<p>Oh my. I totally failed in the thread title.
This is not what you wrote on the supplement. This is your honest opinion - why Yale?</p>
<p>I know most of us are applying to other ivies as well, but I know Yale is the top choice for many people on this board (especially us SCEAers). Is it the location? The opportunities? The notoriously lenient authorities? The residential colleges? </p>
<p>I was on a Yale-related tumblr today, and came across a few interesting things.</p>
<p>“I want to go to Princeton,” said Amory. “I don’t know why but I think of all Harvard men as sissies, like I used to be, and all Yale men as wearing big, blue sweaters and smoking pipes.”
Monsignor chuckled.
“I’m one, you know.”
“Oh, you’re different — I think of Princeton as being lazy and good-looking and aristocratic — you know, like a spring day. Harvard seems sort of indoors —”
“— and Yale is November, crisp and energetic,” finished Monsignor.
“That’s it.”
— **This Side of Paradise**</p>
<p>And on a less romantic note:</p>
<p>So today I…purified some proteins from recombinant E. Coli, got *-faced at 4 PM, passed out at 6, woke up at 7, worked on some macromolecular protein assembly, will get messy again at 11 and go to a Drag Ball. Only at Yale.
**— a Trumbull sophomore*</p>
<p>Hmmm... I guess I'll leave it at that and open this for discussion!</p>
<p>Aaaa I’m reading This Side of Paradise right now and it’s so beautifully written. Fitzgerald is absolutely one of my favorite authors. </p>
<p>ANYWAY. The residential college system is AWESOME. My dad went to Rice and they have pretty much the exact same setup (they just call them houses). His stories about intercollegiate rivalries and pranks and something called the “beer-and-bike” that I’m not really sure what it is made me want that out of a university. I’m not going to Rice, though. No, no, no. Houston is gross.</p>
<p>Everyone at Yale seems really laid-back, from what I’ve heard. Pretty different from the other Ivies and such. Sweeping generalization, though. I might be full of crap on this.</p>
<p>The Light Fellowship is freaking awesome. I applied undecided, but I want to at least take a few courses in Chinese and I would love to spend time in China.</p>
<p>Last and most: music. Yale has the best music scene of any school of its caliber. There’s a really famous percussionist that teachers there or at least used to and is part-time now or something. Regardless, their percussion program is b.a. I reeeally want to get involved with the YSO, and the YPMB looks like they have way too much fun. It seems like one of the best places I could be if I want to keep music a part of my life without majoring in it.</p>
<p>BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE HOGWARTS! hehehe jk even though it is kind of magical
The combination of academics and social atmosphere
The combination of tradition and innovation with residential college traditions like snowball fights and the Parade of Comestibles and such
Intellectual discussions in dining halls (though I’m sure this isn’t unique to Yale)
the fact that Aldo Parisot teaches at the Graduate School of Music - just being in his vicinity LOL he’s amazing though.
Yale students seem more down-to-earth and less… pretentious (?) or I don’t know…very <em>stick nose up in air</em> probably because they have the rescollege system rather than eating clubs or whatever
Yale Whippenpoofs! :)</p>
<p>But most of all, it’s going to be the academics and the people I’m going to meet there as well as a well-funded, well-run institution that can support whatever academic conquests I want to pursue :)</p>
<p>~ Residential colleges
~ Most well-rounded and diverse of the Ivy’s (in my opinion)
~ And basically I just fell in love with the whole environment while I was there</p>
<p>It was the last school I visited because I wasn’t even planning on applying, but after spending time there it shot all the way up to my first choice school! Now, i’m applying SCEA!</p>
<p>I don’t know about you, but I certainly didn’t lie about or embellish why I wanted to go to Yale in my supplement essay. I gave my “honest opinion” (quoting you) of why Yale.</p>
<p>Why are you assuming that people want to go to Yale for different reasons than what they wrote about in their essay?</p>
<p>The biggest factors of why I’d like to attend Yale are exactly the same as everyone else- great academics, beautiful school, etc. The admissions people already know this, and they’re going to be hearing it from everybody. So in order to stand out a little bit, and also prove that I did my research, I detailed the specific benefits and opportunities offered in a department I’m interested in. Now this may have not been my “biggest factor” to apply, but I still don’t think it was dishonest at all.</p>
<p>That’s effectively what I did. I talked about my desire to take advantage of Yale’s opportunities(suggested the name of a professor I’d love to work with), and then I spoke on the people I actually met from Yale and how they were genuine and dispelled the sterotypical ivy elitism. The last part was about how Yale inspires altruism through personal achievement.</p>
<p>I’d agree with micahbobicah, everyone has relatively similar reasons, at least on the surface.</p>
<p>My little brother told me that he wanted me to go to Yale because it sounds like the name of a big fish.</p>
hehehe jk even though it is kind of magical