Is it really so Important to go to Yale?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>As a Yale alumni, I read this board and sometimes feel sorry and concerned about the anxiety of the posts. I'd like to provide some perspective.</p>

<p>You see while I'm a Yale college alumni, I've been a grad student or postdoc at quite a few other places and a university professor at yet others (both regular and as a yearly visiting position which often goes with a sabbatical year). Plus I have colleagues all over the place and we talk about our lives, universities and students. </p>

<p>It gives me some perspective on the college experience and where Yale fits into that.</p>

<p>Yale is a great place. I am indebted to it in many ways. For example the incredible professors, incredible students, huge freedom and flexibility with the courses and majors, lots of social life. Yes, it was sometimes so intense or depressing I was miserable. But that's college anywhere.</p>

<p>I should make clear that unlike some who post on this area, I didn't start with a goal that I "had" to go to Yale. I was fairly naive and insecure and I thought a lot of places would be good. I was impressed (okay, smitten as well as impressed) with a girl I knew who got into Oberlin. I liked a lot of places and applied to about 12. I tried to imagine what would be good about every one of them. </p>

<p>Of course I was happy that I got into Yale. It was a thrill for awhile, before college began in the last days of high school and in the summer before college. </p>

<p>But I noticed, in the coming years, how my friends at other universities and colleges had good times as well.</p>

<p>Then I got a chance, a bit later on, to get more information. As a grad student at Stanford and later during my first academic years as a professor at Stanford I thought the undergrads seemed happier than at Yale. (I'll spare you the postdoc years, which confuse things more.)</p>

<p>Later on, I've sometimes thought I might have like Dartmouth more. Or Oberlin (the girl didn't want me to go where she was, or that's where I'd probably have gone). I really don't know.</p>

<p>What all this is trying to say is that you should not think Yale is the answer, just as Harvard is not the answer, or Stanford.</p>

<p>You will find good things where ever you go.</p>

<p>If you go to Yale try to take advantage of what it has to offer. Not to get a high GPA and especially not to say you went to Yale. Instead, to get the most from the place and for yourself. </p>

<p>Please don't think Yale (or Harvard, for you many Harvard first choice people on the Yale thread) is perfect versus going to some other place. Appl the same logic to Princeton, Stanford, MIT, etc,--all the "prestige schools". </p>

<p>Please don't kill yourself with a focus on a particular place for reasons you will later wonder about. I do.</p>

<p>Good luck. Feel free to blast me with criticisms. Including that my perspective is so obvious. . .</p>

2

<p>ivyalumni: I’m a Harvard alum myself, but I attended Northwestern my frosh year. I must completely concur with everything you’ve written here. Anxious, high-achieving hs applicants, take every word here to heart.</p>

3

<p>Here’s the question I really want to know:</p>

<p>Is there really any difference between Yale and another top school like UC Berkeley? Is the difference in education that significant? </p>

<p>Or what about a lesser-known, but still good school like Ohio State?</p>

4

<p>Hm, well for me. It seems that the idea of what HYPSM has created is one of excellence, that would excel us further to the ‘Earth’ and society. Doesn’t that already sounds attractive enough?</p>

5

<p>I think your post (ivyalumni) is actually much needed. Of course many people say it but it has added weight coming from an alum who has experience at many schools. I can’t think of anyone who would have any reason to slam what you said, I found it quite comforting.</p>

6

<p>just noticed OP’s user name. Just sayin’</p>

7

<p>OP, your Stanford postdoc experience makes me believe that you’re from PHD Comics :). But really, it was a helpful post. I’m just not personally stressed about college anymore, and haven’t been for some time.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I don’‘t know too much about UC Berkely, but OSU, I figure, is an entirely different environment than Yale. There are 13,000 undergraduates. 13,000. Yale advertises its students’ ability to have classes with the most tenured and renowned professors, even in their freshman year. For the people I know at OSU, and I know quite a few, this isn’t true. It becomes a little bit more of a reality for those in the Honors and Scholars programs, but for the others, :(. I do personally believe that a TA or the like can be a good, even great, educator, but if you’re looking to build relationships with profs, you should realize that there’s a difference between Yale and some of the biggest schools in this country.</p>

8

<p>People want to go to these top schools for the resources they offer. Students want to go where they will be happiest and where they will succeed at.
Good luck to all fellow Yale c/o 2014 applicants! Just by applying to Yale, I know that you are already a top student and I know you will be successful at any post-secondary education institution.</p>

9

<p>Thanks for the great advice :slight_smile: Not even going to Yale, but still applicable to any college-bound senior :P</p>

10

<p>If you want a degree from Yale, then it is important to go there. </p>

<p>Otherwise, it’s a big world. If you want to be an academic economist, you need (mostly) to go to a top 14 grad school - not undergrad - and that makes the point that grad school becomes more important for many professions. As others have noted at length, if you can get into Yale - or have a real shot at it since it has become a crap shoot - then you’re likely to score well on tests so you only have to do well wherever you go, score well and apply to law school.</p>

11

<p>Thanks for the post. It just reinforces the idea that no matter where you go or who you meet, the most important thing is to seize every opportunity you are given and be happy. Not going to HYPSM will not dramatically change your life or offer less resources, networks, or friendly and motivated people.</p>

12

<p>Thanks so much for this post, ivy.</p>

<p>With one child at Yale and a current HS senior who is, at this very moment, choosing from among a COMPLETELY different list of schools, your words are very timely and topical at our house. I have no doubt of the truth of what you say. I appreciate the way you said it- you’ve got the voice of experience and credibility! I’ll share it with my senior. I think she’s very confident and happy in her choices, but sometimes others treat her as though she is crazy not to have chased the same acceptances as her sister. I’m sure she’ll love and, at times, hate her eventual college just like her sister does. Yale students definitely have their struggles (not usually big regrets, just struggles.) Thanks for this.</p>

13

<p>As a Yale freshman I really have to agree with ivyalum’s post. Yale is great, but Yale is not great because of the prestige of Yale, but more so in the people. I mean the people at Yale are amazing to have discussions and arguments with. I got into a long debate over dinner with one of my friends over whether the American economic model in the early colonial period was the primary cause of success or if the self-filter of ambition precipitated America’s future success. I mention this only because I have rarely meet another person with as intimate a knowledge of colonial history as I have and to speak about things such as primogeniture and have people instantly know what you are talking about is in one word amazing. </p>

<p>If you are fortunate enough to get into Yale, come in an instant. But if not, know that there are tons of other schools where you can go and be just as, if not more, happy and successful.</p>

14

<p>

Here’s an analogy that I think might help–and it’s also consistent with what the OP said. Is there really any difference between a Lexus and a BMW? And is either really any better than a Subaru Outback? Certainly, there are differences among these cars that make people prefer one or the other, and there are some scales that some people use to determine which ones are “better” overall than the others. If all you care about is getting from point A to point B, they’re probably all about the same. If you care about cost, prestige, comfort, luxury, performance on ice, ability to haul bags of cement, a nice sound system, etc., they’re not the same. Probably more people than not will prefer the Lexus or the BMW to the Subaru, but for some people, the Subaru will be an all-around better choice.
In other words, one college is “better” than another only if YOU value the things that distinguish them. The fact that lots of other people value them is relevant but not dispositive.</p>

15

<p>I wonder had you not gotten into yale if you would be posting the same thing?</p>

16

<p>

He might well be posting the same thing on a thread for the college where he did get in. Besides, if somebody who didn’t get into Yale posted this, some would dismiss it as sour grapes.</p>

17

<p>I generally agree with ivyalumni (and note that a Yale BA and Stanford PhD apparently do not guarantee proper use of Latin nouns). Yale is the bestest college in the world, but it’s only marginally better than the next 20-30 colleges (whatever they are), and there are dozens, maybe hundreds of other places where a motivated student can get an education and associated experiences that are very comparable to what he would have gotten at Yale.</p>

18

<p>

</p>

<p>As others have said, it’s a comparison of resources and access thereof. I’ve worked at and been associated with several large colleges in the Midwest (including 2 big ten schools – but not OSU). My wife and wife’s family all attended Indiana University. </p>

<p>I can say first hand that the ease of just being a student at Yale is much greater than those. From administrative things (they actually will file your financial aid paperwork on time) to registering for classes (practically no limits at Yale (shopping period) --there are tons of limitations at public schools) to graduating in four years (my wife had to stay an extra semester b/c her needed classes were filled up) to work and research opportunities (Yalies have no problem getting good paying term time work and/or research – other schools: kids are killing each other for the kitchen jobs or jobs in the local community).</p>

<p>Each and every time, I would just count my blessings to have been admitted to Yale. Am I a better or more deserving person? Certainly not. But my experience was phenomenal and Yale’s commitment to a great undergraduate experience was vivid and profound.</p>

<p>That being said, I fully concur with the OP. Having worked almost exclusively in the NFP sector, I’ve known, worked for, worked besides, worked beneath – tons of GREAT people who have no “top 25” degrees. Heck, I’d bet some of them never even heard of Yale. I’m totally fine with it. I hope to impress this thinking to my kids too.</p>

19

<p>Just one factual item: The total enrollment of Ohio State University is just under 60,000 students, with 50,000 on the main campus in Columbus. A student can have a great educational experience there–a top student can take graduate courses as an undergraduate, and keep the level of challenge high. The number of “routes” to an undergraduate degree from OSU is extremely high, so the experiences of different OSU students can be quite different.<br>
There are features that make Yale (and some other schools) distinctive. How important these are is an individual decision–but it should not be a source of neuroticism.
PS: QMP attended a summer program on the west coast, where several students were convinced that Yale was not a real college, just a school on Gilmore Girls.</p>