<p>I have to agree with everything that has been voiced thus far.
My year at Yale has been by far the best year of my life and this is largely because of the people I have met here. I’m a relatively quiet reserved person; I don’t party, I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol during my time on campus and still I can say that socially I’ve had a blast. There are so many options outside of the party scene; there are literally student organization run events every weekend, and they’re a lot of fun. And if you want something a little more laid back, the suite-style living is really conducive to just bringing over a couple of friends and chilling.
Coming from a background that was neither preppy nor rich, I feel like I was able to find my place in Yale culture pretty quickly. Are there some people that may be a little on the preppy side? Sure. But there are enough people on campus that you don’t have to interact with people you don’t like. And honestly, just about every single person I’ve met on campus has been a genuinely nice person, even if they aren’t my ideal friend type.
As far as residential colleges, the system works well. I think one of the problems that can happen with Harvard’s blocking can be that you end up with one college filled with one kind of person. Yale’s random assignment during freshman year makes it so that you interact with people that you might not have, and staying in your residential college fosters a great sense of community. That said, I found a terrific group of friends outside of my residential college. We really are a little family, so I chose to transfer to their residential college. It was a very smooth process. So, you, there’s really no drawbacks to Yale’s college system. No matter how you look at it, it provides you with a really great social foundation and support system.
Basically, if you’re worried about Yale’s social climate, please don’t be. Yale has been the most amazing thing to happen to me. I have grown and learned so much, and a large portion of that growth is due to the people I’ve met and the social experiences I’ve had. I promise you, if you come here, you will not regret it.</p>