Yale College alums - your honest opinion please

[Anonymous]

My neighbor's kid, Yale fresh graduate, CS major, didn't land a job. He went back to get a MS degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Princeton alum like their school more than any other Ivy including Yale. Thousands attend Princeton reunions each year and they are unlike any other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I attended Yale in the mid-2000s, so 20ish years ago. I LOVED it. I actually didn't think it was particularly intense or competitive at all (and I did very well there). I was super involved in an extracurricular (and less involved in many others) and made life long friends. It set me on both my personal and professional paths and I was happy basically the entire time. I don't know what more you could ask for in a school. By the way, I know I sound like a massive booster, but... that was really my experience! I will say that I am a fairly optimistic/go-with-the-flow person and so this many have been my experience at many colleges. I was also academically very well prepared (just in the sense of my HS being excellent and both more competitive and intense than Yale), so that may affect how competitive or intense I found it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Princeton alum like their school more than any other Ivy including Yale. Thousands attend Princeton reunions each year and they are unlike any other.

I think Reunions are better and Princeton should be emulated on that front. I actually don't think alumni satisfaction is as high overall.

[Anonymous]

I'm an alum - have mixed feelings about my experience. One of my kids chose HPS instead and couldn't have been happier. My youngest has HPSM ranked higher on their dream list, but I think could be happy at Yale (not strongest for their academic area of interest)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I speak as a college counselor that just retired after 30+ years. Yes, Yale is a lovely place to spend 4 years and get an education, I have no doubt, but it is a nearly impossible admit.

In the last 10 years, I saw only 3 kids from my school get in and they were so unique and different that I remember each of them:
- white, UMC male who showed immense commitment and dedication to a specific public service cause over many, many years
- white, poor male, single parent home - his extracurriculars were working two low-paid jobs while helping take care of a younger sibling
- URM female that came into this country as a refugee with her family

All three were also excellent, high stats students. But my point is how can a great, hard working, high stats kid whose parents worked hard to provide him with a stable MC or UMC upbringing stand out against kids like this? That’s why I am saying that it is a crapshoot.

Meh, these are just anecdotes. You look at the socioeconomic data and realize that schools like Yale and its ilk admit mostly UMC and very wealthy people. The fact that they let a few poor kids in may throw dust in some people’s eyes but it does not change the big picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Different students are different. At any college, no 2 students will have identical experiences. The question for OP and DC is whether college X is the best fit for DC ?