Yale University Top Questions

YES. Of course, not for everybody. Everyone is competitive, though. And not everyone is smart.

Great school - check. Dangerous surroundings - based on personal experience, you'll be fine at night as long as you travel in groups. If you're a girl and it's 2am, of course it's not going to be a good idea to walk through New Haven Green by yourself, so just be smart about it.

Entirely true

In all 3 cases, I don't think these stereotypes are very accurate. while Yale is a very serious academic institution, there is a myriad of things outside the classroom that are readily available to students. Any extra-curricular activity that you could think of exists at Yale - and if for some reason it doesn't, Yale will help you start it. There are concerts, spanning all types of music both from student groups and professional groups, plays, and sporting events to attend and to participate. There's a healthy intra-mural sports program. There are plenty of student-organized dances and parties. Anything that you could want to do is available. And if all this isn't enough, New York City is a quick train ride away. Secondly, Yale's fantastic financial aid program ensures that anyone who can get in will not be kept from attending due to financial issues. So there are as many kids there getting substantial financial help from Yale as there are kids who's families completely pay their own way. In part because of this, Yale is a very diverse place with kids from all sorts of backgrounds. About the third stereotype I mentioned, I don't think that Yale is overwhelmingly liberal. I don't know the exact numbers of the split between liberals and conservatives, or any other political persuasion, and although I'm sure there are more liberals than anything else and it seems like they are more vocal and active, it is not overwhelmingly liberal; there's a large group of conservatives, both active and not.

Not at all. Even I, as in love with Yale as I was during the application process, didn't believe the line from admissions officers about legacy admits being just as good as all the rest- but to be honest, many of the brightest people I know here are legacies. That's what comes of having a well-educated family. There are a lot of awful overachievers here, "craven careerists" as my friends are wont to say, who do all the "right" things for all the wrong reasons- it's this sort of thing that prompts resume padding (even here in college), cheating on exams and papers, doing the bare minimum- worst of all, in my eyes, it absolutely stifles academic passion. But there are diamonds in the rough, true intellectuals, true students, devoted to their studies. Their presence here keeps me going.

The first, the one about Yalies thinking they're better than everyone else is not accurate in my experience. The second? Well, I suppose there is some truth to it... the kids I knew who went to Yale were often mopey and self-obsessed. Some of it comes from the location of course ... living in a drafty gothic castle in the middle of a ghetto does weird things to your psyche.

Yalies are certainly pretentious...but no more so than at any other Ivy League University. In many ways Yalies attempt to defy the standard stereotype by immersing themselves in the greater-New Haven area and engaging with the community via service.

That?s really not true, there?s probably more of that here than at other places but overall we?re just hard-working, smart, and talented.

There is snobbery, but it's not endless. And I can't find a George W clone anywhere!

Not at all. Maybe for like 0.000000001{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the population. The rest are remarkable normal, all things considered.