<p>Make no mistake - you have to be pretty good, but the best pure athletes will go to big schools where they'll get merit aid and celeb-like status.</p>
<p>Ivies are looking for student-athletes, so coaches turn down more players because of their grades than because of their athletic ability. You should get in touch with the coach for the sport you're interested in - you'll probably be asked to send in your stats/video or go to their camp. The competitiveness of each sport varies somewhat according to the sport and also the school. E.g. Soccer at Yale is pretty competitive right now, whereas if you're a good female basketball player... they might cut you some slack.</p>
<p>Coaches have a limited number of picks each year, so they'll want to put on their list a # of kids who are - smart enough to get in / good at the sport, and perhaps more specifically, a position they're looking for.</p>
<p>You'll increase your chances of being recruited if you go to several schools. Chances are that if you're good enough, one of them will take you.</p>
<p>Have you guys had any amazing professors? Everyone (at pretty much every good school) seems to say that a certain number of nobel prize winning professors teach intro courses, that other teach from their own books, or are just the best professors they've ever had. Have you guys had something like this?</p>
<p>best professor I've ever had was David Blight, teaching a history course called Civil War and Reconstruction Era. He was amaaaazing (and the readings for the class were all really interesting... a mixture of primary source collections and current authors' analyses...). We even have a facebook group for his fanclub :D Akhil Amar, who teaches Constitutional Law would be a runner up (pretty much everyone who takes his class loves it; we did course evaluations about a week ago, and I saw several people handing it in who, when asked "what was the best part of this course?", answerd "Professor Amar!") Um... my first semester orgo professor was pretty damn cool too, but he was denied tenure and he left :/</p>
<p>Sometimes, though, the nobel-prize winning professor aren't the best ones ;)</p>
<p>i dunno about labs, i don't do sciences.
each residential college has a gym you can go to 24/7, Payne Whitney Gym is open weekdays till 10.
the classroom halls tend to be open all the time.
Sterling Memorial Library is open till midnight, Cross Campus Library (which you guys won't know till the fall '07) is open till 2am, residential college libraries are open 24/7.</p>
Oddly enough, David Blight's class has been the history course I have enjoyed the least in my time at Yale. I know most people love it, but I think someone in my section summed up my feelings perfectly when she said "Does anybody get the feeling Professor Blight's lectures are more...erm...style or substance". I guess I'm a just a little sad that I walked away from the course without a significant amount of new insight into the era. My other friends who are also history majors shared similar sentiments.</p>
<p>Anyway, one thing I've learned in the past couple years is that popularity due to interesting/difficult content does not always make a course great, just as popularity due to a small workload/easy tests does not make it a bad course. For me, this would be true with Blight in the former category, and Robert Dunne in the latter (whose Computers and the Law course, as well as the followup seminars I would highly recommend).</p>
<p>My favorite professor has probably been Carlos Eire, who teaches courses concerning the history of Christianity. Amar, Dunne, and many others are also up there, though.</p>
<p>Entropic - that's interesting to hear. I suppose that for me, as a science major who knew absolutely NOTHING about the civil war before taking Blight's class, I came out of that class with quite a bit more insight into the era (as you put it) than I had going in (especially about Lincoln). I think it's probably true to some extent that different people need different things out of their classes, and for me, Prof. Blight's class gave me exactly what I needed. I suspect that as a history major, you expect different things from your history profs than I do, which is probably why we came out of Prof. Blight's class with different opinions. It's good to hear you say that history of christianity is really good though - I've had a lot of people recommend that class to me, and I'm hoping to shop it next year if my schedule allows :) </p>
<p>Centurian - edmYale09 pretty much answered your question, I think... I'll just try to complete it with a note about the undergrad science labs. The teaching labs (ie. where you'll be if you take a lab class for credit) are usually open from 1 to 5, and in the intro courses they will kick you out at 5. In my pchem lab this semester, though, there have been days we've stayed 'til 6 or 6:30 - basically, as long as we needed to finish the experient, and as long as our TA had the patience to stay. Finally, if you start working in a research lab, the hours are MUCH more flexible... you probably won't be allowed to stay when the prof or the grad students aren't there, but they tend to be around all day, so you have a lot of options on what hours to go in.</p>
<p>Do any current Yale students know anyone who is in the European and Russian Studies Masters program? Particularly interested in those who chose the Central and Western European track.</p>
<p>Does Yale accept many sophomore transfers? And do they ever come from Berkeley? What is Berkeley's reputation like from the HYP perspective? My son was devastated when he was rejected by Yale this year. He was pretty confident: ranked 1 in his class of 425, perfect gpa, great test scores, 10 APs, great recs and ECs (mostly music, not much leadership). Of course, it's never a sure thing, and in retrospect, he made some mistakes: should have sought professional help with essays, should have applied ED, should have done an interview (BIG mistake there). Anyway, he's really feeling like he's settling for an inferior school. I know there are lots of kids who would love to go to Berkeley, but most people know what it's like to have a dream school. Should he take a year off and reapply? Try to transfer? Or just get over it? Oh, and one more thing - money is an issue. We'll be spending 1/3 to 1/2 of our annual income to send him to Berkeley. Do transfers at Yale get aid?</p>
<p>I don't think Yale accepts many transfers.
Second-time applicants have even lower chances to get in.
When I've been with other Yalies and we talk about schools in the west, most kids think about Stanford and not Berkeley.</p>
<p>If students are only allowed 21 meals per week, does that mean that no one is allowed into the dining halls more than three times a day, or that students aren't allowed to swipe their cards more than three times a day?</p>
<p>oh boy. the meal plans.
technically, you should be able to go as many times in a day as you want. but no. there's usually no need. it's more common to miss out on a swipe than to use four.
a big thing to do is to use two swipes at a dining hall and the third at the law school to get drinks or snacks. but there are rules about that and when you can do it.
i miss Yale : [</p>
<p>anybody know someone trying to do international studies and something else (econ, perhaps)? and if there is anything else to add about the international studies program at yale in terms of internship opportunities, etc., that would be great!!!</p>