<p>Oh, dear. I went to a roadshow-type event and seem to have become smitten with Yale.</p>
<p>Quick! Tell me something that you don't like about the school so as to nip this crush right in the bud before I have ds apply!</p>
<p>The good news is that I see some of my favorite cc posters in this forum. :)</p>
<p>Welcome to the dark side!</p>
<p>No sympathy…and don’t go visit–otherwise there will be no hope for you.</p>
<p>If your S does apply, make sure his expectations are well-managed. Disappointment is likely no matter what his credentials. Read some of the results threads that testify to this.</p>
<p>New Jersey < New Haven < Afghanistan <<<<< Everywhere Else</p>
<p>See? Two favorite posters replied. :)</p>
<p>Des, he wasn’t even at the roadshow as he is out of town at a camp, so it’s my heart, not his, that stands to be broken. He’s very realistic about it all, thankfully. 
Funny that ds1 had no desire to look at Ivys, and I had no desire for him to. But something just feels right about this for ds2. Call it a mother’s intution. Ds1 ended up attending a school I recommended that he look at because of my mother’s intuition.</p>
<p>ETA: FutureVP, thanks for a negative. But wait! Des says if I go there I’ll be hooked. So what is it – New Haven is horrible or heavenly?</p>
<p>Twenty years ago, the area directly around campus was like Afghanistan. Over the last fifteen years though, Yale has purchased over 100 retail properties and has cleaned the area up with new tenants like Apple. See: [UP</a> CLOSE | Building the ?new? New Haven | Yale Daily News](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/apr/17/building-the-new-new-haven/]UP”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/apr/17/building-the-new-new-haven/)</p>
<p>I don’t like the term bill I paid yesterday (actually, two term bills).</p>
<p>YDS - there is a contingent of New Haven haters who, IMHO, have an exaggerated disregard for the city. Possibly some of this stems from when the state of the city was much worse in the 1970’s and 80’s after its industrial economy had failed/moved out (consider, for example, the state NYC was in during this period and how much it has recovered). There are notably high-crime neighborhoods, which should not be ignored, but also more stable ones (including the campus area) and the city as a whole remains viable and far from the blighted blocks I have seen in some inner-metro areas. Yale itself, as gibby points out, has played an important role in stopping and reversing some of the decay.</p>
<p>Still, I will agree that New Haven itself is not an asset that compels a visit to Yale. The campus, however, makes a strong impression.</p>
<p>
Wow! Someone who actually pays their bills early. I hold on to my money until the very last instant. :o</p>
<p>Regarding bills – did everyone get an actual e-mail notification that they were due (as is usual)? Y seems not to have remembered ours.</p>
<p>I also pay early 'cause I’m just that sort of worry-wort. But in any case, who is earning any kind of real money on deposits these days? As for the bill, yes I got the email notification around the usual time (around the 3rd of July).</p>
<p>@Descartesz: Both my son and I received email notices from Yale Student Financial Services on July 3rd about the term bill.</p>
<p>Same here. For some strange reason, they never seem to forget to send me THAT e-mail.;)</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. I suppose I can’t use this as a reason for delinquency. (“Well, you never told us…”)</p>
<p>Hey YDS my old friend! I say yes, have DS2 apply. Maybe you and I can meet up at Parent’s night? I actually remember from the time you posted about your visit with DS1, it didn’t seem like you were too impressed at that time. So what changed?</p>
<p>Hey, vp!</p>
<p>No, we’ve never visited Yale. The only schools I remember visiting and not liking were Hendrix and TCU. Only place that I’ve been on the East Coast is NYC.</p>
<p>Yale has a a high cost of attendance and a lovely campus, as do many, many, many other colleges – nothing unique there.</p>
<p>What I find off-putting about Yale is its (their?) sense of elitism and an underlying hypocrisy in its admissions attitude. For example, do they seriously believe they have a monopoly on making students the leaders of tomorrow?? Quote from Yale admissions page: “Decade after decade, Yalies have set out to make our world better. We are looking for students we can help to become the leaders of their generation in whatever they wish to pursue.” Is this theory borne out in the data on Yale graduates and where they are today? The four Yale grads I personally know are by no means distinguishable from others in their fields – a university professor of economics, an insurance defense lawyer, an underemployed former investment adviser and a stay-at-home mom who used to work for a non-profit. For the most part, these are everyday people leading everyday lives.</p>
<p>And how does Yale go about finding its potential leaders of tomorrow? Look carefully at the Yale admissions team’s advice on who is likely to get accepted. High academic achievement and “drive” (not so-called “passion”) are the predominant characteristics Yale seeks in its successful applicants. Also, the admissions page quotes a former Yale president: I am inclined to believe that the person who gives every ounce to do something superbly has an advantage over the person whose capacities may be great but who seems to have no desire to stretch them to their limit. I think you would agree these qualities are not the primary characteristics required to develop strong leaders of tomorrow, and I’m sure the data would indicate otherwise.</p>
<p>After I received a thoughtful letter from Yale inviting me to consider the school, I visited the campus and found the students I met to be somewhat frenetic, nervous and uptight, i.e., not relaxed or seemingly able to have some fun. Yale appeals to me personally because of its low student to faculty ratio in the fields I’m interested in studying, its study abroad program and its research opportunities. Due to family circumstances, I’ve had to quit crew and the majority of my other ECs to get a job working a substantial number of hours during the school year as well as full-time during the summer. Despite my having a 2400 on my SAT and a near-perfect GPA, do you honestly think Yale admissions would value or take a chance on a person like me?</p>
<p>More importantly, why should I want to attend an institution that is so lopsided in its sense of which students are “worthy” of attending? I found the school to be seriously lacking in diversity.</p>
<p>Your daughter would get an excellent education at Yale, but, again, Yale by no means has a monopoly on education. The chemistry, calculus, French lit, economics, etc. she would learn at Yale is the same chemistry, calculus, french, econ, etc she would learn/study at the majority of the thousands of institutions of higher learning in the US.</p>
<p>These are simply the observations of a 17 year old, but it seems to me there are far too many high school students who are too quick to give away their power to top-tier schools at the expense of their feelings of self-worth. When examined closely, what does Yale offer over other schools? A prestigious name. </p>
<p>After I visit a school that holds some appeal for me, I have an exercise I do: I substitute its name with the name of my local commuter college, and ask myself, would I attend this school if it were named _____ College? I’ve already eliminated several supposed top-tier schools from my list based on this exercise of looking beyond the name to see if the community is one I would want to be part of.</p>
<p>“Yale has a high cost of attendance”</p>
<p>Actually, for some family’s, like mine, it’s cheaper to send my son to Yale than to our flagship state university – thousands of dollars cheaper per year! Ditto with a community college.</p>
<p>“Decade after decade, Yalies have set out to make our world better.”</p>
<p>Well, some of them have: [List</a> of Yale University people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Yale_University_people]List”>List of Yale University people - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>“Do you honestly think Yale admissions would value or take a chance on a person like me?”</p>
<p>Yes, I do, especially if you write a fabulous essay that reveals a part of your soul, which you are now sharing!</p>
<p>“Your daughter would get an excellent education at Yale, but, again, Yale by no means has a monopoly on education.”</p>
<p>This is very true!</p>
<p>“The chemistry, calculus, French lit, economics, etc. she would learn at Yale is the same chemistry, calculus, french, econ, etc she would learn/study at the majority of the thousands of institutions of higher learning in the US.”</p>
<p>While this may be true for basic intro courses, it’s certainly not true for other higher level courses: [Yale</a> Online Course Information | Search Courses](<a href=“Yale Course Search | University Registrar's Office”>Yale Course Search | University Registrar's Office)</p>
<p>
Can you elaborate as I don’t find the school to be lacking at all, especially from a racial perspective. See the CDS (Common Data Set)under the following category:</p>
<p>B2. Enrollment by Racial/Ethnic Category</p>
<p><a href=“http://oir.yale.edu/node/738/attachment[/url]”>http://oir.yale.edu/node/738/attachment</a></p>
<p>P.S. They must be doing something right with a 99% retention rate. ;)</p>
<p>To my mind, there are many kinds of diversity, and I was not referring to racial but rather socioeconomic as well as diversity in life experience, if you will. During my admittedly short (6 hour) visit to Yale which consisted primarily of an information session, group tour and science/engineering/mathematics tour, I encountered a somewhat narrow-minded expectation as to who would be a “good fit” for Yale, which frankly surprised me. For example, we were specifically told by one guide “Let’s face it, if you’re the shy retiring type, Yale is not the place for you.” Well, why not? I personally would not be considered shy by any stretch of the imagination, but isn’t there a place for, say, a quiet intellectual scholarly type who perhaps loves brain research and does not need to be center of attention? </p>
<p>There is no question Yale has many extraordinary things to recommend it – the op wanted to know what’s not to like about Yale, to which I respond I personally found the admissions advice (on their website and on campus) to consist very much of a “you can’t come in my clubhouse” mentality, which I find narrow-minded. A certain disconnect (or dishonesty?) exists between Yale’s stated purpose of helping students make the world a better place, etc and the admissions criteria used to choose those students. For example, is there any consideration of emotional intelligence or empathy?</p>
<p>I by no means intended to take away from the accomplishments of Yale grads, but was simply trying to point out that one does not need a Yale education to make a difference in the world or be a successful leader, and, in fact, most leaders in academia, business, industry, the arts, etc did not attend Yale.</p>