<p>Sad to hear entomom.</p>
<p>Bay: some colleges have dorm space allocated to their students that aren’t part of the res college building itself. For instance, McClellan hall in the Old Campus houses upper classmen from 3 other colleges. I lived there two years as my college was nearby JE and it was never an issue to just hike over to the dining hall. There are other bldgs similar to McClellan. I believe one is near TD/Silliman as well.</p>
<p>^^Parents just got an e-mail from the Dean. So sad and so scary.</p>
<p>Bay – Here’s a 2009 article from the YDN about annex housing. Sounds like the preference is to annex students en masse in a dorm, but when things are tight, small numbers of annexed students (those with the worst lottery numbers) are assigned to University-owned apartments. [Yale</a> Daily News - Juniors annexed to apartments](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2009/04/07/juniors-annexed-to-apartments/]Yale”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2009/04/07/juniors-annexed-to-apartments/)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Jumped from the Empire State Building. Sad.</p>
<p>Let us all join in expressing our heartfelt sorrow to the family of this young man. I can’t begin to imagine the pain they must be feeling. We have all been blessed with talented, accomplished children - but they are also children who place a lot of pressure on themselves and are as vulnerable as any young person. I know today this family has been in my heart and prayers. May they somehow find peace.</p>
<p>Thank you worknprogress. So well said. I wept outloud today. A young man lost, I can’t bear to look at his picture again. His poor sister and parents.</p>
<p>worknprogress, thank you for voicing so eloquently what i think we are all feeling.</p>
<p>Worknprogress-you are so right and said it so well.</p>
<p>My heart goes out to his family, and also to his classmates, and fellow students in Berkeley College.</p>
<p>I can’t begin to imagine it. Sad for all. My prayers with the young man’s family and friends in hopes for some consolation in this loss.</p>
<p>D was a good friend of this young man and is very close to his sister. How tragic. My heart goes out to his family. . . I can’t imagine. . .It has been a difficult year for Yale.</p>
<p>On the YDN site today I listened to the slide show of the vigil last night for the young man. I couldn’t help but weep. The Berkeley dean and master, the young man’s sister and friends all spoke with such eloquence and heart. A moving sight to see a community gathered to give and receive some comfort amidst their shared pain and shock. The campus certainly has had its share of loss this year. </p>
<p>Grief from suicide is unique - my heart goes out to his family and friends.</p>
<p>This is my first post…decided to join in as my D is agonizing over this decision. She was accepted to Yale SCEA and we(and she) love Yale ever since our visit there last year. When Harvard and Princeton came through, we are going through the inevitable questions and comparisons. Appreciate any help on this. Have you been in a similar situation and what made you decide on Yale? Are the kids really as happy and well-supported at Yale as what we have heard? We realize how fortunate we are to be in this situation…she is planning on doing the admit event for all three to get first hand experience…By the way, she plans to major in engineering…appreciate if you could share your thoughts and experience…</p>
<p>My son was in the same situation and chose Yale. It’s an enviable position to be in, but not an easy decision to make. After weighing the academic and extracurricular opportunities in excruciating detail, it came down to a question of campus culture for my son. After attending admitted students events at both schools, he concluded that Yale would be a better cultural fit for him. He is now an extremely happy freshman there, and very well supported. He is looking forward to an incredible summer experience in one of the sciences, which one of his professors helped him arrange. You can PM me if you’d like details about the academic support he has received or what went into the Y vs. H decision. (He was able to eliminate Princeton from consideration relatively easily based on its suburban/exurban location.) </p>
<p>Going to the admitted student events may help your D crystallize her thinking. She knows much more about herself than she did when she visited last year.</p>
<p>Aspenmom - same wonderful dilemma for DD a couple of years ago. Looking back, I think she made a good decision for herself, but honestly I don’t think you can make a wrong decision when you are talking about schools with a 97-98% retention rate. We can analyze the differences all day, but kids at all three schools flourish. So - she really can’t go wrong. </p>
<p>Having said that, for my DD it came down to the way kids seemed to mingle and reach out to one another. The EC’s at Yale are amazing and everyone wants new students to join their group. When your D attends Bulldog Days, keep in mind that all of these activities are student run, by students who are attending classes. There is something going on all the time, but it gives you an idea of how passionate the students are about anything they are involved in. </p>
<p>Enjoy this time and relax - whatever she choses will be great.</p>
<p>Echoing what others have said. DD was in a similar situation last year, although she did not apply to Princeton because she knew she did not want to live that far from urban life. And I’ll admit that I was personally biased toward Harvard because I know Boston/Cambridge quite well, have family there, and travel to Cambridge from where we live is quicker than to New Haven. Despite all this, the decision was hers. DD was won over by Yale’s warm welcome, that is, its collegiality, sheer boisterousness. (I add, here, that she doesn’t use alcohol, that what I mean by boisterous is that the Yale students she met at admitted students events were happy, well-rounded, interested in the world.) She went to various other admitted students events at other schools. </p>
<p>Without engaging in any Harvard bashing, I’ll just say that Yale did a far better job of presenting itself as an attractive undergraduate experience to her, and generally speaking, to me. That came out in the difference between the two campus tours and in the SCEA policy. What was probably the deciding factor for her came during her attending the admitted students days. </p>
<p>So far Yale has been terrific. Her classes really sound first rate and she has had wonderful opportunities to explore interests outside of classes, too. She’ll be doing paid political organizing this summer with a group started by Yale Alums.</p>
<p>Academically the top schools are quite close to one another. So the “feel” and “fit” of the school for undergrad students wind up mattering quite a bit.</p>
<p>If I may add something to the previous 3 replies to aspenmom’s question about deciding on Yale or not. I’m an alum who didn’t apply to either H or P but to some other Ivies. What originally attracted me to Yale was the raw enthusiasm I saw in a presentation by three then-current undergrads who were home for Thnxgiving break. After that one session, I applied to Yale sight-unseen (I never investigated Y previously) – their impression was so deeply felt by me (what were they putting into the water?). During my senior year Winter break (late Feb), I travelled by myself to visit the Ivies I had applied – New Haven being my last stop. All were great – but the same boisterousness and sheer happiness of the Yalies was several steps beyond all the other Ivy schools I visited. Whenever I was introduced as a HS applicant, the Yalies took time to introduce themselves, share a bit about themselves and genuinely wished me the best of luck with my results. This was uniform from my host that evening to his suitemates to people where ever I met. I didn’t go on the tour but just meandered around campus and to some classes.</p>
<p>Once I matriculated, the entirety of Yale enthusiasm was mine to behold as a participant rather than an outside observer. I must say I’ve been infected ever since. In my obviously biased opinion, I don’t see the fiery loyalty to my Ivy alma mater in other Ivy alums. What was in that water? I dunno but its effects are still with me today.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>While I agree with everything else you and the previous posters have written, I do have to quibble with this. In my experience as a Princeton alum, nothing beats our loyalty to Old Nassau. I believe our giving is the highest, percentage-wise, of any university ([Alumni</a> Giving Rate](<a href=“http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/peers/current/research_intensive/alumgiv.htm]Alumni”>http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/peers/current/research_intensive/alumgiv.htm)) and our Reunions are 3-day extravaganzas to which every alum is invited every year. We even love the place so much that we don’t mind parading through campus dressed up in really ugly orange and black jackets. :)</p>
<p>That said, the campus culture of Yale is indeed more vibrant and, IMO, more intellectually exciting than that of Princeton. I can’t speak to Harvard, except to say that when D was deciding between the two to apply SCEA (back when Harvard still had that option), she visited Y and H twice and decided definitively on Yale, for all the reasons detailed above.</p>
<p>Booklady - as a mere observer, there IS something about the alums from Princeton. When D was accepted by Princeton, the local alums had a get together for students at one of their homes and believe me, this get together made it tougher to choose Yale. She was so impressed with how they were connected with one another, although they ranged in age from 30’s to 70’s.</p>
<p>Do you think because of their ties to their Residential Colleges, Yalies are less likely to seek out other grads in their hometowns?</p>
<p>In my experience, the fiery loyalty of Princeton alumni to their alma mater makes us Yalies look like . . . I dunno, emotionally distant relativists? They are Bhut Jolokia peppers to our Cayennes. Anyway, those Princeton Tigers take their love of alma mater seriously. (Dartmouth alumni, too.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t know. I do know that Princeton does an unbelievably good job of passing on the school’s traditions and ethos of alumni loyalty to its undergrads. In one contrast to Yale, our reunions take place before the seniors have graduated, so they are part of the whole reunion experience, notably the parade of alums through campus known as the P-rade. They literally watch all the older classes pass before them, being cheered on, until they join the group at the end. It’s an incredibly powerful bonding experience. [Princeton</a> Reunions](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princeton_Reunions]Princeton”>Princeton Reunions - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, somebody in Development is missing the boat!!!</p>
<p>DD worked a reunion last year and she was really touched by the returning Alums. I can see how the P-rade would be very moving and create a sense of commitment to the college.</p>
<p>I am impressed with the work of the alums from Yale through the Bulldog Across America (as well as in other countries). What an awesome way to help undergrads find meaningful internships and have a great living experience with other students. I think the sites vary, but at some of the cities, the program offers a lot of great experiences in addition to the actual internship.</p>