Beware of Yale

[Anonymous]

I went to Yale in the early 90s right after Christian Prince was killed, which was truly a tragedy. I never was a victim of crime other than having a camera stolen that I stupidly left in an open mailbox in the entryway of my dorm, not understanding that was a bad idea. But no personal crime. I learned to be careful walking around an urban area, tried to walk with others at night, or at least be extremely careful in the rare instances I walked alone after dark. There were campus escorts who would walk with you or a bus. I did hear of some crime. Friends who stayed off campus over the summer heard gunshots at night, and I recall one account of a student who was robbed while walking during the day. Someone swept in on a bike and grabbed his bag. But no violent crime and that's literally all I can remember. And this was back in the 90s when New Haven was not very nice.

I've been back to campus a couple of times in the past few years and I have been struck by how much different the area feels. It is so much nicer, and feels so much safer than back in my day. Still, it's a city with all that that brings good and bad, ie there will be homeless people and there will always be some level of crime in a city. If an urban environment is for you, then Yale is awesome and New Haven has a lot to offer. If not, then there are plenty of other schools with different environments. I have one kid who would love an urban school and another who would not. No need to bash what's not right for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom grew up across the street from Yale. They moved out before the crack epidemic decimated NH in the 1980s. Just a few years ago they had the largest number of opiod overdoses in the park. The train station gets some sketchy people. I still have a lot of relatives in the area, some that were first responders. The stories they told about the crime in New Haven were harrowing.

But, I also have relatives that live in Baltimore and NYC currently. A niece and nephew at Hopkins. Crime in Baltimore is no joke either. Look at Galludet in DC recently.

This is a reflective of crime spiking in major US cities. San Fran is a cesspool.

IF my son got into Yale would I send him? Yes. Hopkins? Yes. But we are city people and grew up knowing the limitations and street smarts needed. As a teen/college student I didn't walk alone at night. I didn't jog in the dark, etc.

Kids from parts of the US or other countries that don't have high crime rates truly don't understand they can't do what they can do at home. I was always shocked to see young college girls jogging alone on the C&O towpath---down where it is very remote. Living in Georgetown I never did that. I had a running partner always or I stuck to busier streets-never trails.

My dad also taught me about not drinking from open containers or a drink handed to me back in the late s1980s--pre Bill Cosby. You need to educate your kids. Period.

And, for some, some of the urban campuses may not be the right place and that is perfectly understandable.

I was coming here to say this even Fairfax county has seen a spike in crime.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Yes, Yale sounds like a truly horrific place to me. Please don’t let your kids apply! The acceptance rate is too low already

+1

I wish nonsense like this would turn people away. Yale is my kid’s dream school!

To be honest, crime concerns and lack of STEM strength have turned people and away and pushed Yale to the bottom of HYPSM, and I’ve seen more than a few posters just using HPSM to refer to the best schools (HPSM are equally strong in humanities and STEM and have “the best of both worlds”).

Reality: no one says HPSM except trolls trying to boost lower Ivies.

I didn’t go to any of these schools, but I’m sick of the Yale, Columbia and UChicago bashing. It’s so stupid.

It should just be HS at this point anyway. They are great in every program across STEM, the humanities, and social sciences in a way the others just are not.
Yale still belongs with that 2nd group of YPM though. Remember that HYP is actually the OG group.

For undergrad, I’d pick Yale and Princeton any day over Harvard regardless of major. Have heard from enough Harvard College alums how much they have hated it. Can’t speak about Stanford.

I think just Princeton. Ever since I saw that video of a mob of Yale students attacking a professor for having the temerity to suggest students are responsible for their own Halloween costumes, I realized that Yale is basically Oberlin these days. Plus they don't have meaningful engineering or computer science programs. Yale really has no business sitting on top of the rankings. It's not 1955 anymore. They haven't kept up with undergrad STEM programs. And their students tend to be "social justice" warriors. I'd be disinclined to hire a recent Yale grad.

If you think this social justice thing is just happening at Yale, you are completely delusional. It is happening at all Ivy campuses, and I say that as the parent of two recent Penn and Cornell grads.

ALSO, I didn’t realise this but Yale does have a very strong conservative scene going on as well. I learned this from the kid of close friends who is a recent grad and was active with the Yale Political Union.

It just shows you that most people don’t know what the F they are talking about. They talk about schools they know nothing about as if they do.

I am a recent Princeton alum, and completely agree with the bolded statement. The social justice thing is happening across all the Ivies and I'd even say across all top schools on the East Coast. It is certainly happening at Princeton as well.

I just attended an NYC alumni event over the weekend and some of the older alums were complaining about how woke Princeton is and how they can't recognize it and would stop donating.

I loved Princeton, and would wholeheartedly recommend it but make no mistake - it's not any less social justice-y than Yale is.

Also, the fact that a Harvard and Princeton grad bothered posting on here to dispel some of the nonsense talked about Yale, one of our key rival schools, should alarm you about the level of nonsense written about certain schools by people who have no direct knowledge.

What this is telling me is that all you Ivy Leaguers just support each other.

The Ivy League is overrated and should be dismantled. My honest opinion.

You want to dismantle a sports league because…?

[Anonymous]

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I am quite sure that New Haven is much more dangerous than anywhere in New Zealand.

I was a professor at Yale and New Zealand. I was robbed at gunpoint in front of my Yale office. In New Zealand, the T.V. show "Cops" had an episode where the worst crime in the capital city Auckland was attempted drunk driving.

Subsequently, I saw the mob of students shrieking at professor Nicholas Christakis. His wife left the university at the end of the year, but there were no sanctions for the students. That confirmed my impression that professors are not safe there.

You just happened to be hanging out at Silliman? Okaaaay. And what exactly did you see that “confirmed your impression that professors are not safe there?” I would agree, though, that if you’re not up for having a passionate conversation with a diverse group of outspoken students regarding your own publicly expressed opinions, then Yale — and likely many top tier US schools — is probably not a good fit for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I was a professor at Yale and New Zealand. I was robbed at gunpoint in front of my Yale office.

Subsequently, I saw the mob of students shrieking at professor Nicholas Christakis.

You just happened to be hanging out at Silliman?

Videos of Jerelyn Luther and the mob yelling at professor Christakis are all over YouTube.

[Anonymous]

I just checked out the video. Not affiliated with Yale and wasn't aware of the incident. My god, the students are so entitled, so out of line, and so immature. These are the students that Yale accept?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Yikes!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/yale-police-first-students-beware-114317974.html

What kind of police force distributes flyers with the Grim Reaper on it!?

Trying to scare folks off from applying to Yale is not going to increase your kids chances.

To repeat (which is clear in the article if anyone would bother to read): the flyers were distributed by the police Union as a negotiation ploy. Not the police force

*1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just checked out the video. Not affiliated with Yale and wasn't aware of the incident. My god, the students are so entitled, so out of line, and so immature. These are the students that Yale accept?

Those students really did make Yale seem almost uniquely ridiculous with their noisy, disrespectful diatribe and attack on Christakis. I don’t assume after seeing that video that a Yale graduate has any more smarts than a typical UMBC or George Mason graduate, but I do assume they are likely to act far more entitled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just checked out the video. Not affiliated with Yale and wasn't aware of the incident. My god, the students are so entitled, so out of line, and so immature. These are the students that Yale accept?

Those students really did make Yale seem almost uniquely ridiculous with their noisy, disrespectful diatribe and attack on Christakis. I don’t assume after seeing that video that a Yale graduate has any more smarts than a typical UMBC or George Mason graduate, but I do assume they are likely to act far more entitled.

I have no connection with Yale. But that video really struck a nerve. I feel bad for the Christakis family.

Because someone suggested grown-ups don't need to tell Yale students what to wear on Halloween? And this is what Yale students go to war about?

Pathetic.

To all the Yale apologists here, c'mon No engineering. No computer science.
The Tiger Mom issues. The business school being a foreign certification program

It's a BS school. And New Haven sucks

Yale - Overacted

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just checked out the video. Not affiliated with Yale and wasn't aware of the incident. My god, the students are so entitled, so out of line, and so immature. These are the students that Yale accept?

Those students really did make Yale seem almost uniquely ridiculous with their noisy, disrespectful diatribe and attack on Christakis. I don’t assume after seeing that video that a Yale graduate has any more smarts than a typical UMBC or George Mason graduate, but I do assume they are likely to act far more entitled.

I have no connection with Yale. But that video really struck a nerve. I feel bad for the Christakis family.

Because someone suggested grown-ups don't need to tell Yale students what to wear on Halloween? And this is what Yale students go to war about?

Pathetic.

To all the Yale apologists here, c'mon No engineering. No computer science.
The Tiger Mom issues. The business school being a foreign certification program

It's a BS school. And New Haven sucks

Yale - Overacted

Overrated

[Anonymous]

You gotta be really desperate for prestige to put up with the crime & spoiled brat students.

[Anonymous]

Yale is attracting much better CS students though. A lot of this DCUM criticism is outdated since they threw $$ at the problem and have a lot of it. Their students have done well coding wise.
https://codesignal.com/university-ranking-report-2023

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just checked out the video. Not affiliated with Yale and wasn't aware of the incident. My god, the students are so entitled, so out of line, and so immature. These are the students that Yale accept?

Perhaps instead of criticising Yale, a school I am sure you have no connection with, you should spend some time working on your grammar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just checked out the video. Not affiliated with Yale and wasn't aware of the incident. My god, the students are so entitled, so out of line, and so immature. These are the students that Yale accept?

Not my experience at all after a few decades hiring and working with Yale grads. In fact, my firm hired 2 or 3 Yale grads for the current incoming class of 20.

I think you can find entitled students at every school, elite or non-elite. A colleague of mine complains about how entitled and immature U of Alabama kids are. But as far as elite college grads go, I have found the Yale kids, on average, to be less entitled than other elite school grads.

So everyone should really judge for themselves rather than let a few haters on an anonymous internet forum color one's perspective about the WHOLE student body of a university they have no personal experience with.

[Anonymous]

There was an article in The Atlantic yesterday by Rachel Shin about Yale clubs. If anyone with an account could post the text here, it would make for interesting discussion. It’s basically about how competitive it is to get into any activities there.