<p>PosterX makes me wonder if 'fanboy'-ism has now crept into the college world...any more hyperbole and he'd sound like Baghdad Bob!</p>
<p>I've visited hundreds of colleges and universities. The best way to see is to visit Yale on Thursday, go to a few classes, and stay on Friday and Saturday to check out the weekend pulse, and decide if you like it. Talk to students and profs. There's no use in going somewhere if you know you won't like it. </p>
<p>But two things to help you decide. </p>
<p>Yale has the happiest students, by far, of any university or college I have ever seen. This has to do with having a great social scene and academics, in very close proximity. At Harvard, for example, you have to walk much farther to get anywhere, which kills social life. Plus, the faculty is far more accessible, not only because classes are smaller but also because 60% of them live in New Haven proper, within walking distance of the Yale campus, whereas at schools in a larger metro area or smaller town the faculty tends to live much farther afield. </p>
<p>The second thing is David Brooks, a UChicago alum and editor at large of US News, says Yale provides the best undergraduate education and has the smartest students in the United States, bar none. Look at the fact that Yalies won 7 Marshall and Rhodes Scholarships (4 Marshall, 3 Rhodes) this year - more than all the other seven Ivy League schools, combined. No other Ivy won more than 2 Marshalls or more than 1 Rhodes.</p>
<p>I've posted above about safety, etc. Not only is Yale safer than most of the other Ivies, when you factor in the car accident rate (with Yalies being able to walk everywhere), it's much safer than any suburban campus or campus in a city where you're likely to drive more or encounter more traffic. Car accidents are 100 or 200 times more likely to injure or kill you than random street crime. </p>
<p>As a side fact, New Haven's per-capita (per person) murder rate last year was lower than that of Boston, which is considered one of the safer cities in the United States, and 100% of the 14 murders were solved because they all involved people who knew each other beforehand - girlfriends, boyfriends, drug dealers, etc. In Boston, only 30% of the 80 murders last year were solved! In New York, only about 50% of the 600 murders each year are typically solved. In New York, people can be murdered around the corner but you typically never hear about it because it's such a large city. There were stabbings and murders just down the street from my apartment in Manhattan, but nobody in my building ever knew about them. New Haven is a size that even the smallest crimes like car break-ins are reported on the front page, which tends to magnify the perception of crime (this is true of all smaller cities and towns).</p>
<p>My interviewer did tell me Yale really takes care of the undergraduates And their a capella groups are amazing! :)
Personally I live in an area where everyone calls "dangerous" (there has been several gun shots, suicide, and robbery incidents, but nothing's ever happened to me. So as long as you don't do anything stupid and keep out of trouble's way, there should be nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>Can anyone who has experience with both places compare the area around Yale (New Haven) to that of UPenn (Philadelphia), especially in terms of safety and things to do?</p>
<p>ame - do you live on campus???????????????????</p>
<p>I've spent time in both places; UPenn is in a peripheral, much more dangerous area of Philadelphia. Yale is in the center of New Haven, and therefore surrounded by hundreds of restaurants, bars, clubs and stores. The area around Yale is much more active at night, with 24 hour diners, restaurants open until 3am, dozens of bars and clubs that attract college students from the dozens of other colleges in the area, etc. The area around UPenn is boring and students from other colleges do not go there to hang out in the evenings.</p>
<p>Philadelphia had 250 murders in the 03 FBI Uniform Crime Report; while New Haven had only 9 (making it one of the nation's safest major cities). The UPenn campus regularly has over 60 muggings per year while the Yale campus usually has only a handful ... much fewer than, say, the number at Harvard - see <a href="http://www.stalcommpol.org/data.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.stalcommpol.org/data.html</a></p>
<p>As the saying goes.....</p>
<p>Harvard students are happy to be at Harvard.</p>
<p>Yale students are happy.</p>
<p>What's bad about Yale?</p>
<p>It won't have me.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
What's bad about Yale?</p>
<p>It won't have me.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Oh my god! That's the same thing I was thinking...</p>
<p>What's bad about Yale?</p>
<p>I can't attend...! :D</p>