A Coeval Connection

I finally got to visit Yale, one of the top three schools in the nation. When we arrived in a graffiti-enveloped city. This set my expectations a bit low for what was to come. My group and I got off of the train from our two hour train ride and immediately went to find something to eat. We got food from a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant that wasn't very good, but it was free, so I can't complain. 

Our group with Stephanie and Mike.

After that, I got the unique experience of attending a student forum. We walked into a white room with two chairs at the head of the room in front of an elaborate fireplace. There were no adults allowed in the room, so we were able to ask questions that mattered to us rather than the patents of the prospective students. One thing that I was pleased to discover was that Yale also has a shopping week to help select classes. It was also great to hear about the suite-style dorms on campus. The leaders of the forum, Stephanie and Mike, made sure that we understood that each dorm had a different personality and it would be hard to pinpoint an exact element found in each dorm. 

Maya Lin's Women's Table representing
the growing female population at Yale.

Soon, we moved on to an information session. The Yale students did a great job with producing a unique admissions video that you can check out here. While looking through the brochures, I noticed that the school provided a major in Ethics, Politics, and Economics which focuses on the philosophical side of politics. Another great aspect of having an education at Yale would be their promise to only require a tuition of 1%-2% of one's income if it's between $60,000 and $200,000 dollars annually or receive a free education if it's below $60,000.

My lobster ravioli dinner.

The third part of our trip was a tour. We were guided by Stephanie, one of our forum leaders. Yale has a very different look from the other ivy leagues we have visited. While on campus, I couldn't help but think that it would be the perfect place for a haunted house. Most of the buildings are very large and intricate with great gray bricks and tall libraries of granite.  We were able to ask our tour guide different questions about life at Yale and we got very sincere answers. After we finished up, she showed us to the bookstore and we got a bit of memorabilia. 

Flan desert with a churro chip

Or evening came to a close with a dinner at Pacífico. I sat in between Yasmin, a sociology major and Genevieve, a cognitive science and international relations major. I also sat across from Anthony who had a math major. Our entire table was filled with students this time around which made it a much more casual meeting than our previous outings. I got a strong sense of an honest quality from all of the Yale students that I met. They really seemed to be very honest about the workload, but they really stressed all of the positive benefits that outweigh this factor. One thing that I really appreciated from our table was Yasmin's passion for her field even though it's very common to hear that sociology is a useless major. Sociology is a field that I'm strongly considering,  but I feel like a lot of people say it will never lead to a fulfilling job and to hear her working towards her goals was really inspirational. Everyone was extremely friendly and we even had a couple alumni from my school district, WCCUSD.

Flowers in front of the dorms.

After today's visit, Yale went up to the top of a lot of our lists. I know that if I'm admitted to Yale, I wouldn't hesitate to accept their offer.