Yale University

“I think I had it pretty easyJul 12 2005Economics
I think I had it pretty easy. This isn't really because I am any smarter than people that are here. Rather, it was luck and strategy. I had a chance to attend Exeter but I chose not to. I wanted to stay close to my hometown friends and frankly, I did not really care about the quality of my high school education. Unlike those smart, brilliant kids who went to competitive schools (private and public alike), I didn't have to worry about cut-throat competition. I did just enough to get an A or A-. Instead of filling my schedule with meaningless AP courses, I took an occasional art or music class with no GPA boost. While many of my peers skipped lunch to take another AP/Honors course, I had lunch and ran an a cappella group (ironically, I am not involved with the a cappella scene here, which is quite big). Granted I still ended up taking 8 AP courses and 9 AP exams, but I was definitely known as the slacker of the bunch. I think I was ranked 13 or 14 out of 500 when I graduated, but I was the only one to get an offer of admission from Yale or Harvard. I really think that this is because I was able to show character through my transcript. My essay was ok and my extracurricular activities were average. I had good test scores but at least three people in my high school class had near-perfect scores and higher ranks. Take a look at your transcript. Does it say something about you? Or is it just a compilation of difficult classes?
ACT: 35 SAT: 1600 Male

“Yale has alot of problemsJan 06 2005Physics
Yale has alot of problems. If not for its prestige, it wouldn't be nearly as high-ranked as it is in all of those college books, or at least it shouldn't be. Read on for the details.

1. The weather here is horrible. Blazing hot at the very beginning of the year and at end of the year exams, freezing cold from Nov.-March and the other months are so dreary/filled with rain that they too are awful. I read a study that indicates people's happiness are influenced by weather (i.e. better weather, happier person). No wonder everyone at Yale is rude/unhappy/unapproachable/etc.

2. The about 9/1 student teacher ratio in all the college books is basically a lie. While there may be that many teachers, I most of my class have been 40-60 students, just big enough so the teacher doesn't know your name or care if you're there. a close second for most common class size was 60+ students, and I hardly had any less than 30-40 kids. so, the stats they present about class size are misleading, and all the classes are much bigger than you may anticipate.

3. The TAs were very bad. Their English was bad (meaning difficult to understand) and made little effort in getting to know you personally or help you. The assignments that they grade (most assignments) are unfairly and seemingly arbitrarily graded.

4. Professors are too wrapped up in their own work to care about undergrads. Many are arrogant and unhelpful and all are self-absorbed. THERE IS NOT AN UNDERGRADUATE FOCUS IN THIS SCHOOL!! If you attempt to talk to them, they'll end up promoting their research and how 'awesome' they are and never get around to your question. many aren't that smart, as you find out when you take a class from a prof who just reads off notes from his computer...every class for the entire thing.

5. Grading here is often ridiculous. Classes may be graded by only a exam or two, both of which have a majority of questions as topics that were never covered. you don't have anywhere to turn for help. The comptetive (actually cut-throat) enviroment really wears you down. One kid I knew actually had all his notes and books stolen on time, several days before an exam. Despite his frantic attempts to borrow notes from others, nobody let him. He ending up failing the final and getting a D in the class. TAs can't grade, because they often don't even grasp English, and seemingly slap down a grade with no explanation (for written stuff). even if you go to them they won't explain it.

6. Despite so many libraries/books, good luck finding one because right after any assigned project several kids will just take out all books on the topic so other can't get them.

7. The social scene here is sad. EVERYONE is social-inept. people will stare at you wordlessly if you say hi to them for a minute before muttering (everyone here mumbles) something, because nobody speaks to each other here, especially to people they don't initially know. The girls here are the ugliest out of any college...period. But besides, everyone is too busy studying to ever relax or drink, or get with someone of the opposite gender. I know of several kids personally that graduated that have never even kissed a girl. Everyone here is unkempt (Yale sweatshirts are worn by everypne 24/7 and nobody bothers washing theirs), smells bad (nobody has heard of deodorant), is unattractive, and mumbles incoherently.

8. PEOPLE HERE ARE DUMB! You may be thinking, what? How can that be? But here, people have books smarts but literally no street smarts or social skills, which are more important kids of smarts, at least by me.

9. New Haven is awful. New Haven is dirty, too expensive, unfriendly, and worst of all, downright dangerous. About 3 out of 5 kids here get mugged. My roomate was robbed at knife-point. I was fortunate enough to not get mugged (my closest time was when I knew this guy right behind me was about to try so I started sprinting...not stopping until I got back to my room and locked the door. No wonder you don't see fat people in the college catologue). Plus, you can't leave New Haven for any decent city that's close. harvard has cambridge plus boston right nearly. Yale doesn't have that.

10. The food is tastless and cyclic, meaning that places won't really vary their serving day by day. Food is expensive, but has really bad quality. Sadly, nowhere in New Haven is there a decent place to eat that isn't too expensive, sketchy, or in a dangerous section (while every section is dangerous, several places are deadly).

11. The campus is overrated. While is may initially impress you, throughout the year parts of it aren't kept up, and parts tours will see are given lavish attention. The building don't have AC and their heating system are very bad.

12. You have to take 36 credits, unlike most colleges which have 30-32. Another reason why you never sleep. The core curriculum is often cumbersome and forced me to take classes I didn't want to take. The foreign language requirement, 4 semesters worth, was deadly to me especially. How I hate that.... Somewhere in Sophmore years you'll have a similar realization about how the glossy life at Yale isn't real, and that in reality it stinks.

13. 'Yale' on your resume doesn't help much. People who succeeded didn't do it because of Yale (i.e. the Bushs, Kerry, some Rockefellers, etc.) but because of who they were. Many of my peers had difficultly landing jobs (which i was rather happy about though, because most of them were self-absorbed and had never tasted failure). I couldn't land a job for over a year, and it wasn't even related to my major. at graduation, some of my friends and a bunch of other people were handing out their business cards like some students do...only it said their name and that they were unemployed. I was handed 4 of those cards for every real one, meaning that perhaps only 1 of 5 kids can immediately land a job.

14. Sporting events are sparsely attending except for several football and hockey games. Girls sports basically don't exist, to the common student. There is little school spirit generally. Its better to go to games to laugh at the cheerleaders, who are a joke, than to watch our sad teams be perptually defeated.

14. The housing system (residential colleges) is highly overrated at over-touted. Nobody even hangs out in the common rooms, so what's the purpose? plus, instead of being stuck with only 1 roomate who may or not be normal, you're stuck with several, and at least 1-3 of them aren't. So instead of taking you chances, you loses everytime. The rooms are small and stuffy to.

16. The price. What else needs to be said about this highly expensive, overrated education? I wasted my parent's money, period. Because of that waste, they have to work until they're 60 and then get by on what little they've saved.

17. Most people here are conformists to Yale, but claim they are liberal. Most people are liberal because their conforming to the majority of students than because they truly are liberal. ironic, isn't it?

So, please make your own decision about Yale. this is info I wish I had known as a high school student! I was once in your shoes, and so excited about attending Yale. I was proud and happy. Oh how life has changed...
ACT: 20 SAT: 600 Male

“I had many sleepless nights and very goodDec 30 2004PreMed and Medical
I had many sleepless nights and very good grades and recomendations. Yale may be the University you want to go to but it isn't the only one.
SAT: 1450 Female

“Stand outAug 06 2004Political Science
Stand out. Near perfect SAT scores, first-in-class rankings, heads of multiple clubs don't add up to much when you consider that almost everybody else who is applying have the same credentials. Be unique in your essay -- make the admissions officer reading it be able to distinguish you from all the other academically gifted students. And great references help -- get them from teachers whom you really know well, and can elaborate a great deal on why you're a great student.
ACT: 32 SAT: 1490 Male

“Passion and uniquenessJul 19 2004Economics
Passion and uniqueness. Also perceived intelligence, as demonstrated by standardized tests and grades. Don't be discouraged, though, if your test scores/grades are not super high. I don't believe in letting some lousy points getting in the way of what you want. Try your best.
Female