Hi! This is my first thread, so sorry if I mess something up! I’m a high schooler looking at different colleges. I have already decided that I am without a doubt going to be a political science major, and I was wondering what Yale’s department looks like from a student’s perspective. I’ve studied the website and it doesn’t really offer a lot of information about the
program other than a generic overview. Along with in depth information about the course load and discussion vs. lecture classroom settings, I want to know about what you’ve learned from the department other than the curriculum. What moral lessons have your professors taught that you’all carry with you? How much has it impacted your political beliefs and formed you into not just someone with the knowledge to go into the field, but the integrity, decision-making skills, and principles to be good at it and to do good in it? This is kind of a hard question to answer, but if you could try your best I would really appreciate it, as this is really important to me as I figure out what decisions to make about my future. Thank you so much!
I’m an undergrad at Yale, but I’m not a Poli Sci major, so I can’t really speak on their behalf (and I doubt you’ll find many on College Confidential unfortunately), but I think this Quora answer offers a pretty good overview of the program: https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-study-political-science-at-Yale
Based on your interests, it seems like you might also be interested in the Ethics, Politics and Economics Major: http://epe.yale.edu/
From my own experience, your education will depend a lot on your personal drive, choices and interests - what sort of classes you take, which professors’ office hours you attend, which extracurricular/internships/projects you choose, etc. At a place like Yale, where your peers are enterprising and intellectually curious, and the departments are top-notch, the school itself will never be the limiting factor, it’s up to you to shape yourself using all the opportunities available.
Thank you for the reply! I’ll be sure to look into the link and the major. That actually sounds really interesting. I’m definitely going to keep what you said about the independent learning environment in mind; that seems like a really important part of Yale, one of the things that makes it as special as it is. Thank you again!
Remember, if you get accepted to Yale you will not have to declare your major until the end of sophomore year. That is for a reason - Yale has such a wide range of classes and majors that you will most likely change your mind over time. My D who went in thinking she would be a Classics major is now a Lit major.