large presence on campus? Are there any current members, or future members than can elaborate a little more on what actually goes on in the Political Union?</p>
<p>I was just at the PoR alumni debate about 10 minutes ago, and someone brought up something about burning pianos in their speech, which sent the crowd into fits. So I'm now willing to bet that there is something to that bit.</p>
<p>Anyway, to the last poster, I can answer pretty much anything about the YPU, now that I have a fair amount of experience with it. I'm joining the Tories, and I've been to many PoR events, and a Party of the Left debate, and of course the Union debates.</p>
<p>How scary were the PoR alums? I wasn't able to bring myself to go to any "Bacchanalian orgy" events (as they described it) with the PoR. Incidentally, I'm probably even more qualified than drummerdude to answer Union questions as I'm currently an officer of the Union.
As to mono's question, the YPU is the largest undergraduate organization at Yale, and at times the guests it brings in can make it a pretty big deal on campus, particularly last year when we brought in Justice Scalia, Michael Dukakis, Howard Dean, and Al Sharpton (among others). If you have any more specific questions, I'll be happy to answer them.</p>
<p>Thanks so much guys. I was just wondering if anyone could join the political union or did you have to go through some kind application process or fulfill some requirements to get in? Also, how much time does an active member of the political union devote to this organization? Does it take you away from other things? Are the people friendly with each other within the YPU or is there a lot of animosity between the different parties? Does everyone get a chance to speak during the debates or are you struggling to even be noticed? Sorry if I'm rambling I'm just very curious...</p>
<p>No problem, mono.
Anyone can join the YPU - all it involves is buying a membership (currently $15 per year) which goes to support the Union's activities. To become a voting member, you need simply come to 3 debates in a semester, in addition to buying a membership. Last semester there were over 270 voting members (and an even larger number of members) so it's hardly an exclusive club.
The amount of time Union membership requires varies greatly based on how involved you want to be. As an officer on the Executive Board, I spend a very significant amount of time on it and it certainly reduces the amount of time I have (and often the amount of sleep I get). But last year, as someone who went to all the debates of my party and of the Union (that is, certainly an active member, but not someone who was helping to run the organization) the amount of time I spent on the Union was quite manageable. And plenty of people spent less time on it than I did. Essentially, you make the choice as to how important the Union is compared to the other things you do, and decide your level of involvement on that basis.
The amount of friendliness between the parties differs. The parties on the Right of the union (Conservative, Tory, and PoR) generally have bad relations with each other, and compete intensely for right-leaning freshmen. The parties on the Left (Liberal, POL, Progressive) and the Independent Party all get along fairly well with each other, and have decent relationships with the parties on the right. Generally, parties on the Left may not the ideologies or styles of some of the other parties in the Union, but that doesn't prevent their members from getting along with each other.
At a debate, around 7-8 students will actually give a speech (we don't want to go on all night), but far more will be able to ask a question, which can constitute extremely valuable participation. At some debates, 7-8 speakers means that pretty much everyone who wants to speak can, at others, it means 20 people are left disappointed, but over the course of the semester you have a good chance to get to speak. At party debates, far more people get to participate. At some party debates, almost everyone in the party will speak at some point, and everyone will participate in some way.</p>
<p>Hi, drummerdude_07, I recall you were admitted to some great colleges last year. Why did Yale become your choice when decided which offer of admission to accept?</p>
<p>To make a semi-long story short, I really liked both Yale and UChicago. But only Harvard offered any fin. aid. One fax to Yale and a day later, that was no longer a problem. The presence of the YPU and political activity in general was an advantage over Chicago, while the Directed Studies program at Yale pacified my strong desire for Chicago's core curriculum. Harvard pulled at me with the city of Boston and the name, but to be honest it was the least impressive of the three. And in the end I think Yale presented the best of both worlds, with great undergrad education, yet still with world-renowned scholars, strength in academic departments and extracurriculars I was considering, and a more happy, relaxed, and personal atmosphere than Harvard.</p>
<p>I also got into Georgetown, but I had never visited and viewed it as the weakest in every area (except for being in D.C.) for my purposes, including cost.</p>
<p>Thanks for the summary of the trade-offs you considered.</p>
<p>I've heard that Yale is full of people on the fast-track to a big career...that they know what their future goals are in college and don't at all plan to experiment, and that it's a bit uptight. Is this true?</p>
<p>tetrisfan:
In a word: no!
Some people may see themselves "on the fast-track to a big career" but Yale is by no means uptight, and most of us don't know what our future goals are (the number of seniors I know agonizing about what to do after college confirms this). And I don't know anyone at Yale who doesn't experiment with different academic tracks and extracurriculars and at least consider different different career paths.</p>
<p>Oh that's nice to know :).</p>
<p>I asked this on the Brown forum, and I think I should ask it here too:</p>
<p>What are the differences between Brown and Yale?</p>
<p>After i got to campus i noticed a surprising number of people who ultimately chose between brown and yale. I wonder if other people noticed that...</p>
<p>Also to corroborate svalbardlutefisk, that's so very not true. Most people come in not even knowing what they want to major in... and end up changing that multiple times. If there are any people who are that career oriented i haven't met them. </p>
<p>And yale is by no means uptight. Case in point: one residential college's motto is "JE SUX," so when freshmen in JE put their motto up on the facade of their freshman housing, the college next to them put up a giant p e n i s in twinkle lights to spell JE SUX (c o c k)</p>
<p>Yale is arguably less "career oriented" than any other Ivy League school. Another factoid to consider is that Yale, relative to its size, is a larger source of future Ph.D.s than any other university in the United States. There are only a half dozen schools in the country that produce more alumni who go on to receive Ph.D.s, and they are all small liberal arts colleges like Reed and Swarthmore. In addition to the many alumni who remain in academia, Yale alumni also go into the arts, government, nonprofits, teaching (TFA) and Fulbright scholar programs in disproportionate numbers. If you want to go to a college where every single student is a mindless, hypercompetitive clone just trying to land a job at a large corporation or get into medical school when they graduate, Yale is probably not for you.</p>