Princeton or Yale

Bulldog2017
Tue, 08 Apr 2014 22:16:16 +0000

This is in the Princeton category, so naturally it is going to get a lot of pro-Princeton responses. Let me (frosh at Yale) give you the other side.

The residential college system at Yale is hands-down the best possible housing system. It creates a very home-y atmosphere and very tight bonds. There are 100 other freshman in my college and I am good friends (good enough to sit with them at a meal) with 96 of them. The other four are athletes and generally eat with their team slash aren’t around the college as much. We just had our “Freshman Olympics” and it was clear that everyone there (with was probably 40-50% of all freshman) really enjoyed being around their college mates and felt pride in their college. Each college has a dining hall, laundry room, “buttery” (late night eatery), courtyard (and most have hammocks), gyms, music practice rooms, art rooms, Masters, and Deans. The Master and the Dean are in charge of student life (both academic and personal) and are available to meet basically any time. I’ve met with my dean twice in the last 32 hours and I never had to wait more than 10 minutes for either meeting. They offer very wise advice and are really easy to talk to. I eat “at home” most nights and generally don’t make plans to eat with specific people; I just head down to the dining hall and sit in an open seat. It’s great to talk to different people about their interests and background over dinner: it’s incredible the number of incredible people you meet.

Yale engineering is nothing to sneeze at. The university has been dumping money into research for a few years now and it’s really starting to show. There is absolutely no problem getting research funding for the summer or a job in a lab during the school year. The $300mill (I think) Center for Engineering, Innovation, and Design was opened in August 2012 and provides collaborative work space for anyone who wants to use it (and wants to go through the orientation session).

In terms of NYC. The train ride is about a half and hour longer from New Haven than it is from Princeton, but the same goes for the residential colleges sponsoring trips. My college actually just did a day trip that included a train ticket, admission to the Museum of Modern Art, and a ticket to either a Broadway show or a baseball game, all for $20 (which is a STEAL).

With regards to the undergraduate focus: I personally think that having grad students around adds a lot to the feeling of campus. It’s nice to be able to talk to them and get a little perspective. They also know A LOT and are great resources. I’ve never felt like a professor cares more about his grad students than me and undergrads really don’t have problems getting positions in labs.

Let me know if you have any other questions about Yale!