<p>Great post booyaksha: I recall fondly the spontaneous campus wide snowball fight after the first snowfall, right during finals time -- great memories! As an alum, I can attest that Y really tries to treat us royally when we return to New Haven as well (although my last time was the 08 Yale-Harvard football embarrassment!).</p>
<p>Here's why Y became my 1st choice. By November of my Sr year, I'd already been accepted into my extremely prestigious state public. About a seventh of my graduating class matriculated there and they were throwing buckets of money at me to attend. I applied and was accepted at two other top engineering programs as well. A classmate suggested I consider one of the Ivies (which I did). I attended an info session and felt enough tug to begin the process of applying. During Thnxgiving break, a young lady whom I had an interest wanted to go to a Yale info session sponsored by the Yale Alumni club in our city. Without much real interest in Yale itself (I just wanted weasel time with the girl and had not known anyone personally who had attended any Ivy), I drove her to the session. Speaking were three undergrads home for break from our community. Their energy level and enthusiasm for Y was unbelievable. They really left me in awe. That night I went home and pulled out my Y info book (which was under the mass of PSAT induced mailings I had gotten over the last year). </p>
<p>I applied sight unseen -- just based on the three students' presentation. I also completed my other Ivy app. Come Feb of my Senior year, I flew out to East and visited the two schools. The other one was nice -- impressive -- I really believe I would have enjoyed myself immensely. Then I went to New Haven. The spectacle of enthusiasm again greeted me -- from my overnight host and his suitemates -- to most every other student with whom I interacted. Without a doubt, Y was confirmed as my 1st choice.</p>
<p>Come notification time, I got a "thick" envelope from the other school on a Thursday. I called my parents and shared the good news. Somehow, I just felt that Yale's acceptance would come as well (yep, I was pretty ignorant as to the real difficulty it was to actually be accepted!). It came that Friday. That August I was in New Haven.</p>
<p>My time there has driven me to be fiercely loyal and I even served as the Pres of the alumni club in my home city, years after the fact -- the same club that hosted the info session that hooked me originally. I now interview, do college night info sessions and stay active in alumni affairs. </p>
<p>If I can say this: all the students I've met who are even half interested in Yale -- have been extraordinarily gifted -- as I assume each of you are as well. I'm pretty confident that you'll excel in your next stage, whether Yale or not. You're all to be commended on your achievements already. </p>
<p>my senior interviewer told me about this holiday feast tradition...after he finished the story I told him that he shouldn't have told me, because then it would be so much worse to not get in!</p>
<p>Great story. One of the things that really makes Yale unique (besides the ridiculously high level of every type of resource devoted to undergrads) is the campus layout. All of the dormitories are within a few blocks of one another, and they all have embedded theater facilities, dining halls, ballrooms, snack rooms, pool halls, classrooms, seminar rooms, prof’s offices, faculty houses, etc. The campus is a like a dense little city – much denser than Manhattan or Hong Kong – and therefore is a social and intellectual feast. Yale’s campus is vibrant 24/7. If there is a party or event, it is a two minute walk from your dorm room, so you can go to 10 different events in an evening with no trouble. Students will run into everyone they know several times per day. When I have visited, I have always noticed that students just sit out on the fences/benches in the center of campus for a period of a couple hours, talking with everyone they know who walks by (which is almost everyone), even at 3 in the morning. Even most of the faculty live close to or right on the campus. </p>
<p>No other campus can even remotely compare to Yale in this respect. They are all either too large, too spread out, not as dense, or in a large city and don’t have any sense of campus. I am not affiliated with Yale, but have spent a LOT of time there and at most of the other top 50 universities and colleges in the country. Frankly, once you spend some time at Yale, every other campus seems incredibly lifeless by comparison. </p>
<p>Of course, on paper it may not seem that much different than any other top university. People don’t really get the differences unless they are able to spend 2-3 days at each campus, taking classes, and talking with as many students and faculty as possible.</p>