How did Yale end up so weak in science?

booyaksha
Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:56:17 +0000

Yale is NOT weak in sciences. Indeed, its med school admissions rate is on par or exceeds that of HPS et al.

What you are doing is overestimating the utility of a ranking. Essentially every departmental ranking is a graduate ranking, not an undergraduate. So Yale, which makes the highest commitment to undergrad education and doesn’t care about grad school as much, will not do as well. But what you are mostly exaggerating is the distance in the first place. When you say, “Princeton and Harvard are not as far “behind” Yale in English and History as Yale is behind them in Math and Physics” the differences are relatively minor. Although I don’t want to place more emphasis on a ranking than it deserves, Yale is still 7th in Math (tied w/ Caltech) and 11th in Physics (tied w/ Columbia, above Michigan, Hopkins, etc). Point being, these are all top tier programs. I think you are overestimating the difference b/w the #1 and #15 departments – as an undergrad, those differences are not as significant and probably won’t affect your life outcome. Rather, the culture and undergraduate resources of the college as a whole makes more difference, and that’s where Yale truly begins to shine.