Yale University

Date: Sep 25 2006
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
It's a factory with good resources. Forget all but a handful of esoteric great classes (take NO intro courses, just read the textbooks), go sit in the library, take advantage of the visiting speakers, but don't expect the faculty to treat you like anything but an interruption of their research. (There are exceptions, but they're few and far between, and they usually don't make tenure) After you graduate you'll have that invisible Yale tattoo to display whenever anyone questions your intelligence. But the hardest part is getting in. The rest is a process of passing through blue banners with a Y on them and convincing yourself that this was worth the money. If you want a Yale education, buy the books they sell at the campus bookstore when classes start, and read them. Hang out on campus and go listen to the visiting speakers. Sneak into a few good lectures (Spence, for example), and there you have it. It's pure marketing hype, perpetuated by the people who will later give you a job because the name impresses them. Then you go to Europe, and your degree there will mean nothing. Good luck, kid.