For Yale, I interviewed Emma! Her story is so inspiring and surprised me! I had a great time knowing her more! Thank you, Emma, for taking the time to respond to me! If you have any questions and want to directly contact her, her email will be @emma.rutan@yale.edu.
Thank you Emma!
How would you describe the workload? Do students study at home during the weekends or go out and relax with their friends?
"Your workload at Yale will vary depending on what your major is and what classes you like to take. I can really only speak to my experience with full confidence. As a psych major and member of the global health studies program, I find that work is really manageable. A big difference between high school and college is that you’ll spend much less time in the classroom and thus more time working outside of the classroom getting assignments and projects done. I really like the freedom of college. I get to plan when I do my work and where. So for me, mapping out when I do what work on my calendar and going to my favorite coffee shop to study makes me most productive, making my workload manageable. My peers and I do a mix of studying and hanging out on the weekends. People will spend the mornings and afternoons of their weekends either studying or catching up on extracurriculars And reward themselves for doing the work at night by seeing friends! Finding the balance takes a bit of time, but once you get into your groove, you feel great!"
Personally, would you recommend morning or night classes?
"At Yale, students have the unique opportunity to test out classes for the first couple weeks of each semester, we call this “shopping period.” Classes can start any time between 8:25am and 7pm! I like to get my classes out of the way in the morning so I wake up and get started early. If you get out of class at 1, you have the rest of your day to do work, chill, and go to your extracurriculars. Sometimes, the classes you want to take meet at weird times (two of my classes are 3:30pm-5:20pm and 3pm-4:50pm this semester), so if you really want to take a certain class, you’ll have to prioritize course material over meeting time. I avoid night time classes so I can go to my club meetings!"
What do you think makes Yale unique?
"Yale is special because it is so community oriented. I was really nervous arriving at Yale my first year because I’m a pretty average girl. I was worried my classmates would be competitive and that I wouldn’t fit in with all of the “genius elite” people. I feel like a lot of people end up not applying because they think that stereotype holds true. I thought it was! I’m glad that I was so wrong. The people at Yale are so genuinely kind and helpful. Everyone I’ve crossed paths with has offered to help me in some way and done so with compassion and interest in my well-being/progress. The people I find myself surrounded by are humble and team-oriented. I feel like the collaborative, warm community at Yale is like none other and I’m so grateful that I get to be a part of it."
What was your reaction when you opened your acceptance letter?
"I was actually deferred from Yale early action. Everyone had told me that a deferral basically meant “no,” so I was devastated. Yale was my dream school. When the spring decision date rolled around, I heard from a few schools on the same day. The college process was more difficult for me than I had anticipated, I received four “no’s” before getting any “yes’s.” I opened a letter from one school and got rejected, so I opened my letter from Yale thinking it was an obvious “no.” When the Eli Yale song started playing, I was in absolute disbelief. I actually collapsed on the floor of my school lobby! I started crying and couldn’t control myself. My lifelong dream had come true after I was so sure that it had already been made impossible for it to happen. I called my parents when I got home, actually tried to trick them(!), and we celebrated together. It took a village to raise me and get me into my dream school, so I felt immense gratitude for my parents and the adults that believed in me from the beginning. Regardless of where you end up, please take time to thank you people that supported you and made you."