<p>Time to start the likes/dislikes thread for YALE!!
What appeals to you about Yale? What does Yale fall short?</p>
<p>Going to visit campus. While any economic program would do [as long as you work hard, there is no reason you won’t succeed], I think a quality one at Yale + its reputation with job placement will definitely help you get ahead in the world of business. That’s a practical reason why I like Yale. Harvard and Princeton as well of course :p. It’s first to see which I can get into and then visit campus and see if I like the dorms, the student body, the extra-curriculars, and the professors. That’s about it. Best of luck to all.</p>
<p>Three main things jump to mind about why it is so great. </p>
<p>First of all, Yale has, by a huge margin, the best location/college town of any college in the Northeast (see <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/449186-yale-s-location.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/449186-yale-s-location.html</a> ) </p>
<p>Second, undergraduate academics are unparalleled, even compared to Yale’s impressive peer institutions. Caltech is really the only competitor out there for having such a high level of dedication to undergraduate academic quality. I’m not saying others are “bad” - you can obviously get an unbelievable education at Dartmouth, Wellesley, Swarthmore, Princeton, Williams, etc., but Yale is in a class of its own.</p>
<p>Third, social life. Yale’s campus is buzzing with activity 24/7, which might be due to the campus scale (all dorms & activities within a 2 minute walk), might be due to the residential college system (note that – despite other universities’ marketing campaigns and housing initiatives, which since the 1980s or even more recently have very consciously attempted to copy Yale – Yale has a unique system that nobody else even comes close to matching), might be due to the friendliness and intelligence of the people themselves, perhaps because they are so happy due to the above reasons, whatever it is, nowhere else I have visited has such an exciting vibe.</p>
<p>Potential negatives: weather (if you prefer it to be either warmer, cloudier, sunnier, rainier, drier, or colder - because of the coastal and southerly location, New Haven is much sunnier and more moderate than the rest of New England and the Northeast; it isn’t Hotlanta, though); region (it may be far away from home, although that is mitigated by the incredible diversity of people there, and not just diversity on paper like what you have at other top institutions, but diversity in the sense that people from different backgrounds actually interact with one another in a collegial way, on a regular basis, due to the housing and academic systems at Yale); particular individual concerns (if you want to play for a nationally-ranked basketball team, for example).</p>
<p>posterX is joking, right</p>
<p>One more potential negative: study abroad. Yale is so awesome that few students actually want to take a semester off and leave, no matter how hard Yale tries to encourage it – to the point where Yale is forced to bribe students, through extensive fellowships, to travel in the summers instead (and even then, many students stay at Yale in the summers, too). Most people come in thinking they might study abroad for a year or a semester, but quickly change their mind.</p>
<p>Hey, I’m a die-hard Yalie too, but Jesus, you’d think we had rainbows flowing out of our ears or something.</p>
<p>Likes:</p>
<p>Social atmosphere. People are friendly, outgoing, engaged, collaborative and quirky (really, it’s the people that make Yale the place it is). Campus life is energetic, opportunities to see cool people giving cool speeches or learning to play the bagpipe don’t come by just every campus. Residential colleges keep things intimate. Awesome support system - career counceling, health services, the dean, I’ve abused them all to great satisfaction. </p>
<p>Academically, obviously, there are some hotshot professor superstars to not miss out on - but in a larger sense, I really dig the credit/fail system. There was this class that pretty much would be impossible to pass, yet tickled me: took it credit/d, ended up getting more out of it than all my other classes combined, yet didn’t stress over it at all. The things I learned are still with me, I grew because of it, all that cliche-y goodness.</p>
<p>If you’re a gothic fan, the campus itself is amazing. I love all the new details I find every day. I love the pompous feel of it, I love the Harry Potter vibes, I love the modern buildings and I love the run-down buildings. Someone on here pointed out that campus isn’t a coherent stretch, since it’s criss-crossed (by actual streets! with actual cars!), but for me, it’s been a plus to feel like I enter a slightly different nook or cranny of Yale with every individual, unique street. It also contributes to it not feeling like a completely isolated fishbowl.</p>
<p>Financial Aid. Amen.</p>
<p>Top-notch facilities - you get a little used to all the luxuriousness, shamefully enough, so I’ve come to take this for granted, but all the little things Yale keeps providing for us spoiled Yalies really makes a huge difference in how smooth and fun your average day will turn out.</p>
<p>Neutral: New Haven. Honestly, it’s a bit shady. There are no easy ways to get to a dentist, a good hair stylist, a good clothing store, etc without a car. There are few city-specific events. BUT, on the other hand, the Have has grown on me over the past year. If you’re of age, many of the smaller pubs and bars are amazing; I dig the quirkier shops; after a while, I started finding more and more of those restaurants everyone’s been talking about (and could even afford some of them!), I even dig many of the bums - say what you will, but people like Annette or the guy with the funkadelic boombox are as much a part of this campus as anyone else.</p>
<p>Dislikes:</p>
<p>Don’t care about the YDN (Yale Daily News). About as exciting or intelligent as a piece of moldy tuna. I have a theory that the “staff” is actually a covertly trained group of chimpanzees on a ritalin overdose.</p>
<p>For all of its progressive outlook, Yale still is an Ivy, with all the stuffiness it entails. I probably should have put this as a neutral, since I just love the diversity - a lot of international students, a lot of quirky life stories around - but the concentration of the next generation of the upper-class echelons takes some getting used to. I wish someone could have given me a crash course in just how different of a culture I was getting into. I wish New Haven was less of an exclusive Yale deal, with poverty crowded around its fishbowl edges. I wish Yale had the decency to get our dining hall workers daycare solutions and better contracts. I wish… blah blah etc etc. I do believe this school is consciously, genuinely, trying to become a better social citizen, and I suppose any project of that scale will take some time to bear fruit.</p>
<p>I love Yale. I can’t see myself anywhere else. But, as with any college, it will be what you make of it. Personally, I don’t think you can find better conditions for a great undergraduate experience anywhere else.</p>
<p>“There are no easy ways to get to a dentist, a good hair stylist etc”? I don’t think that’s accurate at all. There are dozens of such places within a few blocks of the campus.</p>
<p>“poverty crowded around its fishbowl edges”? More like extreme wealth. New Haven is the third-wealthiest metropolitan region in the United States, after San Francisco and San Jose, CA. Million-dollar homes abound in the city. The type of “poverty” around downtown New Haven, e.g., panhandlers, is the same that you find in Times Square, Harvard Square, or the Chicago Loop (although to a lesser extent) - it is largely there because the areas are so safe and wealthy. </p>
<p>Think about it. If you wanted to ask for money, you wouldn’t go out to a random suburb or other neighborhood, where you would get beat up by the local skateboarder kids or harassed by the homeowners. Even if it were the neighborhood you grew up in. You would go to the safest part of your area, which in the case of a dense, historic, East Coast city, is typically the downtown area (downtown New Haven, downtown NYC, downtown Boston all have much larger downtown populations than any of their more Western counterparts like Denver, Phoenix, etc). In fact, 80% of panhandlers/homeless in New Haven, or any other city for that matter, come from outside of the area. The reason is simple. Downtown New Haven, the area around Yale, is statistically much safer than any suburban shopping mall, and much friendlier (and safer) than most random suburban neighborhoods. </p>
<p>In addition to attracting a few panhandlers (who as you point out, are generally the same five people from day to day and quickly become lifetime friends with the students and even alumni), downtown New Haven’s relative energy and safety also obviously attracts hundreds of thousands of rich suburbanites and college students from throughout the region (Yale is only the 3rd largest college in New Haven, and the urban area has almost a million people living in it), which is why you have hundreds of cafes, 24/7 stores, cineplexes, theaters, $100/person restaurants, tapas bars featured on the cover of Wine Spectator, nightclubs, recording studio-jazz clubs, galleries and lounges just within 3-4 blocks of the campus. The number of people going to downtown New Haven from within a 50-mile radius on a regular basis has skyrocketed by 50-100% in recent years, as has the overall size of the college student population, transforming New Haven into by far the best college town on the East Coast. On weekends, some streets have so many pedestrians that the police have to close them to traffic.</p>
<p>Of course, some Yale students, insulated within a campus that has arguably the most vibrant and exciting social scene in the country, and has some of the most beautiful architecture of any place in North America (not to mention ridiculously pimped-out libraries that put every other university in the country to shame), don’t always understand these things. I’m not saying that frrrph falls into this category - having spent significant time at hundreds of colleges around the world, I agree with him that “I don’t think you can find better conditions for a great undergraduate experience anywhere else.” :)</p>
<p>“undergraduate academics are unparalleled”?!?!?!? </p>
<p>That’s simply not true. It depends a great deal on what one studies, what is the best fit for an individual… It’s a wonderful institution, but simply pretentious and ignorant to try to put Yale lightyears ahead of what you patronizingly deem “good” but far lesser schools.</p>
<p>“insulated within a campus that has arguably the most vibrant and exciting social scene in the country”?!?!?!?</p>
<p>I don’t even know where to begin with this one - on what scale? Have you been out of New Haven? Perhaps Miami, Austin, New Orleans, any large public university in the country… I don’t get it. </p>
<p>“third wealthiest metropolitan region”?!?!?</p>
<p>Who has ever called New Haven a “metropolitan region”? I don’t know jack about Yale, but everyone I know who’s gone there (or goes there) has bemoaned the somewhat isolated, gritty city. A million people in an area a metropolitan region does not one make.</p>
<p>“by far the best college town on the east coast”</p>
<p>Boston, anybody?</p>
<p>“panhandlers become lifetime friends of students and even alumni”</p>
<p>Well, la dee frickin’ da! Nirvana does exist! These lifetime friends must get tired of having to press their suits for all those wedding invitations! Are they expected to bring the beer to watch the game on Sunday, or because they’re homeless and broke are they let off the hook? </p>
<p>I don’t know, posterX. You seem to be trying to validate some insecurity within yourself to prop up an institution and city with which you are associated as the greatest the world has ever known. You’ve drunk some Kool Aid and have lost all perspective of reality. I’m not saying anything bad about Yale here - it’s an incredible institution, but you’re trying to turn it into shangri la.</p>
<p>I’ve spent a lot of time in all those cities and on those campuses, applejack, including New Orleans before it was devastated. Boston is a good college town if you like $40 cab fares at night, enjoy long subway rides and have a lot of money to go out (and, because of the size of the city, want to spend your time with people just like yourself); New Haven is a better college town overall, as student life for the 50,000 students in the area is centered right downtown. For non-Yalies, fleets of university-sponsored shuttle buses run every 10 minutes to downtown from the other campuses a couple miles away, and are packed throughout the week. The definition of metropolitan area is what everyone uses as the definition of a city, and comes from the U.S. Census Bureau; for example see [METROPOLITAN</a> AREA PERSONAL INCOME AND PER CAPITA PERSONAL INCOME: 2001](<a href=“http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/lapi/2003/mpi0503.htm]METROPOLITAN”>http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/lapi/2003/mpi0503.htm) Even an alternate definition of the urban area using MSAs, which looks at just New Haven (and not other residential areas, even ones that are just a 15 minute drive from the city center), would place New Haven among the 10% of wealthiest cities in the United States. I’m sorry that your old stereotypes don’t conform with reality, but there is a reason why there are more Zagat top-rated restaurants in New Haven than in any other city in Connecticut.</p>
<p>Yes, maybe 4 or 5 places like Boulder, Austin and Madison give New Haven a run for its money in terms of social scene, but all are pretty fabulous, and I would personally give New Haven an edge because of its proximity to other interesting places that aren’t cornfields.</p>
<p>“New Haven among the 10% of wealthiest cities in the United States.”</p>
<p>So what? I grew up in one of those extremely wealthy areas. It was bland, boring, homogenous, auto-dependent, and nowhere I’d ever choose to call home. I’m not saying that’s what New Haven is. I’m just saying being wealthy does not a great city make.</p>
<p>Obviously, since you only responded to one technical point on statistical areas, I will assume you are beginning the process of returning from atop your cloud. I wish you well in your journey.</p>
<p>Also - I just moved to Boston last year. While I have plenty of bad things I could say about this city, I’ve never paid anywhere near $40 for a cab ride. You’re very hyperbolic.</p>
<p>Well, let’s keep this thread on topic, applejack.</p>
<p>You know, posterx, sometimes I think you’re a spy sent from Harvard to infiltrate the board and turn people suspicious on just how good the Y is - Yale is awesome, but when you get a poster that much too vehemently tries to turn even it’s faults into paradise features, people might start wondering whether ALL of Yale’s awesomeness isn’t just hyped up. </p>
<p>I mean, I appreciate you sticking up for the Y and all that, but I wonder if maybe you aren’t doing more harm than good.</p>
<p>Hmm, paradise features, that’s a good way to put it. Wouldn’t you say that at least 50% of Yalies think that they are basically in heaven when they are there?</p>
<p>…and at least 50% of Cornellians think that they are basically in heaven when they are in Ithaca. </p>
<p>I’m glad you’ve found the perfect place for yourself. That’s important.</p>
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<p>Oh my god… who believes New Haven is better than BOSTON/CAMBRIDGE? Nobody I know, including current Yalies, former Yalies, and prospective future yalies (me and others). This is the most tired joke in the book.</p>
<p>Amb3r,</p>
<p>Personally, I would take a job paying $100K in New Haven/NYC over a job paying $300K in Boston any day of the week. The New York City-New Haven region (and those cities individually, which are very close to one another) are orders of magnitude more interesting and dynamic places than Boston. Plus, NY area has better weather.</p>
<p>Boston looks like a small village in the outback when compared to a global megalopolis like New York City. I think it is just plain boring. Honestly, there’s not even a way you can really begin to compare the two – I should know, I’ve lived in each area for more than 10 years.</p>
<p>Plus, downtown New Haven itself is a better college town than any part of Boston, because students aren’t drawn miles away from the campus, and can therefore focus a bit more on meeting new friends and interacting with the 1000s of other students, rather than trying to go off in little cliques of 6 people to some bar that’s 40 minutes away by subway. If students do want to leave campus, I would submit that it is approximately 8,500 times more exciting to take a day trip on the MTA commuter train to Manhattan or Brooklyn (and more even to Greenwich CT) than it is to take a day trip to some outdoor suburban-style, fake-history mall-park in downtown Boston or the disneyfied North End or The Mall at Chestnut Hill. </p>
<p>Large cities are not ideal college towns (and being right in the middle of a huge city is even worse) because they produce severe isolation and divisions among the student body. They also tend to be too expensive. It’s much better to be in an awesome college town in its own right, but with easy access to other places that are incredibly interesting.</p>
<p>I believe New Haven is better than Boston/Cambridge if you’re someone who wants a really vibrant on-campus social life. New Haven vs. Boston as an adult or as a tourist? Boston, definitely. I know my group of friends and many other alums and current undergrads I’ve talked to prefer New Haven to a larger city with more going on off-campus because it means that that the parties and other social activites on campus rock. It also means you meet more students because you’re all on campus together instead of off in your little group in the big city. It’s not just PosterX being the world’s biggest Yale fan. Other people genuinely believe New Haven is a better college town for people looking for a certain type of college social scene.</p>
<p>^^^I think that’s a good distinction. I completely endorse the small college town experience as I had it myself, but my girlfriend grew up in a small city with a university and was thirsty for the growth and experience that comes from immersion in a big city like Boston / Cambridge. Much can come from that experience, as well. </p>
<p>I think it depends on the person. Obviously, some people love their experience at Columbia and NYU and other people love Oberlin and Yale. I just wish posterX would allow others the right to experience somewhere that may be their own nirvana without having to denegrate anything different from his/her own experience.</p>
<p>Reading Posterx’s post makes me repulsed at Yale. Are all Yale students or wanna-be-students this fervidly in love with Yale that they exude arrogance and haughty elitism? I mean, the subjective claims you asserted, although valid, goes against seemingly every established conception of Yale. It is a great school and I did apply, but let’s be real here; no college is inherently better than all others. I think you are one of a very small group that would actually contend that New Haven is better than Boston. Heck, many Yale fanatics and alumni would be reluctant and would concede that Yale’s surroundings is one of its drawbacks.
All of your contentions lack much substance and is more of a way to raise yourself up while putting others down than trying to convince students to consider Yale. Yale is a top-tier school; that goes without saying. But it’s also important to note its shortcomings and possible improvements as well. Nothing can be perfect, as is the case in your flawed rhetoric.</p>