Yale University

Date: Nov 11 2004
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
Yale has been an absolutely fantastic experience so far. As a freshman, I found the transition to college remarkably easy—the housing system is excellent and the people here are enormously friendly. Every entering freshman is placed randomly in one of twelve residential colleges; freshmen from ten of these colleges live together on "Old Campus" for their first year. The Old Campus experience provides a warm and exciting atmosphere for freshman social life that makes settling in and having fun extremely easy. The residential college system itself is also wonderful—even the Old Campus frosh have complete access to the residential colleges' communities, dining halls, libraries, gyms, and other facilities. Between residential college activities, extracurricular groups, parties, and department-sponsored talks, there is always something exciting happening on campus. New Haven provides great cultural opportunities and restaurants, and is integrally related to Yale—which keeps students on/near campus most of the time and fosters a strong sense of community. Academically, I highly recommend the "Directed Studies" program for frosh interested in humanities. Directed Studies is a freshman program that reviews the Western tradition from Greeks to 20th century via three year-long courses (literature, philosophy, and history/politics.) The profs are absolutely fantastic and so dedicated to their students, subject area, and the program. Class discussions at Yale are especially interesting. As might be expected, intellectual life spans far beyond the classroom—but Yalies also know how to have fun on the weekends and are generally very well-rounded and interesting people. The energy of the students is phenomenal. Yale definitely has the strengths of both a large university and of a small college—the university provides an enormous amount of academic resources, support systems, and facilities, all with the goal of making Yale very community- and individual-focused.