I’m planning on applying to Yale SCEA this year, but decided against visiting this summer and am wondering what New Haven is like. Can anybody that toured there give me their impressions? Some people I’ve asked didn’t seem to like it, or had safety concerns.
Parent here: There are dicey parts of town. Campus itself is nice, as are some parts of NH. Somehow, thousands of students have not only survived, but have expended great effort to gain entry.
I’m a lifetime suburban person whose kid went to Yale. It’s an urban environment, but low-rise urban. The area around Yale is pretty and there is a good amount of security. Parts of NH not terribly far from campus are dicey as IxnayBob says. You will see homeless/aimless people on the NH green. I never felt unsafe walking around on our visits there or walking back from restaurants, etc. It’s not Princeton, what can I say? 
When my daughter was looking at schools, my guess was that she would end up at a bucolic rural school like Williams or Dartmouth. She is not really a city person, loves the outdoors, is an avid mountaineer. However, when she visited Yale, she felt an immediate fit and loved the people and the community. I would say that she decided to go to Yale (she got in SCEA last year) despite the fact that it is in a city. She focused almost entirely on fit, and as a result she is very happy at Yale - it is a great fit and she has definitely found her people.
Now that she is there, she likes the fact that Yale is very much a campus focused school. New Haven has all of the amenities of a small city - lots of great shops and restaurants (the area immediately surrounding Yale has been revitalized over the past 10-15 years). She likes to study in coffee shops and there are at least 4 that immediately border campus. Everything she does on a day to day basis is walkable and typically within a block or two of campus. She has already made several weekend half day trips to great parks/outdoor recreation areas that are within a few miles of campus, and almost every weekend there seems to be some sort of organized outdoor activity/hike if she needs to get more into nature.
I have visited New Haven several times, and walked a lot and explored a lot when I was there in April over a 2 day period. I really like New Haven (I live in a suburban environment but feel at home in cities). The Yale campus itself, and the blocks surrounding it, are great. All of the residential colleges have large courtyards that are only accessible by Yale swipe cards, so the living spaces and many of the most beautiful parts of campus are only really accessible to students and are quite private and secure.
Beyond the campus, as mentioned above, there are some dicey areas. However, Yale itself is an incredibly vibrant place, and has a relatively compact campus. There is definitely a security presence on campus and in the area around Yale. Like the posters above mentioned, I did not feel unsafe when I was walking around at night (although I wouldn’t walk around at 2 am alone - but I wouldn’t do that in Cambridge either). I got panhandled off campus on move-in weekend, which surprised me since I had not experienced that in my previous trips to Yale. The real world is definitely surrounding Yale - it is not a bubble like other schools may be (Princeton, Dartmouth, etc). It is important to be aware of your surroundings and street smart (as you would be in any city).
If you can visit, especially if you know a student there who can give you a more in depth view of Yale, I would encourage doing this so you can see how you feel at Yale and in New Haven.
@IxnayBob @donnaleighg @Faulkner1897 Thank you all for the replies. From what you described, it seems like an environment I would like
The Yale campus is gorgeous and feels safe, but once you head out of the campus, the surrounding area is very poor. Definitely not somewhere I’d walk in at night.
As noted, the area around campus is nice with lots of shops and restaurants, and there are lots of other nice things about the town, e.g. East Rock Park and the great restaurants on Wooster St.
There are also some higher crime parts of town and some residents who are struggling. Some would argue that is part of the education for students at Yale, especially for those who grew up in wealthy areas.
My son went to a public St. Louis City high school in a neighborhood that closely resembles some of New Haven. In retrospect, it was the perfect place for him to enjoy a rich, diverse neighborhood.
The local authorities are acutely aware of the campus and its troubled surrounding areas. There are always police, security guards and blue light poles (even more now it seems which was great for a mom to see) everywhere you look. When my daughter first started, she would play a game of how many can she count from wherever she was. After a while you start to realize that the Yale campus is truly in a bubble of sorts because the security protects it to be that way. There are most definitely areas of New Haven that I would not want her to explore but there is so much in her direct area that she would never feel the need to. In comparison to other city colleges, this one is much nicer/safer in my opinion.
I’m a 17 year old female high school student from a small town who had an internship at a New Haven nonprofit over the summer. My commute involved a 35 minute walk through the city, where I would occasionally be walking back in the dark. I personally never felt too unsafe, particularly around the Yale campus. There are plenty of cool new venues, restaurants and shops opening up in the immediate area as well, but as far as I’m aware but a lot of the social life revolves around the university (it was pretty quiet in the summer with just the occasional grad student around).
My D, who went to high school in DC, interns at a charter school in New Haven. While she will walk back and forth to campus, I do encourage her in winter time, when it gets dark earlier, to Uber back to campus. I’m not sure she take that advice except for when it is both dark and freezing. No more or less than anywhere else in this country today, Yale is safe. Just need to exercise caution like anywhere else.