Is yale known for being interdisciplinary and flexible in its curriculum like Brown’s Open Curriculum? Whats the diff between yale and browns Open curriculum? Is being interdisciplinary/flexible in switching majors, taking courses in other majors, or doing double majors is what Yale is known for in terms of its curriculum?
No, Yale is not known for it’s flexible open curriculum like Brown (https://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/content/what-open-curriculum), which is unique in that student’s can build their own curriculum.
Yale has distributional requirments which every student must take in order to graduate. See: http://catalog.yale.edu/ycps/academic-regulations/requirements-for-ba-bs-degree.
It also should be noted that unlike other colleges, which require students to graduate with 32 credits (4 courses per semester times 8 semesters = 32 credits), Yale requires students to graduate with 36 credits. That means students at Yale tend to spend two years taking 5 courses per semester. See: http://catalog.yale.edu/handbook-instructors-undergraduates-yale-college/grades/degree-requirements/
In addition, student’s at Yale usually declare a major during their sophomore year, so there is time to explore areas of interest before committing to a major. That said, Yale will not allow a student to declare a major without having taken the “intro course” for that particular major. So, students are encouraged their freshman and sophomore year to take as many “intro courses” as possible in their areas of interest. See: https://advising.yalecollege.yale.edu/declaring-major and https://registrar.yale.edu/students/major-roadmaps.
Yale does allow for double majoring, however . . .
I’ll add that the language requirement is more intensive than in many other schools. For my STEM daughter, it was something to “get through.” It’s somewhat complicated to explain, but even kids with AP level achievement will likely need to take a year of intensive language (5 days a week).
That’s not quite correct. Every student will need to take at least one course in a foreign language, regardless of their level of proficiency. But a 5 on an AP exam or a 6 or 7 on an IB exam will place you into the L5 level, which doesn’t meet 5 times a week.
I did say “likely” 
At least with my STEM kids, 5 on AP just isn’t going to happen
Can credits of AP exams taken in HS with score 5 or 4 be transferred to Yale?
@donnaleighg LOL
It’s complicated, but here’s the simple version: Nothing for a 4 except for Calc BC. A 5 in some subjects does not grant you credit unless you plan to use that credit to graduate early. A 5 in some other subjects will allow you to place into the next course in the sequence. It’s explained (although not very well) here:
http://catalog.yale.edu/first-year-student-handbook/academic-information/acceleration/table-of-acceleration-credit/
But it really is pointless to examine it until you’re actually admitted.
@Boswind - all accepted students are asked to take a math and science survey the summer before they matriculate. The Biology, Music, Chemistry, Mathematics and Foreign Languages Departments have placement exams that you take when you arrive on campus. Advanced Placement Language exams Scores of 5 and IB scores of 6-7 won’t get you credit, but as @skieurope says above, those scores will help you place out of intro level language courses and allow you to enter level 5 without a placement exam, and other intro level courses (Econ, for example). But I’d still recommend that students who get placed into level 5 courses take the level 4 instead, and that intro courses shouldn’t be skipped because they (are worlds more difficult than any AP or IB course you might have taken in high school.
As @donnaleighg and @skieurope wrote above, the language courses are intensive at the 1-4 levels, meeting five days a week, which is necessary if you plan to go to grad school in a humanities subject, since they all have language requirements. Even (grad) students in STEM subjects are better off with a second language if they plan to live abroad or conduct research. Level 5 language courses meet 3 times a week. But even level 5 students who want to become fluent in a second language spend summers abroad (for which generous scholarships are available), studying in accredited programs.
And as far as the open curriculum at Brown is concerned, students at Brown do not have distribution requirements compared to the ones Yale, but most Brown students take the same “distribution” type courses anyway, and of course have to fulfill required courses in one’s major. Hope this helps. Best of luck!
Whereas I’d recommend that you trust the placement process. A million years ago, uphill both ways in the snow, I did fine in level 5 foreign language and in Calc 2, despite having graduated from a high school that offered no AP classes.
I agree in general to go along with the placement guidelines, although it might depend upon the college and, to a lesser extent, the student’s major and post-undergrad plans. If in doubt, consult an adviser. But again, way too premature for the OP.
@allyphoe - Being a student at Yale a “million years ago” was probably quite different than it is for students, like me, who are currently enrolled. And as someone who did trust the placement system and was consequently placed into advanced language, math, science, and econ courses, I can say that doing well in those courses was the hardest academic thing I’ve ever done, and I went to a very rigorous high school. Personally, I’d prefer language classes five days a week, and to take courses with students who weren’t repeating advanced math and science classes that they’d already taken in high school. But many of my classmates, unlike me, were aware that these classes were much, much, more difficult than their high school versions, and opted to take lower level classes despite being placed into advanced ones. This is something I wish I’d know as a first year, which is why I’m “sharing” here. Just my two cents.
My guess is that it’s more a philosophical difference than a change in college culture. I personally am not a fan of the “hold kids back to make them more competitive” vicious cycle, be it in kindergarten or in college. Particularly when you only get 36 classes, it seems a shame to feel like you have to throw some of them away on repetition.
A million years ago, my 5 on AP French (which at that point was essentially what AP French Lit is today) and a five-minute interview with the French Department’s DUS got me into a 300-level literature course on French 19th Century novels. It was a superfantabulous course, one of the (many) highlights of my undergraduate education. It met the normal number of hours (3) per week, and required a lot of reading (of course) and some writing.
Waiting in line for 80 minutes to get that 5-minute interview was also a highlight of my time at Yale. Notwithstanding my AP class in high school, I had never met anyone else my age who gave a hoot about French literature, and all of a sudden I was in a whole crowd of them. We had all taken AP French the year before, so we had all read the same books. Some of them were women! It was as if I had died and woken up in heaven.
Notwithstanding my AP results, my French language skills were not that strong, as I’m sure was apparent in my interview. Nevertheless, no one made me take a level 4 or 5 language class.