Not my experiences but I am close with my daughter and so this what she has told me.
She spends a balanced time doing homework and other interests. She is highly organized and so she sets her time slots well in advance. It is definitely more work than high school but she also has less outside activities to distract her. Also a lot of her social time is spent studying with friends in the same classes.
According to her it is terribly difficult but she is a perfectionist and was used to everything being an easy A grade. The first time she “bombed” an exam was tough for her. She called me sobbing. She had a low C… in the end the whole class grade was curved up so she has all A’s and B’s in the end. She works really hard though.
I do not know of anyone that she has mentioned. She does have friends that had to take a year off for mental health reasons. But each case is different.
Its not difficult. Its actually easy to fail. Most don’t though because if you have the kind of work ethic required to get in, chances are good you wont let yourself do that badly while there.
Definitely collaborative. She says this all the time on tours. The biggest difference between Yale and Harvard is that Harvard is competitive or “You are in it for yourself” and Yale is Collaborative or “We are in it together”.
6.She gets really stressed. It is a lot harder than high school. I tell her all the time that she was an exceptional student in an average high school and now she is just an average student in an exceptional college. That is a difficult transition. She is also on pre-med track and is not typically a stem minded student so that makes things more challenging. She is technically a history major and if she was just taking history classes, she would be flying but the career she chose requires her to step out of her comfort zone. In order to apply to med school, she will have to have multiple stem classes in her arsenal. So what you decide to study matters too.
Getting in to Yale is difficult for different reasons. You can hit the bar of what they would expect for a minimum standard, be exceptional in many ways and then still not be accepted because there are too many like you that applied. You put your very best forward but ultimately is not up to you. If you get in, you will have challenges because you get to make the choices on your own but you are also responsible for those choices. Even simple ones like,“Do I go to bed now and wake up early to review for a test or do I stay up late to review and possibly not sleep before a test”. In one way you could be rested, possibly oversleep and feel unprepared and the other is you are half dead but recently studied. Both could offer different results- what choice do you make?
Parent of a son who attended a competitive private HS, getting an IB diploma. His major is Computer Science. 1. How many hours do you spend studying/doing homework?
I can’t say, but I think it’s fair to say that his days are full. In addition to studying, there are psets that can take, worst case, 40 hours, but more typically 10-15 hours. He also spends time (and travel) interviewing for internships and attending conferences. He’s a TA, has a great GF, great friends, plays club hockey, is training for a half marathon, etc. 2. How difficult is it to maintain a good gpa?
I guess it depends what you mean by “good gpa.” 3. Do you know anyone on academic probation?
No. 4. How difficult is it to fail?
Barring self-sabotage, I think it’s close to impossible. Yale is very helpful. 5. Does the student atmosphere lean competitive or collaborative?
Absolutely collaborative. In CS and Math, collaboration is assumed as necessary to managing the workload. 6. How stressful was/is your workload in comparison to your high school workload?
DS works much harder than in HS, and perhaps it’s more stressful, but he controls that. 7. Would you say it is harder to get into Yale or to stay in Yale?
MUCH harder to get into Yale than to stay in. Single digit acceptance but I think that probably 90% of applicants could survive Yale (i.e., stay in). Some of the rejected applicants would possibly only barely stay in, and might not get full value of the education, but it is clearly much more difficult to be accepted.
6. How stressful was/is your workload in comparison to your high school workload?
My son’s experience at Yale differs from the children of @Memmsmom and @IxnayBob. Yale was infinitely EASIER than my son’s high school (Stuyvesant), which is a pressure-cooker of an environment where exams were handed back in reverse-order, so everyone knew who was at the top of each class. As in: “Robert got a 96, why is the class average a 54? The rest of you must be slackers.” That kind of environment doesn’t exist at Yale. So, I think it very much depends on what high school you attended and the experiences you had there.
1. How many hours do you spend studying/doing homework?
My son, who graduated with honors in 2015, had enough time to hold an on-campus job for about 20 hours a week, plus be in involved with extracurricular activities and do well in his studies. Problem sets for Math, Statistics and Computer Science probably took longer than papers, but I have no idea, quantitatively, how much time he spent doing homework. FWIW: My son’s job involved manning a computer help-station, so when things were quiet and no one needed help, I know he did his homework all the while being paid $14 an hour for his job. Not a bad deal if you can get it!
*** 2. How difficult is it to maintain a good gap?***
My son did not find it difficult to get A’s, but many of his friends struggled to do so.
@IxnayBob
2. How difficult is it to maintain a good gpa?
I guess it depends what you mean by “good gpa.”
There is a great deal of truth in this… I wanted to put her report card on the fridge like I have always done and she said no because there are two B’s on it. Perception is everything.
Thank you everyone for your very thorough responses. I got in EA but I’m nervous because I go to a REALLY bad high school where I’ve never been challenged academically. Im intelligent but I don’t know know if I have the work ethic or educational background to measure up to other Yale students. I constantly hear, “if you get in to Yale then you’re smart enough to succeed there” but my brother, the smartest person I know, got into MIT and has been on academic probation his entire freshman year because the learning curve from our highschool to a top tier institution was too drastic.
In a sentence- I really, really, love Yale but I’m not sure if I’m cut out for it. What should I do? @Memmsmom@gibby@IxnayBob
First, I would not do anything until you hear back from the other colleges that you applied to in the RD cycle.
Secondly, I would compare Yale’s cost of attendance (COA) against those of your other acceptances and see which college is the most affordable. You will have to include your parents in this discussion. If another college offers you better financial aid – and you really want to attend Yale – your parents should contact Yale’s financial aid office to see if they will recalculate your aid in light of the bette offer.
Lastly, provided Yale’s offer is the best financial fit, as well as academic fit, I think you should accept Yale’s offer. My son had an absolute wonderful time during his four years at Yale and bonded with an extraordinary group of friends. You are not your brother . . . and Yale is not MIT, which I think is a bit more intense than Yale.
I don’t know you or your brother. I do know that MIT and Yale are very different schools, both excellent, but very different.
I sometimes think that half of the entering freshmen to Yale think they’re the smartest students Yale has ever had (“the Geniuses”) and the other half worry that the AO made a big mistake and wonder when they will discover it (“the Impostors”). I think that most students moderate their position within the first year or so.
A little anecdata about DS. He went on FOOT before freshman year, and part of the experience was that every night, one or two of the kids would tell their story. Every night, he told me, he was amazed at the accomplishments of the other kids, and worried about when it would be his turn. When it was finally his turn, he was astonished that the kids thought he was accomplished also. I thInk the “Imposter” kids are more generous when evaluating others than when they look at themselves. Yale is a place where many kids don’t wear their accomplishments on their sleeves.
TBH, I like the “Imposter” kids much more than the “Genius” kids, but most of both groups mature nicely. I would love to have you come back to CC in a year or two and tell us that you’re killing it.
The Princeton Review asked similar questions of their survey respondents and did not find Yale to be as demanding as a range of other highly selective colleges, with Yale not making their list of twenty colleges where “Students Study the Most”:
I think you’ve gotten lots of great responses here and without my Yale student available to respond to these questions, I don’t have anything to add but a bit of humor. The students at Yale like to say the only “A” that matters at Yale is the one between the Y and the L on your diploma.
If you come from a really weak school you may be invited to attend Freshman Scholars at Yale. If so, I would highly recommend that you attend because you get some courses out of the way, and also have a lot of one-on-one tutoring.
If you’re aware that your background may not be as rigorous as some of your peers, you can do some things now to prepare. I would recommend going over basic calculus if you want to be taking science or engineering classes as a freshman. Learning how to read quickly (basically scanning) before getting to college is also useful, no matter where you go.
You’re obviously a strong student, and you’ll be able to succeed at Yale doing tons of hard classes over your four years. However, it might be prudent to take the transition easy (and this is something I would say to all freshmen). A lot of freshmen from all academic backgrounds take on way too much first semester. As such, I would recommend taking on classes that will teach you a lot, but that are manageable. I would also suggest using all of the resources that you have available. In terms of class selection, talk to your froco. If your grades are dropping in a STEM subject, get a tutor ASAP. For every paper, see the writing tutor. Go to office hours for every problem set where you have issues solving a question. See your dean for advice - don’t be afraid to drop a class or take a W.
I also found it useful putting parameters on other things - no studying in the suite (especially in the common room), no more than two drinks each weekend night, no drinks if a midterm was on a Monday or Tuesday.
It’s hard to fail at Yale because most professors will try and pass you with a low grade if they see you working hard. I do know someone who was on probation but she didn’t even try and would get other people to do her assignments for her whenever she did submit something. All of that said, she graduated on time.
Remember, there are so many reasons why people find college hard, and a weaker high school is only one of them. A lot of freshmen at Yale find it to be a huge adjustment, but most are glad they stayed come commencement.
@am7311 First off CONGRATULATIONS…
Second- don’t overthink this. You were accepted because they believe you will do well in the school. My daughter comes from a small regional high school. She wasn’t even 1 or 2 in her class. She was #4. She is doing absolutely fine and has a current gpa of 3.52 after one and a half years at Yale. Definitely nothing to squawk at. You have obviously proven to Yale that you can do this. Between the different groups that will study with you and the teachers that care and the TA’s that will work with you, you won’t fail if you want to succeed. The key is you need to want to succeed. And if that answer is yes (which I assume it is because you love Yale and you applied and you were accepted early when so many were not) you will be absolutely fine. A weaker school holds back no person who is creative, driven and open to trying. You will be fine. Relax and be excited for this amazing opportunity!!
@am7311 - One more thing I wanted to add. Here is an example. So my daughter who was absolutely hating Organic chemistry because she just didn’t get the connection between what the teacher was teaching and what the tests were testing on found a way around it. She studied with the TA, looked up how to do things on her own and then studied in a group of other kids in the class that all had different ways of looking at it. She ended up with an A- in the class and that was after doing poorly on a test. She aced the rest because she figured out that it was going to take more than the study skills she had and the instruction she was receiving from the teacher. She shifted, found solutions and succeeded. This is a collaborative environment- you are truly in it together. Also for what it is worth the girl that was #3 in her school went to MIT as well and she dropped out after her first year and is now in our state university. It is not the same thing and it is not your school- you belong at Yale. They said so…
“If you’re aware that your background may not be as rigorous as some of your peers, you can do some things now to prepare. I would recommend going over basic calculus…”
Excellent suggestion. If you are not STEM type student, I would recommend going over your foreign language choice at Yale over this coming summer. The foreign language choice of yours is a must in the first year. It counts 50% (1.5 term credit) more than most courses toward your GPA. It is paced much faster than your HS foreign language. For my S, he chooses a complete new foreign language. According to him, he spends more time on his foreign language course than the other 3 term credit courses combined together.
I agree with everyone above in saying that since you got into Yale, you definitely have what it takes to succeed at Yale.
From what I understand, MIT is different from most colleges in that everyone, regardless of major, has to take a lot of math and science courses, so it’s possible for someone to struggle even if their skills in these areas are strong.
@prof2dad is spot on with advice about taking a language. My son decided to do something totally different and is taking Latin and, while he loves it and has found his professors to be excellent, he does spend much of his daily time on that course’s work. It’s very intensive but rewarding. If he had just extended his study of French his semester may have been easier but I assume not as rewarding.
Long-ago alum, so the passage of time may interfere with accuracy.
How many hours do you spend studying/doing homework?
Not as many as you’d think, but I am a very fast reader. I had plenty of time for work / sleep / friends / wasting time. That said, I was a social sciences major; hard science classes were notorious for taking time.
How difficult is it to maintain a good gpa?
I personally didn’t find it difficult to graduate with honors, but part of that is that the subjects I had the weakest background in were not subjects I was interested in pursuing. My worst grade was a B- in the class that’s the equivalent of Calc III, which I’ve described as, “in retrospect, that B- was probably Yale for D, but at the time, I was delighted with it.” However, I also dropped the intro to programming course because I was hopelessly behind less than a month in, and didn’t take second semester physics. On the gripping hand, I took a math-heavy cross-listed graduate / undergraduate class in my major and did very well in it.
Do you know anyone on academic probation?
I did, actually!
How difficult is it to fail?
It would be easy to fail if not failing were not your goal. It’s easy to not fail if not failing is your goal.
Does the student atmosphere lean competitive or collaborative?
Collaborative.
How stressful was/is your workload in comparison to your high school workload?
I went to a nowhere high school where the local LAC was the highest aspiration anyone ever had. No AP classes, honors classes offered only for English. It wasn’t unusual for me to finish a couple of short novels plus all of my classwork over the course of a school day. I didn’t find the transition particularly difficult; you just stay on top of your work.
Would you say it is harder to get into Yale or to stay in Yale?
@am7311 - I have been watching the responses from the other Yale parents and I agree with all (well most) of them. My D is a junior from a very rigorous private high school in DC. Her first hurdle was getting used to not being the best of the best, but she hit her stride and is doing extremely well. She is a Lit major, is now fluent in two languages, has traveled the world and manages to be the President of several organizations on campus. However, on most nights, including weekends, you can find her studying in the library or her room while others may be out enjoying libations. She often stays up till the wee hours of the morning reading and writing papers because her activities take up so much of her earlier hours. Her choice and it works for her.
You mention somewhere that you come from a high school that is not academically challenging so I will talk now about my experience at Yale. I came from a public school in DC which no one has gotten into Yale since I did back in 1978. I was terrified once I got there and struggled terribly my first semester - seeing grades that I never saw in HS which I sailed through. But, I will tell you that the grit and determination that allowed you to be admitted to Yale from your high school, will serve you well at Yale. After my first semester grades, I could have decided to give up. Instead, my inner beast kicked in and I determined that I was not going to let Yale or the seemingly better prepared students get the best of me. Let’s just say I changed my study habits, buckled down and did much better the next seven semesters. I left Yale, went to graduate school on a full fellowship and have had a very successful career in public service.
There are tons of kids at Yale that come from varying backgrounds. Over half of each class comes from public schools. Look at Yale’s retention rate. While the admit rate is around 6%, nearly 98% of students graduate within 5 years (the extra time is usually due to taking time off to travel internationally). Yes Yale is stressful. There are students that commit suicide or take time off for mental health reasons. But understand, Yale rarely makes mistakes in their admission decisions. You will be fine. Welcome to the family!! Boola Boola!!!
