You be the judge: Yale

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>This may sound a bit odd, but I felt I needed to share. I was in an interview for Georgetown and the woman interviewing me asked where else I had applied. </p>

<p>When I listed the other schools, including Yale, Harvard, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, and some others, she stopped me and said "Yale? That seems like an odd choice." </p>

<p>I inquired as to an explaination for her response, and was actually surprised. She apparently had many friends (Yale graduates) who dispised it on the basis that the institution was "insular and self-glorifying." I was appalled to say the least, and asked some of my friends who attend currently whether this claim had any merit. </p>

<p>"Yale is very into Yale," one of them said, "They don't like accepting other colleges' credits, they don't really promote travel abroad. If you are at Yale, they want you to have the Yale education, nothing else." I got this response over and over. I even remembered something that the tour guide had said when I first visited that I had dismissed as more of the cookie-cutter speech given, it seemed, at all of the colleges. This really turned me off to Yale because I am interested in being a foreign relations major, and I never think being insular is the way to go about anything. It was also in strange contrast to the surprisingly diverse town of New Haven. </p>

<p>At any rate, the whole thing was really surprising. I don't suggest you take my word for it (I'm only 17, what do I know?), but I do suggest that you ask around. Don't ask the administration, ask the students, and ask more than one of them. </p>

<p>That said, I loved Yale (especially Branford college). I loved the people I met there, I loved everything about it. They were also recently rated the best college food by Organic Style for one of their many awesome dining halls. The food there is amazing.</p>

2

<p>Yale accepts college credits from other colleges, if you took them while you were college age (semester off, or summer) but not while you were in high school. Many yalies go abroad and more and more are going every year, but the number is still very low because I believe yalies don't want to give up even a semester at Yale, its that good.</p>

3

<p>I believe only 5% of yalies study abroad. Yale discourages study abroad, they say they don't want you to leave it at all or they don't want you to leave such a challenging academic environment(or something like that- I heard this on the parents forum)</p>

4

<p><a href="http://www.yale.edu/iefp/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yale.edu/iefp/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"Every year about one hundred Yale students go on a Junior Year or Term Abroad, while many others decide to study abroad who do not seek full Yale credit for the experience. Some students select course work in their majors, using this opportunity to approach their disciplines from different points of view; others study outside their majors, exploring courses which may not be offered at Yale. They are attracted by the immense personal rewards of living in a different culture and improving their foreign language skills. Whatever the reason, students return with fresh perspectives on their Yale education. Study abroad can be a unique chapter in your undergraduate education. Moreover, it can enrich, perhaps even change, your life.</p>

<p>You may be reluctant to study abroad because you are concerned about missing part of your Yale experience. While you should not hastily decide to study abroad, neither should you hastily discount this unique opportunity. Even a cursory glance at the evaluations of participating students shows that those who have studied abroad are delighted that they did so and recommend such experiences with utmost enthusiasm.</p>

5

<p>The relationship between Yale and "the outside world" has never been great. Even with the New Haven community, which is at its doorstep, Yale secludes itself.</p>

6

<p>yale is idiosyncratic. the institution itself, along with those who attend, is unique and has tons of personality. to outsiders, it might indeed seem "insular"--however, to everyone I know of who has gone to yale, they stay at yale because they love it so much. they are in no way arrogant or self centered; they are simply proud of their institution and happy to be there</p>

7

<p>I don't believe in perfect colleges- perhaps this is just one of Yale's flaws.</p>

8

<p>I would in no way suggest that Yale discourages travel abroad. It is becoming an increasingly large part of the college.</p>

9

<p>To give you a sense of how much Yale discourages study abroad during the academic year, approximately 100 do it. At Smith, with half the student body (and 250 of them being older students entering in their junior year), is a little over 300.</p>

10

<p>On the other hand, to give you a sense of how much Yale encourages study abroad, here is the website for the Yale Internation Education and Fellowship Programs page. Each year, on the Light Fellowship alone, approximately 100 students are funded to go study abroad in Asian countries, such as Japan and China. Residential Colleges also have their own travel fellowships which fund students to study abroad. </p>

<p>While Yale may not have proportionally as many people studying abroad as some schools, the act is definitely NOT discouraged at all by the administration, professors, or faculty.</p>

11

<p><a href="http://www.yale.edu/iefp/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yale.edu/iefp/&lt;/a> </p>

<p>the website, i forgot the website :)</p>

12

<p>interestingly, my georgetown interviewer also asked about the other schools i was applying to and became very defensive against the ivies i listed, as if she had an inferiority complex. she even went so far as to saying she would never allow her children to apply to an ivy. (no i did not provoke this)</p>

13

<p>I think summer study-abroad programs are a good option here; I, for one, am planning to do this through the Yale-in-London program.</p>

<p>And Yale is "insular" only in the context of New Haven - the campus is relatively inward-looking. I think that's an admirable trait rather than a black mark - at Columbia, for example, I have heard students complain that the campus is too externally oriented (too many students scatter across NYC for fun instead of staying on campus).</p>

<p>Gingerwings, have you been admitted to Yale?</p>

14

<p>My two cents, as a Yale grad and Yale mom:</p>

<p>I think it's a fair statement that many Yalies are quite "into Yale." Most of them see this in a positive light (and I'd take a negative spin on it by a Georgetown interviewer with a grain of salt ;)). As crimsonbulldog puts it, "yalies don't want to give up even a semester at Yale, it's that good." </p>

<p>As for travel abroad, it does seem less prevalent than at other colleges, but there's no issue with the administration "discouraging it"; for one thing, I believe they're officially in favor of it rather than otherwise, and for another, Yalies tend to be too stubborn to be easily swayed; they'll go abroad--or not--based on what they personally want to do.</p>

<p>Georgetown, of course, has a famous School of Foreign Service. I'm not familiar enough with the international relations department at Yale to compare the two programs, but that's obviously worth doing if that's your area of interest. In general, however, Yalies tend to be fixated on Yale because it's an amazing experience; my daughter, for example, is upset that she has less than a month to go in her freshman year.</p>

<p>P.S. Alas, the organic food is available only at one of the dining halls, Berkeley, though there's talk of expanding the program to other residential colleges (<a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=29096%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=29096&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p>

15

<p>Ivyqueen,
my son was actually a bit sad at XMAS cause he was 1/8th done with his Yale experience, he loves it that much......it is definitely going by too fast... Yale has increased # of international acceptances .. I know that my son would have to seriously double up on some of the required courses for a math degree in order to do a semester abroad.... if even doable at all....he did a summer program while in hs, so the "need" to do a semester abroad is less urgent... I look at the Yale Daily News often just to see what is being reported on... I don't get the sense that it is an insular campus at all..... I would encourage any kid to look at the daily papers for any schools they are seriously considering...</p>

16

<p>We just did the tour at Yale...according to the admissions counselor and tour guides, most Yalies do there abroad experience in the summer rather than during the school year with fellowships and internships. They quoted 50 to 70
% of students go abroad during the summer. Our tour guide had spent a summer in Australia and one in Italy. Sounded like fun to me.</p>

17

<p>
[quote]
They quoted 50 to 70% of students go abroad during the summer.

[/quote]
Really? I'm surprised the number is that high, and I'd double-check the figure if it's important to you. (The tours are entertaining but not always so reliable, like the cherished story about the lone Vanderbilt male in the then all-female Vanderbilt Hall.)</p>

18

<p>I remember hearing that quote too, although I can't remember the figure cited. Studying abroad during the summer, to me, seems like a better option - you don't miss out on any of the Yale experience.</p>

19

<p>I wouldn't be surprised if it was that high. Personally, I'm one of the few people at Yale who HAVEN'T found time to take a summer abroad:-P</p>

20

<p>... of the six girls in my suite, one is going to belize on a yale-sponsored archaeological dig, and a second is going to china with a full stipend from yale. a third is going to china, but she's an international student going home for the summer, so i don't think that counts :-P i know several other students in my building who are going overseas for the summer, too (like another one of my friends who's going to... puerto rico? i think?... to do research on monkeys), so this isn't just a totally random thing that happened with my suite. (all of these people i'm talking about who are getting yale to pay for them to go to other countries this summer are freshmen, btw)</p>

<p>there are lots of opportunities to go abroad during the summers. you can either apply for outside programs (not affiliated with yale) or apply for yale-sponsored trips, and if you look around you'll see that there are a lot of both out there. in particular, once you've taken the intro year of certain languages (ie. french, spanish) you can do a intensive intermediate course in that language in which you spend half the summer at yale studying the language and half the summer in europe living in the country where your language is spoken. i've never done that, but i've heard it's pretty cool :-P</p>

<p>the tourguide's numbers may be a little on the high side, but perhaps less so than they might seem...</p>