Day Four - Reflections on Yale
So, Happy Hour was fun. Donated by an alum, it's a time that students - and even professors - can get together at the end of each week and socialize. I just hopped in with a couple groups and had a blast debating Supreme Court decisions, philosophy, even Catholicism...
It's a funny story, actually. So what happened was I randomly sat down at a table and it happened to be the Yale gay community. (Apparently EVERYONE self-segregates. I mean, it's partly just that you want to hang out with the people you identify with. And if you're gay, you may want to date, and at Yale there is not much of a crowd to choose from.) But anyway, so I rapidly discover they're having a vigorous discussion of "what next?" in FAIR v. Rumsfeld, the decision that allowed military recruiting at law schools to be a requirement to receive federal funding. Naturally they were upset about it. I suggested that the court system was the wrong approach - since I agree with the decision in terms of the legal reasoning - and that what is truly needed is social change and direct attacks on the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. They agreed, for the most part. But when I asked, "How would Yale students view students who are in the military?" they were polite and receptive and said, "It's too small to not get along with anybody." But then they quickly referred me over to the "conservative students" table. (I heard it's cliquish there, and that was definitely obvious. But some people cross boundaries. You get assigned a Small Group of 15 students and bond closely with them, to the point that the really cool gay guy Nick was apparently good friends with the very Catholic (in an anti-gay sort of way) Sarah. Hmmm. Like they genuinely like each other, not they tolerate each other.
So anyway, I met Sarah and her friend Sean, and they - both being Catholic - were headed to Stations of the Cross at St. Mary's, which they invited me to. It was an interesting experience, as I'd never done that before. Even better, they invited me to an Irish pub afterwards and we discussed philosophy and Catholicism late into the night. Then Sean gave me a belated tour of the law school and took me to the library so I could do some homework. He introduced me to another fascinating conservative who told me about the Death Penalty class and eventually - after Sean left - helped me find a shuttle back to the hotel.
(Apparently the "safe streets until 4 am" thing is not at all true. There was a shooting on the block where my hotel was not two weeks before! Everyone was emphatic that I should not walk the three blocks to the hotel alone at midnight.)
It's too bad I'm not a big fan of New Haven and it's somewhat dangerous, because I really felt like Yale was the intellectual match for me. Every person I spoke with, I wanted to continue talking to for hours. I had so many questions and points to bring up and topics I thought would be fun to discuss. It's true, they are an odd crowd. Eccentric, I would say. Sean reads St. Thomas Aquinas and McIntyre and all sorts of Catholic theorists, ancient and contemporary, for fun and is full of wild random facts. I see why they didn't admit me right away, perhaps - it could be the reason they were all so interesting to me is that they are honestly more intellectually developed than I am. But anyway, I did feel comfortable there.
My main concern is size. It's both a plus and a minus. Small class size means you know everyone, you get individual attention from professors (or some of them), there are less Yale students in the world so they are more "select" or elite, however you want to look at it. Yet it also means, you know everyone, in that you may not be able to get away from them. You may be stuck in a social group you don't want to be in, or have few to no friends. You may have a hard time meeting people outside the law school, and certainly won't be able to find people outside of Yale.
All in all, though, I had a very, very good experience at Yale. It's much more policy-oriented, philosophical, and... interesting, in my opinion, than more career-focused "professional school" type law school experiences (i.e. Columbia). Now it is just a matter of whether I am accepted or not... I'd rather not get my hopes up if I'm going to be disappointed.
It's a funny story, actually. So what happened was I randomly sat down at a table and it happened to be the Yale gay community. (Apparently EVERYONE self-segregates. I mean, it's partly just that you want to hang out with the people you identify with. And if you're gay, you may want to date, and at Yale there is not much of a crowd to choose from.) But anyway, so I rapidly discover they're having a vigorous discussion of "what next?" in FAIR v. Rumsfeld, the decision that allowed military recruiting at law schools to be a requirement to receive federal funding. Naturally they were upset about it. I suggested that the court system was the wrong approach - since I agree with the decision in terms of the legal reasoning - and that what is truly needed is social change and direct attacks on the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. They agreed, for the most part. But when I asked, "How would Yale students view students who are in the military?" they were polite and receptive and said, "It's too small to not get along with anybody." But then they quickly referred me over to the "conservative students" table. (I heard it's cliquish there, and that was definitely obvious. But some people cross boundaries. You get assigned a Small Group of 15 students and bond closely with them, to the point that the really cool gay guy Nick was apparently good friends with the very Catholic (in an anti-gay sort of way) Sarah. Hmmm. Like they genuinely like each other, not they tolerate each other.
So anyway, I met Sarah and her friend Sean, and they - both being Catholic - were headed to Stations of the Cross at St. Mary's, which they invited me to. It was an interesting experience, as I'd never done that before. Even better, they invited me to an Irish pub afterwards and we discussed philosophy and Catholicism late into the night. Then Sean gave me a belated tour of the law school and took me to the library so I could do some homework. He introduced me to another fascinating conservative who told me about the Death Penalty class and eventually - after Sean left - helped me find a shuttle back to the hotel.
(Apparently the "safe streets until 4 am" thing is not at all true. There was a shooting on the block where my hotel was not two weeks before! Everyone was emphatic that I should not walk the three blocks to the hotel alone at midnight.)
It's too bad I'm not a big fan of New Haven and it's somewhat dangerous, because I really felt like Yale was the intellectual match for me. Every person I spoke with, I wanted to continue talking to for hours. I had so many questions and points to bring up and topics I thought would be fun to discuss. It's true, they are an odd crowd. Eccentric, I would say. Sean reads St. Thomas Aquinas and McIntyre and all sorts of Catholic theorists, ancient and contemporary, for fun and is full of wild random facts. I see why they didn't admit me right away, perhaps - it could be the reason they were all so interesting to me is that they are honestly more intellectually developed than I am. But anyway, I did feel comfortable there.
My main concern is size. It's both a plus and a minus. Small class size means you know everyone, you get individual attention from professors (or some of them), there are less Yale students in the world so they are more "select" or elite, however you want to look at it. Yet it also means, you know everyone, in that you may not be able to get away from them. You may be stuck in a social group you don't want to be in, or have few to no friends. You may have a hard time meeting people outside the law school, and certainly won't be able to find people outside of Yale.
All in all, though, I had a very, very good experience at Yale. It's much more policy-oriented, philosophical, and... interesting, in my opinion, than more career-focused "professional school" type law school experiences (i.e. Columbia). Now it is just a matter of whether I am accepted or not... I'd rather not get my hopes up if I'm going to be disappointed.
posted by Snarkily Single at 7:58 PM
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