<p>To all you CCers and especially for you Bulldog puppies out there, I am a freshman at Yale and I'm ready to answer any question you can think of, so hit me up!</p>
<p>hey bulldog, i am looking for any opinions on my college list, and suggestions if you have any. would you mind looking at it?</p>
<p>What are some unique things about Yale, excluding class shopping and such?</p>
<p>@thenewdude</p>
<p>I’d really rather stay away from admissions related questions because I am no better informed about the answers than you are. Anything anyone says on College Confidential is purely speculation and really isn’t constructive in the long run. Three general pieces of advice: 1) apply to a range of schools, 2) you have a shot at everywhere you apply, and 3) you will be happy no matter where you end up - you don’t need an Ivy to be happy in life.</p>
<p>@roxy481</p>
<p>Well, hopefully you know about the residential college system! Instead of living in regular dorms, we live in suites in one of twelve colleges - Berkeley, Branford, Calhoun, Davenport, Ezra Stiles, Jonathan Edwards, Morse, Pierson, Saybrook, Silliman, Timothy Dwight, and Trumbull. You are in the same college all four years and each college has a Master and a Dean who oversee college life and student life. You compete in intramural sports with your college and whichever college has the most points at the end of the year wins the “Tyng Cup” - last year Trumbull took the title. Each college has it’s own dining hall, gym, “buttery” (late night snack place), music practice rooms, and other facilities (my college has a darkroom for developing film). You get pretty close with the people in your college and it’s very much home. I eat in my college’s dining hall almost every night and have fantastic conversations with whomever I happen to sit next to.</p>
<p>One of the other unique things is the way in which Yale manages general education requirements or “distributional requirements.” There are skills - writing, quantitative reasoning, and language - and subject areas - science, social science, and humanities. You basically need two of each in order to graduate (the language requirement varies, depending on previous preparation), but they have to be spaced out according to this chart you can find online. It’s nice because it is a vague enough requirement that you can choose what you want to do (not as strict as many other schools), but it’s also definitely there so you have to push yourself outside of your academic comfort zone. I think that this creates some really creative, free-minded thinkers and does a good job of rounding everyone’s education.</p>
<p>Also, shout out to our pretty unique academic calendar: three days off for October Break, full week for Thanksgiving, nearly a month off for Christmas, two weeks of Spring Break, and nearly four months for summer! It really is a pretty sweet schedule to have!</p>
<p>(This was all done on my phone - please excuse any typos)</p>
<p>Thank you Bulldog for doing this. Are there roughly equal numbers of first, second, third, fourth year students in each residential college, or do they tend to arrange things so that it will be mostly first year students at (roughly) 3 of the colleges which would result in a similar-aged cohort?</p>
<p>I didn’t ask that question very clearly, but I hope that you know what I meant. It might be reassuring that I am a parent of an accepted student, and that said student could have asked the question more clearly ;-)</p>
<p>ixnay: all colleges have roughly equal amts of fr, so, jr and seniors. Each year, all incoming freshmen are divided to the 12 colleges more or less equally. This begins their inclusion into the college, with a full three years worth of upperclassmen in every college.</p>
<p>^Many helpful and very knowledgeable posters on this forum, that’s why dedicated threads to a single member aren’t unnecessary. All members are welcome to post on any thread.</p>
<p>what are the students at Yale like? I consider myself to be on the quirkier side and am concerned that the other students at Yale may be too “professional” and “type-A” for me to fit there. (thanks for answering these questions)</p>
<p>Cghiru: Have you ever visited campus? There is a HUGE spectrum of students. While there are some Type As as you say, it’s not the vibe whatsoever.</p>
<p>Cghiru, I had brought my son up for a program at Yale, and that night we ate dinner at a local eatery. Next to us were a dozen students (plus or minus their friends who dropped by for a few minutes). That was the moment when I thought seriously of my son applying.</p>
<p>One of my flaws is that I eavesdrop, or as I prefer to say, “people watch.” It was a clearly intelligent and engaged crowd, comfortable with each other and their wit, and they seemed like a bunch of kids that I would love for my son to spend 4 years with.</p>
<p>Granted, they might be the only 12 students like that at Yale, but I don’t think so.</p>
<p>I’ve visited campus once but when I went there for an interview (on a tuesday around 12) there was absolutely no one else walking around; I maybe saw around 5 people in total which was really surprising and a little concerning to me (I’m hoping there was just something else going on the day I was there).</p>
<p>And thank you for the responses; I’m happy to hear that Yale students are a little more relaxed and comfortable in being a little weird.</p>
<p>Can I apply to Yale undecided and then switch to engineering?</p>
<p>@Cghiru:</p>
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<p>This is definitely true. No matter what kind of person you are, extroverted/introverted, you will find people you click with. 
There are so many people I wish I could talk to for hours…</p>
<p>Is the Thomas Hardy Association still active? The link on the website seems to be broken.</p>
<p>why do people say yale is feels unsafe?</p>
<p>Hey Bulldod2017, would really appreciate your help here. Is the Yale entrepreneurs institute open for undergrads?</p>
<p>The OP has not responded and the idea of single-member dedicated thread is the antithesis of what CC is about.</p>
<p>If you have a question, please use the New Thread button to ask it. Anyone can reply, including bulldog if they choose to.</p>
<p>Closing thread.</p>