Yale - the confessions of a freshman

<p>This post does not seek to do any of the following: denigrate other colleges and universities, whitewash negative aspects of Yale, exaggerate positive aspects of Yale, or trick anyone into attending Yale. This post is simply meant to inform prospective students why I chose Yale and why I firmly believe that my choice was the right one.</p>

<p>Let's break it down:</p>

<p>STUDENT LIFE</p>

<p>RESIDENTIAL COLLEGES:
One of the first things that you find out about Yale is that it is broken up into 12 residential colleges. I'll be honest - other universities have residential colleges. Harvard and Princeton both do. However, there's a fundamental difference between Yale's and the ones at Harvard and the ones at Princeton. At Harvard, you live your first year without affiliation, and you then go through a 'blocking process' through which you choose up to 8 other classmates. They only control for gender, and they randomly place you into 1 of 12 colleges. At Princeton, you get your affiliation right away, but the system is a 2-year system. I hear they're turning it into a 4-year system, but you can chose to leave your college.</p>

<p>At Yale, everything occurs through your residential college. As a freshman, your dorm consists entirely of your college's freshmen. You get to know them very personally. Each college has a dining hall, and although you can eat elsewhere, most people eat at their own dining hall. Why? It's simple college spirit. There's no rational reason why Jonathan Edwards is better than Branford, but JE freshmen learn to chant "JE Sux!" (Their motto) as soon as they step onto campus. In fact, as I am writing this, there is a colossal 35-feet-tall Christmas-lights formation hanging outside Farnam which spells out "JE SUX". It was put up entirely by freshmen who have spent less than 3 months here. It's the magic of Yale that one can be assigned randomly to one of twelve colleges and still decide that their college is the best. Your college might sponsor trips to see Les Miserables in New York, or it might sponsor a themed '80's dance that the students of the college throw for the entire university. The JE christmas lights were bought with money given to Yale freshmen from the JE master.</p>

<p>which brings me to...</p>

<p>SUPPORT SYSTEM
It's great. Honestly, you have a residential college master, who is in charge of student life. He (or she, but I'll be phallocentric to reduce awkward wording) will invite famous people to speak as guests to a small group of people - Master's Teas. He eats dinner in the dining hall, lives in the residential college, and holds fun events almost every weekend.</p>

<p>The residential college dean is in charge of your academic career (among other things). He'll approve your schedule, talk to you about classes, send out emails warning you when you can drop classes, etc... Because he has to deal with only 400-500 kids rather than an student body, he builds a relationship with you over the four years that you're in the college.</p>

<p>You have an academic adviser - for freshmen, it's some random professor who gets to know you, talks to you about your schedule, etc... Once you declare a major, you get a professor who is a relevant department, so that he can help guide you along in selecting classes and fulfilling requirements.</p>

<p>You also have freshman counselors. Informally known as FroCo's, these nifty fellows take the place of RA's. If you've heard horror stories about RA's or RCA's at other colleges, don't worry. Yale FroCo's are seniors who get free room and board in exchange for living in the freshmen dorms. They buy freshmen food from the residential college budget; they meet with you to find out how classes are going; they help you select classes and impart to you their 3 years of extra wisdom. They aren't disciplinarians - at all.</p>

<p>This leads to my next point...</p>

<p>DISCIPLINE/SAFETY</p>

<p>Because FroCo's are not disciplinarians, there are officially NO disciplinarians at Yale. I mean this in the most positive sense. FroCo's have a few rules: no drinking with freshmen, and no hooking up with freshmen. That's about it. Yale's alcohol policy is quoted extensively: "Yale treats alcohol as a safety issue, not a disciplinary issue." In other words, when some freshman started throwing up from drinking too much, one of the FroCo's took him to DUH (Department of Undergraduate Health). He received a minor talking-to about being safe.</p>

<p>New Haven police have bigger fish to fry than some frat house throwing a late party. Yale police, it is joked, exist to protect students from New Haven police. Yale police and campus security will often help students back to dorms. This leads to my next point...</p>

<p>CAMPUS SAFETY</p>

<p>Yes, New Haven isn't the greatest neighborhood in the world. No, I haven't been mugged yet. The area immediately around campus is very nice - there's an Urban Outfitters, J. Crew, Barnes and Nobles, Starbucks, Au Bon Pain within one block of freshman housing. There are also a bunch of non-chain restaurants within a similar radius. The point is - there's no real reason to wander off campus. If you do, you do so during the daytime or in groups. It's a basic safety precaution, and I'd bet that the reason assault rates are so low at Yale [ <a href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/photos/expansions/expansion_007690.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/photos/expansions/expansion_007690.jpg&lt;/a> ] is because students take the time to be safe and because Yale takes security seriously. Common sense is never a bad thing.</p>

<p>ACADEMICS</p>

<p>CREDITS</p>

<p>You need 36 credits, or 36 semester classes, to graduate. That's 9 a year, or an average of 4-5 a semester. Most peer institutions only require 32. I might actually take closer to 38-39 classes, because there's so much that interests me here.</p>

<p>DISTRIBUTIONAL REQUIREMENTS</p>

<p>I'd love to have an open curriculum, like the kind that exists at Brown or Wesleyan. But I'm not narrow-minded enough to have a problem with the minimal requirements that Yale enforces. Yale requires that students take at least: 2 writing-intensive courses, 2 social science courses, 2 science courses, 2 humanities courses, and 2 quantitative reasoning courses. You're also required to take between 1 and 3 semesters of a foreign language, depending on your fluency upon entrance.</p>

<p>These seem like a lot, but they're really not. Social sciences range from econ omics to psychology. "Philosophy of Physics" fulfills a science requirement. "Logic", (along with any math class, many sciences, and some social sciences) fulfill quantitative reasoning. The writing requirement will only throw off those who intended to take 36 math and science classes. The foreign language requirement is the most bothersome, but people take everything from "Legal Spanish" to "Heiroglyphics" to fulfill it.</p>

<p>MAJORS, MINORS, DOUBLE MAJORS</p>

<p>There are no minors at Yale. If you want to double major, you can overlap/double-count at most two semester classes. It's not easy to double major, but people still do it all the time.</p>

<p>SPECIAL NOTES</p>

<p>I'm taking Directed Studies (DS), also backronymed as Directed Suicide. It's 3 full year courses that cover the breadth of the western canon. Compare it to Columbia's core curriculum, except that it's optional. This means that that the kids in DS are self-selected from among incoming Yale freshmen.</p>

<p>There are downsides to the program. I don't consider the work overwhelming, but the people who do take DS tend to be know-it-alls. I got lucky with 2 of my 3 discussion sections (18 kids, one prominent professor), but particular students have already gained infamy for being "cla<strong>holes" or "section a</strong>holes" for their obnoxious attitudes during discussions.</p>

<p>This leads into the final category...</p>

<p>THE PEOPLE</p>

<p>Honestly, the people are what makes Yale special. I'm not going to lie - there are awkward kids at Yale. There are kids at Yale who are kind of creepy and weird. There are legacies and faculty children who probably wouldn't have gotten in if they had different parents. There are jock-type athletes (not all athletes - just a handful). But even these people are completely fine - Yale lets them find their niche and they learn to adapt. There are crazy competitive kids at Yale too - freshmen at least. By now, most of the kids who were once fretting over every point are finally learning to take a more holistic approach.</p>

<p>But anyways, that's a small minority. You have to take the good with the bad. The good of Yale is that the place is open, tolerant, and most importantly, fun loving. Yale's tolerant of alternative lifestyles, but also tolerant of straight-edged kids. You can go to a party, not drink, and not feel pressured. You can also go to a school sponsored dance with a member of the same gender, and you won't feel ostracized. But more important than tolerance is Yale's propensity for fun. Yale is a decidedly anti-competitive place (although I've heard mixed things from the premeds). I collaborate on problem sets; I ask my peers to edit my papers; I don't worry about someone else beating me on a test. Yale fosters a spirit of community - while other colleges might treat life (or college) as a horse race, where everyone is jockeying for position, at Yale, life becomes a game of golf. It can be frustrating at times, sure. Nothing's perfect. But it's so nice to stand back and watch the ball fly.</p>

<p>I haven't even read your post and I'm just going to be the first to say, I'm a huge fan of Samuel L-- Nice choice.</p>

<p>(reading now)
(and done!)</p>

<p>Sounds a lot like what I've heard before, which is to say... that Yale is awesome! But it's always good to hear the same from new perspectives and people.</p>

<p>That's a really good post you have there. :) thanks!</p>

<p>Thank you so much for your excellent post.</p>

<p>What is the labor situation like up there these days--I remember hearing lots about striking cafeteria workers and TAs and such. Has that stuff gone by the wayside? Hoping so, as I await 12/15.</p>

<p>This is so helpful, thank you so much for taking the time to write it.</p>

<p>I especially love that it was so Yale-centric. You offered pretty few opportunities for the thread to just turn into another troll-dominated Harvard/Yale battle... Thanks so much JW for taking the time out of your DS dominated schedule to write this for us!</p>

<p>I agree with everyone here, thanks a lot for posting this. I'm already in love with Yale, but it's such a plus to see how nice and helpful Yalies are...hopefully you are representative of the population at large :)</p>

<p>this is a great of your freshman yale experience so far, and wow it's awesome</p>

<p>this is a great post, it just sucks that im falling even more in love with yale after reading it.</p>

<p>Thanks, JW, this post was excellent at explaining what life is like at Yale from the perspective of a currently enrolled student. I really appreciate this post!</p>

<p>JAG</p>

<p>I have to agree with catacat.
Even though you didn't mention too much new information, it all just reinforces my love of Yale. It makes Yale seem like one of the most perfect places on Earth..and no doubt, it is one.
I hope that at some point in the future I will be able to say the same things about my college (and if not about Yale, similar things about another school), because everything you said is so great and I can imagine living at a place like Yale for the next four years of my life.</p>

<p>Wow... you sure seem... serious about yale!!! Oh man... I'm too funny</p>

<p>everyone stop. i am getting too attached to yale.</p>

<p>Hey Jules,</p>

<p>I'm a freshman too and guys - everything Jules said is true. I love Yale to death (even though I am cramming or let's say pulling an all-nighter for my friggin Chinese exam tomorrow). And Jules, if you liked the JE SUX lights, please have a look at the Pierson side of LDub. We spelled out the letter AND added the crest. Nifty, huh? </p>

<p>Oh geez, I love Yale. And I encourage all of you to come join us! :) </p>

<p>(Right now I am sitting in the breathtaking Pierson Dining Hall, the christmas tree is sparkling in the back, we have free coffee/tea/chocolate at our disposal AND we don't have to leave before 6 AM. Believe me, I'll need this time.)</p>

<p>That is all, enough procrastination!</p>

<p>Good luck to all ye applicants!</p>

<p>Really twking? Those lights looked to me from over on the Saybrook side like they spelled out PIG.</p>

<p>More seriously, everything Jules said is true. Yale is an amazing place. I would like to give a more enthusiastice depiction of DS, though. The chance to have so many small classes taught by professors is an experience that few freshmen anywhere (including in other classes at Yale) get to have. And though the section *******s definitely exist, I doubt that's any different from any other classe's sections, after all, at a school like Yale you're going to find some know-it-alls. On the other hand, I would argue that if you actually do all the reading, it does end up being a lot of work. Plus, if you're a procrastinator like me you end up having your Thursday nights destroyed by the paper. </p>

<p>And twking, good luck on the Chinese exam, I have one too (are you in 115?)</p>

<p>Yep, sure am! :) </p>

<p>No way, we are neighbors and fellow 115ers!</p>

<p>Thank you so much for that great post, Jules; it reinforces for me (since I'm on the West Coast and have gotten to visit Yale only once, and then only for a few hours) how much I love the school</p>

<p>Just heard what was for dinner in one of the colleges tonight. Hope everyone had a nice holiday dinner.</p>

<p>Fireplaces and shrimp scampi! Where else but yale?</p>