New Haven, CT
Admission Difficulty
Very Hard
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Reviews 832 total reviews with an average rating of 3.9

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College Freshman

Off-Campus Housing: I don't know much about off-campus housing and don't know anyone who lives off-campus.

1 person found this useful Report
4 College Freshman

Diversity: It is very open to all sexual orientations, also very good will all races, but not a very friendly place for conservatives.

3 College Freshman

Greek Life: The residential college system works kind of like a Greek system already.

4 College Freshman

Health & Safety: The quality of care is good but it's a far walk from campus, especially in an emergency.

1 person found this useful Report
5 College Freshman

Scholarships: Yale scholarships made this kind of education cheaper than a state school for me.

1 person found this useful Report
4 College Freshman

Majors: The application for Global Affairs is sophomore year, so you can explore the gateway classes before committing to the major.

1 person found this useful Report
College Freshman

Majors: I haven't been accepted into my program yet, I have to wait for sophomore year.

1 person found this useful Report
4 College Freshman

Computers: We even got free iPads for one of my classes.

3 College Freshman

Off-Campus Dining: Good variety, can be very cheap or very expensive.

1 person found this useful Report
4 College Freshman

Nightlife: Very open and welcoming to all.

2 College Freshman

Parking: Hard to find parking near campus.

2 College Freshman

Weather: Cold, rainy, humid and mehhh....

4 College Freshman

Athletics: Intramural hockey can get pretty intense, and the rivalry games (Harvard) are always so much fun!

2 College Freshman


3 Recent Alumnus

Scholarships: It's need based, but when they count your assets, they include things like your house, rather than just resources you can actually use to pay tuition. So it's very generous, but middle class families especially still end up with loans.

1 person found this useful Report
4 Recent Alumnus

Overall Experience: One time, I got to hold a human brain. It was an extremely profound experience.


5 Recent Alumnus

Health & Safety: The campus is very secure, especially since you can cut through courtyards that only students can access.

3 Recent Alumnus

Computers: The quality of the labs depends on which labs you are using. The internet is pretty slow--probably a bandwidth thing because it especially sucks for streaming. Printing is really easy. It's not free, but it's very cheap.

1 person found this useful Report
5 Recent Alumnus

Guys & Girls: They're all just people in the student body. The student body as a whole is by and large quite wonderful.

5 Recent Alumnus

Campus Housing: The residential college system is amazing. It really gives you a sense of having a family within the larger context of the university. Some of my best friends, the ones I still keep in touch with, are people who were in my college with me. You get, close, and you value the community. Your college Master hosts Master's Teas and other events to enrich the intellectual and recreational life of the community. Your college Dean is your academic adviser, and their office is in the same space as your dorm, so finding help and guidance is really easy.

Each college has its own dining hall, library, gym, laundry, buttery (late night delicious, greasy food (burgers, cheese fries) counter run by students), TV room, kitchen, game room, study space and other amenities. Each college also has at least one grassy courtyard, where you can play frisbee or relax in the sun. Everything you ever really need is right there. In bad weather, you can get anywhere through the basement and skip going outside at all.

Most of the colleges are located close to the post office, the good restaurants, and the biggest classroom buildings. Some are further away than others; all of them are far away from all the science buildings. (Except the two new ones, but I don't know anything about what progress has been made with those.)

Each year, one of the colleges gets renovated, so they are quite up to date. The downside is that there are 12 (soon to be 14) colleges, so you might be in a college whose spaces and amenities are 12 years old. In perspective, that's not very old at all, and these facilities are still awesome, but they do pale in comparison with the super shiny new spaces in the most recently renovated ones.

3 Recent Alumnus

Athletics: There's definitely a lot of school spirit, but attendance of actual games is pretty sparse, unless we're playing a rival or are in contention for a championship. The Harvard-Yale Game (football) is one of the hugest, most important events of the year, and is always a lot of fun to attend. Lots of people go the Yale-Princeton game as well. Since the hockey team's been doing so well, I believe there has been high turnout at a lot of those games.

Otherwise, people follow Yale sports, but I don't think people go to a lot of the games/competitions.

As for gym facilities, each residential college has its own small gym, and then Payne Whitney has one of the best gyms in the country. There are also fitness programs offered. Students who are interested in fitness have a lot of options in quality facilities.

4 Recent Alumnus

Drug Safety: There is a lot of access to alcohol and parties where drinking is a key feature of the event. Most people simply want to at least try it, due to stereotypes about what makes a fun college experience. If you don't want to, it's fine. If people try to get you do drink, it's because they want to help you have fun, not because you'll be considered uncool if you don't.

Yale has a really good policy on underage drinking. It's more or less don't ask, don't tell. Only freshmen have "freshman counselors," like RAs, who are supposed to monitor their alcohol use. But the highest priority is keeping kids safe, not enforcing punishments. This makes it so that students have no reservations about getting help for someone who's in trouble for fear of having the school call their parents, being suspended, etc.

People by and large watch out for each other, so if someone drinks too much or is in danger of being the target of a sexual predator, friends and even strangers will intervene on this person's behalf. The whole college climate is one of "we're all in this together." We take the "company of scholars and society of friends" thing pretty seriously.

I have no personal knowledge of the drug scene. It's not visible at all unless you seek it out. It definitely exists, but that's really all I know. Illegal drugs, for the most part, are more often used as study aids (i.e. something like coke or Adderall) than party drugs, as far as I know. This IS a genuine safety issue, but not one the school can do much about. It's 100% a person's own choice, not at all a peer-pressure influence.

Recent Alumnus

Off-Campus Housing: I never really lived off campus, so I only know what it's like based on friends' experiences.

3 Recent Alumnus

Diversity: People are so interested in learning about one another and their unique backgrounds and perspectives. On the flip side, everyone was very open and willing to gently correct ignorance, rather than getting angry. That was absolutely amazing.

The downside was that you still had phenomena like all the black students sitting together at lunch, rich students just continually not understanding that money was a significant barrier for some people.

And then there's the fact that a lot of students, faculty, and administrators are completely willing to let a culture of misogyny slide, and even cover for star athletes or renowned professors who harass or assault female students.

4 Recent Alumnus

Weather: There are sunny days and cloudy days and rainy days and snowy days, just like any other location. I give it a high rating because there are so many ways to take advantage of the sunny days. A walk down Broadway or Chapel, a stroll across the New Haven Green, a hike up East Rock, or simply lying lazily (or studiously) on Old Campus, Cross Campus, or in any of the courtyards. Lots of the colleges have swings or hammocks and patio furniture. The seasons are mostly beautiful--blowing leaves in the fall, first snow in the winter, flowering bulbs and tress in the spring, and shady trees in the summer. There are downsides, like when the snow gets dirty, but building igloos or jumping in leaf piles makes up for it. So I guess what I mean to say is that no matter what the bad days are like, you remember the good times you had in good weather long after you graduate, and the bad weather you mostly forget.


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Overall ExperienceWhat's This?

Rachel Glodo
Winter Park, FL
View all previous student authors

Yale is, in every sense of the word, an incredible place. Students love the faculty, the classes, and the opportunities, not only because they are among the best in the world, but because they are highly accessible and undergraduate-focused. Yale is a place where academic theory blossoms into reality and where experiences exist that can't be found anywhere else in the world. It is a great privilege for students to continually study under the most knowledgeable people in their fields, from Nobel Laureates to international statesmen. Even though the Yale experience can be rigorous and demanding, most students wouldn't trade their years here for anything.

Yale prepares its students to meet the world with energy and knowledge. Its liberal arts education teaches students to think, to analyze, to question, and to consider. Yale graduates can do nearly anything they want, from working with Goldman and Sachs to obtaining a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology. Essentially, Yale successfully prepares its students for the pursuit of their passions in any area of life.

What ultimately sets Yale apart is the people that comprise its community. Yalies (students, faculty, and staff) are dynamic, fascinating people who continually surprise each other with their passions, their opinions, and their enthusiasm. Every student has a unique story to tell and interests to pursue. Yale is amazing because it gathers these diverse and remarkable individuals together for the same ultimate purpose: to learn, to grow, to thrive, and to discover themselves.


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