<p>Given that the people who go to Yale are academic monsters, is Yale pretty relaxed for the sciences or is it cutthroat competitive like UC Berkeley, Caltech, etc.</p>
<p>Yale is certainly a lot of work. That being said, in my experience there is very little (if any) competition, and the workload in both the sciences and humanities are very reasonable. Students often work together on problem sets and other work, help edit each others’ essays, and in general foster a very cooperative, friendly environment. As far as the workload goes, a lot of it depends upon the classes you take and your study habits. In general, most people don’t have time to go out every night of the week, but very few people spend their entire days/nights in the library 7 days a week.</p>
<p>According to my interviewer Yale is pretty chill and people usually help eachother. </p>
<p>I mean, is there any reason to really be super cutthroat at Yale? It is generally known that most people there are fairly intelligent. If I was a Yale student, I would be more focused on my personal workload and accomplishing the goals I need to get to my future career.</p>
<p>I’ve found being in sciences pretty relaxed. Labs blow. I think the atmosphere will be competitive if you are competitive, and relaxed if you are relaxed. I know a few people who are seriously tweaked out, but i mostly find them funny/oddities. So not necessary. If you’re good at science and you do the work, crazy is not necessary. Usually it’s counterproductive.</p>
<p>I remember my interviewer told me that Yale isn’t an uber-competitive type school, but that the pre-med sort classes (bio, etc) are. He first wanted to major in bio, but then the competition turned him off so he went into geology and physics.</p>
<p>I’d assume that pre-med classes are competitive at ANY school, considering the competition for med school.</p>
<p>Besides that, I’ve heard Yale is chill. But what do I know, I’m just a senior in hs hoping to get accepted!</p>
<p>I’d love more opinions from Yalies. Specifically, how would it compare to Stanford or a state school like UC Berkeley, or Georgia Tech in GPA difficulty in the sciences. </p>
<p>Again, Im curious about Yale since the people I know who get in are academic superstars, what happens when you put all the big fish in a pond to compete for limited food (A grades).</p>
<p>Yale is chill. Stanford is even more chill (too chill for my taste, I needed some passion). Berkeley is more competitive in terms of the atmosphere, but I’d say it’s harder to do well at Yale than at Berkeley given the extreme intelligence of your peers. Grade inflation at Yale (and Stanford) makes B’s pretty easy to get, but getting an A in some classes is fairly difficult, especially in the sciences. No cutthroat competition though.</p>
<p>I don’t find pre-med classes at yale particularly competitive. It’s worth reiterating… it’s all about your attitude. But weirdos even in pre-med classes are the minority. I think a lot of yalies like to pretend that they don’t care about their grades, but obviously most people didn’t get this far by not caring a lot about school. I think the internal sense of competition is probably evenly spread across departments, but attributed to pre-meds by reputation. pre-laws and people going into financial careers need grades that are just as good…</p>
<p>… I am from Southern California and thought I was going to UCLA (which if you haven’t seen, is a BEAUTIFUL campus full of VERY FUN and VERY ATTRACTIVE people). They know how to have a good time.</p>
<p>Had you just dropped me off in the middle of Old Campus at Yale and NOT told me where I was, I would NEVER have guessed I was at Yale because the environment is so lax. I was also surprised how many attractive women I’ve met here 
… the joke my mom says is “Yale must have enough money to just import them.”</p>
<p>Yale does a good job of providing a good ‘balance’ to your life. You will work very hard, but can rage even harder! </p>
<p>I.e. Last week I finished a Midterm and then proceed to party every subsequent night from Tuesday until Saturday :
Tuesday - a 21-year birthday party,
Wednesday - St. Patrick’s dance party at Elevate Dance Club,
Thursday - Wine and Cheese with some upper classmen (large quantities of very good alcohol),
Friday - Berkeley Glow Paint Dance Party
Saturday Yale Political Union Pre-Game followed by Union Ball and concluded with the famous Branford 90’s dance party </p>
<p>Then Sunday I studied hard and had two more midterms that Monday.</p>
<p>Wednesday - Get shot at Toad’s</p>
<p>What about transportation. Is it common for Yale students to own cars?</p>
<p>No freshmen are allowed cars. Parking is kinda and expensive far so few people bring cars with them – not it’s not common. Trains to and fro NYC and Boston are easy.</p>
<p>@Palaoa “Wednesday-Get shot at Toad’s”</p>
<p>yeah, only if you attended the local hip hop showcase at toads.
that once.
and got in a fight onstage
with a man with a gun.
hasn’t happened to me yet… had an awesome night at toads this last wednesday.</p>
<p>we have the zipcar system on campus (which I and a bunch of my friends use… not very expensive, and there’s a shuttle that runs to and from the train station). Basically, I agree with everything SonOfEli said above. </p>
<p>Yale is as intense or not as you want it to be. Personally, I consider it to be the happiest place on earth.</p>
<p>Yale is to Chill-blains what San Diego State is to Chill. That’s rad, dude.</p>