In order to help parents of students in China better understand American universities, Deno International Education conducted an exclusive interview with G students studying at Yale University.
School Profile
Founded: 1701
Teacher-student ratio: 1:6
Location: New Haven, Connecticut
Yale University is recognized as one of the best private universities in the United States and the world
It is one of the eight members of the Ivy League, an established school in the northeast of the United States; the most important undergraduate education among the eight Ivy League universities; and one of the most influential top private universities in the United States
It is on a par with Harvard University and Princeton University, and has been competing for the top three positions in undergraduate and graduate schools in the United States for many years.
School features
1. Residential College
Yale University operates a "residential college" system similar to that of Oxford and Cambridge (Harry Potter's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is also home to four residential colleges). New students are randomly assigned to each residential college.
Yale initially had 12 residential colleges, and in 2017 added Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin colleges, bringing the total to 14. The two new colleges accommodate 800 students, increasing the yale undergraduate population from 5,400 to 6,200. In 2019, Yale admitted 2178 undergraduates, once again breaking the record.
Each boarding college has its own name, history, and emblem, and its own courtyard has various facilities such as dormitories, canteens, and libraries, and will hold special activities. Every college is a small community, everyone is very united, every student who lives on campus feels as comfortable as at home, and there are many good friends who live very happily. There are also sometimes sports events between colleges and colleges.
The conditions of different colleges are different, the old college facilities and accommodation conditions are relatively old, the latest Poly and Benjamin conditions are the best, and the facilities are very new. In addition to two new colleges and two other colleges, students from 10 colleges live in the old campus during their freshman year, and everyone lives together before moving into their sophomore school, with the aim of getting to know each other and having some additional social opportunities and activities.
There is a transfer between residential colleges, but most people actually like their own colleges after a year, they will not transfer, and the success rate of transferring to some of the more popular colleges is not very high.
2. "President's Cradle" and the Skeleton Society
Yale University is known as the "cradle of the president," and five of the Presidents of the United States are from Yale, including George W. Bush' George W. Bush. H· W. Bush (Bush Sr.), George W. Bush W. Bush (George W. Bush), and Bill Clinton. Yale has also produced more than 500 lawmakers, more than 60 cabinet members, 20 Supreme Court justices, and four ambassadors to China.
On the quiet Yale Campus, the Skeleton Club has a small Greek temple-like building with several narrow windows that are closed all year round, and the whole building is shrouded in deep mystery, and this humble building is the location of the most mysterious and powerful student association in the United States. It's never open to outsiders, it's always maintained its own maverick spooky color and elite style, and it has a chilling name called "Skull Club". The Skeleton Society has extremely mysterious admission rules, and what is even more daunting is its membership list, from which 3 U.S. presidents, 2 Supreme Court justices, and countless U.S. lawmakers and senior cabinet officials have emerged. After 172 years of multiplication, members of the Skeleton Society are almost everywhere, from the White House, Congress, Cabinet Departments, the Supreme Court, and even the CIA.
About the school environment and life
QWhat is New Haven? climate?
Yale University is located in New Haven, Connecticut, in the east of the United States, between the two major eastern coastal cities of New York and Boston, a two-hour drive to New York and three or four hours to Boston, which can take advantage of the resources of the two major cities and at the same time be quiet. Compared with schools in big cities, Yale has more tranquility and tranquility, less worldliness and hustle and bustle, and is an ideal "ivory tower" for learning.
New Haven has a humid continental climate and a humid subtropical climate, but is more forward-looking and is typical of the New York Metropolitan Area. The hottest month of the year, July, has an average maximum temperature of 28.1 °C and an average minimum temperature of 18.6 °C, while the coldest January has an average maximum of 3.2 °C and an average minimum of -5.4 °C.
Winter is relatively long, starting in November, it may still snow in April and May, and the other three seasons are similar to Beijing, and the spring and autumn days are beautiful.
Q Can I introduce the surrounding environment of the school?
Around the school, in addition to the big shopping malls, there are daily necessities (supermarkets, banks, barbershops, restaurants, etc.). Inside the city there is a territory that belongs to Yale, and there are buildings belonging to Yale in it. This is the scope of the student's general activity, called Yale Bubble. Except for the occasional time when you need to buy furniture and ask Uber to go farther away, the range of student activities is within ten or twenty minutes of walking. It's enough and interesting to do in this area, because the scenery is better and the restaurants in New Haven are abundant, so you can go for a walk or dinner outside the school when you have nothing to do.
Q What is the situation of the "Ezra Stiles" college where you live?
Ezra Stiles is relatively new to the college, and the canteen is one of the best in the school. Most of Yale's architecture is Gothic, while Ezra Stiles and another academy called Morse are more modern.
Sophomores can only live in a double room in the first year of moving to the boarding college, and then they have a better chance of getting a single room. There are two suites on the first floor of the accommodation building, each with three bedrooms, a living room, which houses six people and one bedroom for every two people. There is a public toilet on each floor. Some dormitories will also have their own bathrooms and the like, and each college and each dormitory is different.
QCommall facilities and areas?
The facilities are convenient, each college has its own canteen, library, laundry room, gym, common room (common space), game room (game room), buttery (late night canteen open from 10 to 1 pm), stadium, computer room, music practice room and so on. I also have a small theater at my academy, where school events are sometimes held, as well as dance practice rooms, band rooms, recording studios, and so on. Some colleges also have pottery rooms and other interesting places.
Q Dietary conditions?
The school has 15 canteens, 14 residential college canteens and a Jewish cultural center's own canteen. With the exception of the Jewish Cultural Center's canteen, the menu is basically the same for each meal every day, but the level of the canteen varies. Only some canteens offer hot breakfasts for breakfast, and lunch and dinner styles are more frequent but often repeated. The worse part is that you can't choose what to eat, the menu of each canteen is the same, and the chance of encountering what you don't like is quite large. There is also a small shop called Durfee's, and sometimes when lunch is not good or when there is no time to eat, it will go there to buy snacks for lunch.
About academics
Q What are the course requirements?
You must complete 36 credits before graduation, but everyone will basically exceed this score. There are about four or five classes per semester, and the more crazy gods may take six or seven classes.
The 36 credits can be divided into three 12 credits:
There are 12 credits similar to the compulsory courses of domestic universities, generally large courses, there are six different directions: including humanities, nature, science, language, writing, quantitative reasoning (mathematics, statistics, computers, etc.), each field to take 2 credits of courses, to achieve the purpose of general education.
The other 12 credits are required by the major, which means that a minimum of 12 credits of courses are taken within the framework of your major. Some majors may be a little more, such as 14 credits for natural science majors and 22 credits for engineering majors.
The remaining 12 credits are more casual, you can choose 12 credits of courses in other courses, you can also take the course of the second major. Many students will feel that if you go to two majors, some majors may exceed 12 credits, at this time, you have to make overall planning for which basic courses I want to take, and the rest of the courses are basically all professional courses, then the result is that there is no freedom to choose other courses.
Q Learning pressure?
In a more competitive environment, everyone's enthusiasm for learning is very high, and there will inevitably be some pressure, but there are many ways to decompress, such as club activities and so on. If the pressure is really big, the school also offers some resources, such as some psychological counseling, and a place called The good life center, which provides a more healing environment to decompress, and a dog, and there will be massage services in the mid-term and final season.
Q Learning environment?
There are many places to study, and there are many libraries in the school. The more famous Bass Library is the most frequented library for freshmen, and it is closer to the old campus where freshmen live. There are a lot of tables, chairs and books, but the environment is more depressing because it is underground, and sometimes it is noisy because there are many people. There is also Sterling, a landmark building of Yale, with a lot of collections, classrooms for classes, writing centers and other service centers, up to the upper floors can see a very beautiful scenery, there are few people around, suitable for meditation and study. The residential college's own library is also more visited, basically a studio space, which is basically a student of its own college, small in scale, and there will not be too many books in it. In addition to the library, some students will also choose to study in the coffee shop.
Extracurricular activities
QWhat are the club activities?
There are many clubs at Yale, and when new students enter the school, there is a unified recruitment activity that occupies an entire gymnasium. Some clubs have low acceptance rates, and competition for some clubs is more intense than for Yale. In particular, very professional or academic clubs, as well as some singing and dancing drama clubs, will go through layers of selection, which is something that was not known before entering the school. Many people sign up for a lot of clubs at the beginning of the semester, but the number of people who are actually admitted is very small. The school also has some clubs without thresholds, such as the largest dance club, or some interest clubs. The first two weeks of school are called rush weeks, and there are various club auditions, each with different requirements. There are also many clubs that hold some open activities, so even if one club does not join, you can participate in many club activities.
QInternational students and social life?
The phenomenon of international students not being integrated does not feel very obvious, and there is no phenomenon of Chinese grouping. There are many opportunities to socialize, and it is inevitable that there may be more common language with international students or Chinese, but it will not be able to group up or integrate into the life of American students. It is normal not to adapt to life and socially, and the way Americans socialize is very different, which may cause you to have many acquaintances who can say hello, but in many cases you will rarely have very close friends in the first year. But you don't have to feel stressed because of different ways of socializing.
Q School activities?
Every autumn there is a football game with Harvard, one year at Yale, one year at Harvard, which is a game that everyone is looking forward to. There will be a lot of activities around this weekend, such as collaborations and performances by Harvard and Yale corresponding clubs, and there will be various parties of all sizes in the school. Another event that everyone looks forward to every year is Spring Fling, a music festival held on Saturdays near the end of the spring semester, inviting well-known singers, bands or DJs to perform at the old campus. The performance will last all day, you can invite a classmate from outside the school to participate, and there will be many parties in the school.
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