The visit day was a big help just to be there. My impressions were that everyone is very friendly, and the academic environment is set up that classmates work together and help each other out instead of being competitive. Every single current student I met there was impressive, and insightful and went out of their way to be helpful.
The professors, too, were fabulous, and incredibly engaging. One professor in particular that I was hoping to speak to even started advising me on certain courses I could take and when based on what I want to do, and this was just on our lunch break.
It sounded like all the students are really self motivated and have created some incredible extracurriculars. One of the main points that they were trying to drive home is that if you want to do something, be it an internship abroad, start a new student organization, start a research project (even if a professor at SPH isn't doing that research), you can do it at Yale, and you will have a lot of support.
Also, because SPH is so small they make it a point to have events with other schools, and with the opportunity to take classes at the other schools there are also many opportunities to get out of the sph bubble (which many of the students described as a family) and meet other grad students. And like it was said above you can take classes at any other school, and that is literally at any other school, as long as you can make a case for why it is relevant. A student I met, in the Epi. of Microbial Disease division, took a film class (the professor was an oscar winner!) and his thesis is going to be a film.
The ladies at career services are great, and apparently have a mandatory meeting with everyone at the beginning of the year so they can get to know each student, and then they often send emails with events, internships and job postings that relate to each person's interests. During their presentations they were recalling the specific details of students' interests who had already graduated.
Yale's campus is incredibly beautiful, the architecture was amazing. I had to restrain myself from remarking out loud when we visited some of the libraries.
Sorry that was long. Those were my impressions, and just to be realistic there are things I don't like and mainly that would be living in New Haven. Some of the students mentioned that they came in expecting to hate it (particularly people coming from cities) and they really don't, so I imagine that will happen to me, but as of right now, not pumped about it. But Yale brings amazing events, and a lot of extracurricular activities allow students to get involved in making a difference in the New Haven community, so that can be something really positive. Alright that's enough from me.
I actually found the admitted students day to be extraordinarily helpful and agree with the impressions that envepi had. I have a lot of thoughts floating around regarding my impressions and also want to respond to some things that others have said. I knew that I wanted to get a feel for the public health campus, explore the main campus, etc and figured that it would be pretty hard to do so in just one day. Realistically speaking, when you have an admitted students day, it is pretty difficult to jam in everything that a potential student could possibly want to see since different individuals have different priorities regarding what they want the students/administrators to cover and what the prospective student feels like they can do on their own. For example, regarding the financial aid comments: In my opinion, it is often best to discuss these sorts of things on a case by case basis. Different individuals are coming from different situations and I think that when it comes to issues like money, it is often best to discuss these things with individuals rather than in a very public forum. Students on a panel shouldn't feel obligated to share the details of their specific monetary situation in front of so many random people in my opinion. However, several of the individuals on the panel did address the issue to some extent, saying that they have on campus jobs. One said he has been able to make a significant amount of money in the past semester by taking part in some of the research studies at the different graduate schools. A number of students are research assistants or have separate jobs. I just think that when things involve money, it is often best to have private discussions about it since things are on a case by case basis and each situation is unique.
Perhaps, it was the particular division I am in, but I was rather impressed by the current students and the faculty members throughout the day. The faculty asked us to introduce ourselves, our specific area of interest if we had one already, and where we hailed from. They then introduced themselves (there were perhaps 7 or 8 faculty members there) and their research interests/classes that they taught. The bulk of the time was spent answering our individual questions. These questions ranged from clarifications about the divisional requirements to each of entering the workforce, to the success of students who wanted to enter PhD programs, MD programs, and JD programs, and to the research opportunities available for students on campus (my division's faculty leaders gave us a number of specifics on this). Each faculty member was clearly an expert in their field. I disagree with the statement that it is mostly homegrown individuals on faculty. It seemed to me that a number of faculty members were from diverse institutions.
What impressed me throughout the day was that all of the faculty members and administrators talked very specifically about a number of students who they knew by name and were able to talk about their research and their careers. It was clear that they weren't just drawing from 8 people whose bios they had been given beforehand. They were talking about individuals who had been their students, RA's, community members, and colleagues in a certain sense. When people in our division (and in the group as a whole) asked detailed questions about the success of x,y,or z, members of the Yale community consistently demonstrated that they knew and cared about the work of their community members. This consistent ability to do so would be pretty impossible to feign.
Moreover, a number of faculty members throughout the day came up to other students and me. They introduced themselves to us, asked about our interests, told us about their lives, and had genuine conversations with us. I went to a small, very competitive liberal arts school that prizes itself and is recognized in a number of the rankings for having really amazing student-faculty interaction/relationships, but the level of collegial interaction and the level of interest that the faculty takes in the students blew me out of the water.
I want to respectfully disagree with some of the prior posters regarding the ability to take classes across campuses. The field of public health can be incredibly broad and I think that having the opportunity to take public health related classes in the other graduate schools and even higher-level Yale college classes only affords us the opportunity to experience how interdisciplinary our field is. Law, medicine, management, business, economics, etc all intersect with public health and will continue to do so as we move forward. In order to find effective and efficient solutions to the bigger problems we face and will face will require us to work with individuals in other fields. Taking advantage of classes that are interdisciplinary will only make us more effective as we continue in our academic and professional careers.
I agree that New Haven is not the best area. I live in a small beach town where it is fairly normal practice for people to be out walking their dogs at 9 or 10 at night. Something I won't be doing in New Haven. Something frankly that I wouldn't do in most other places in the world. From my discussions with friends who have lived in New Haven as well as the students on Friday, living in New Haven is similar in many ways to living in a big city. One should keep one's wits about them, make smart choices, and avoid certain areas. At nighttime going places with others for the most part makes sense. This was a major drawback for me and something that I certainly will be aware of and cognizant of.
Some other notes:
I was really impressed with the sense of camaraderie and community among the students and faculty members. I personally think that that is a good thing. It allows for the learning to continue outside the classroom. The ability to know other students in other divisions provides students with the ability to learn more about areas of public health outside their own expertise.
Moreover, the resources Yale has for its students are tremendous. Summer funding opportunities abound. And, I like the fact that if they don't have something (a program, a club, etc), you can start it and have all of the resources and support of YSPH at your back.
The students I spoke with were all doing amazing things. A number take more than the minimum 5 classes a semester, do research, are involved with volunteer clubs and groups or other societies. They seem to lead fairly balanced lives. That student who is in EMD whose thesis is a film is deferring his entrance to medical school (one of his choices is Harvard's Med School) while he screens his film for a year after he graduates. He is studying co-terminal infections of TB/HIV in migrant coal miners in South Africa and lived with them for two months. He wants to show their story through their words. And that is just one example of the research individuals are doing there.
Those are some initial thoughts. I'll probably have more as the thread goes on. I was far more impressed than I thought I would be and than I wanted to be by Yale. I did not encounter the Ivy snobbishness that one often hears about. I have actively resisted going to big name schools in the past just because they are big name. My preference is personal attention and an educational style that meshes with my own. For my undergraduate career, I declined the big name for exactly that reason. Whether Yale is the school for you depends on what you are looking for in an MPH. I went to the admitted students day with several major questions/things I needed answered. For me, YSPH seems to be the right place for me and will be a really good place for me to be before applying to PhD programs. For me, a major factor in my decision was that I don't want to be a number in a lecture hall. I want to be able to discuss and analyze and assess topics with my classmates. For that reason, I will be declining admission to other larger programs. Though I have some reservations about moving to New Haven (and also about East Coast winters), I know that I am excited to start in the fall.
Feel free to PM me if you wish with any questions. I apologize for writing so much!
