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I know there are a few Yale alums on this thread.
If you went to Yale undergrad, what was your experience like - positive, mixed or negative? Would you recommend Yale for undergrad? I’m trying to narrow down the reaches on my kid’s list, he has too many, and I am looking to get more of an insider perspective. I am asking here because we don’t know any Yale alums in real life. |
| This is OP - I wanted to add that we did visit and spoke to current students about their experience. |
| Kind of broad to ask about experiences overall. Maybe a better approach is to choose X reaches that appeal most on location, strength in area of interest, size, and vibe. |
| Alums on this site attended Yale 2 or 3 decades ago, so not sure how relevant their experience would be to a kid in 2024. Your DC is better served reaching out to kids from their high school that currently attend Yale. High school CCO can help your DC with some names of people to contact. |
| I am not an alum, but my kid is a senior there now. I’ve spent a lot of time on campus and obviously know quite a bit about her experience as well as met plenty of her friends and classmates at this point. Happy to answer questions from that perspective if you have any. In short though, she has had a wonderful experience so far. |
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OP, I am an alum and I loved my time at Yale. It changed my life.
Would I recommend it? That would really depend on the kid. Yale is a VERY intense and competitive place. I think this is the case even more so today than when I attended more than two decades ago. It can be a heaven or hell experience depending on the kid. That said, in my 4 years there I recall only 2-3 classmates that did not like being at Yale. |
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My nephew attends Yale right now and loves it. He's just started his junior year.
Yale alumni like their school more than almost any other Ivy. Yale has the prestige of Harvard and Princeton while having rampant grade inflation and a strong sense of community. Yale has the housing system and doesn't have the elitist eating clubs or final clubs of Harvard and Princeton. There are secret societies, but they aren't nearly as important on campus as they were decades ago. In contrast, Columbia, Penn, Cornell, and Dartmouth are much more divisive places. |
What do you mean by divisive in the last sentence? In what way? |
| I know you did not ask this, but I think it is a big mistake to apply to Yale or any SCEA school if you are an unhooked, high stats kid from an urban area. Do not throw away an ED card. Find a school to ED to as that reach. |
Not the OP, but you have just described my kid. We're not in a financial (or emotional) position to commit to ED, so my kid will SCEA at Yale and fish for merit at other schools. Maybe not the most strategic play, but I'm ok with it. |
| I’m not the OP either - my kid also struggling with whether to do an REA / SCEA school or ED a school that is more like a 3rd choice |
| Why would your kid Ed to a school he or she isn’t sure they want to attend? Just do ea and rd and then make choices based on admissions. |
Well, because the inevitable SCEA Yale reject might have had a chance applying ED at, say, Dartmouth. Then you don’t get into any top schools RD — and end up at a Norteastern, if you are lucky. |
This was what we did. Kid was deferred SCEA and then later got in, and absolutely loves it. But kid also would have been okay with our in-state option. |
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I don’t believe in gaming for an ED who is your third choice bcs you don’t think you’ll get into HYP sea. Just do EA and RD then.
Dartmouth, Chicago etc are very specific schools |