u/Regular-Abrocoma-462

Hey there! Class of 2030 prefrosh looking for a new language to start at L1 and finish through L4 to complete her language requirement.

I've long wanted to study French, but was initially hesitant due to horror stories about the Yale French department's especially rigorous pedagogy and insane workload. However, this article published in October 2025 from the Yale Daily News notes how "To woo students, French department makes courses easier", detailing changes from eliminating final exams to adopting a weekly “4 plus 1 model”.

Is this an actually significant change? How's the elementary French experience now? Would appreciate any and all insight from those who took French L1 & L2 from scratch in the Fall 2025/Spring 2026 semesters!

Title! Not a stem kid but looking to take some fun exploratory courses alongside a potential humanities double-major, hopefully will fulfill the QR req, is insightful, and isn't too harsh on the grading! Open to everything from envirosci to AI :)) thanks in advance!

Hey guys!

I'm an incoming co30 who intends to study the humanities/social sciences, and I was wondering what supplies/materials students typically use on campus. Currently I own a MacBook Air and take school notes physically/use a binder for all my information, but I’m debating whether it’s worth getting an iPad before college. For humanities students specifically:

• How useful is an iPad in practice?
• What do people mainly use it for (note-taking, annotating readings, PDFs, etc.)?
• Do most students carry both around daily, or is only carrying one/having a a laptop + notebooks more common?
• Do students pair it with apple pencil / magic keyboard in addition to their laptop?

Would also appreciate any general advice on school supplies/tech that people actually found useful at Yale, versus things they thought they’d need but never really used. Thanks!

Sorry for the seemingly stupid question haha! Incoming college freshman with the intent of going down a more traditional career route (think consulting/finance/law). I've always believed in the importance of being a good person & having a matching reputation because you never know who could be your friend decades down the line, but recently some ex-friends started a very nasty smear campaign that essentially destroyed all my relationships as well as my reputation. These are all very accomplished people who might head down similar career paths as me, so as much as I wish to escape this circle of people entirely, I'm wondering how concretely this event would have an impact on my future social life/career advancement. Thanks for any advice in advance!

Hey all,

I've been the target of jealousy and malicious rumors. A few peers in school who I used to be friends with have been spreading lies about things that I've allegedly done. While none of these lies are true, they sound easily believable, and it's essentially impossible to prove otherwise. Whether people believe them or not pretty much comes down to how much faith they have in my character compared to the testimonies of these other people, and because they used to be my friends, I guess it was easier to believe them. As a result, many of my friends of 7 years have cut me off without even giving me a chance to say my piece, leaving me with effectively 0 friends left and lots of enemies (mostly from other past friends who felt "betrayed" by my actions).

I know this smear campaign is filled with lies, and that I haven't done anything wrong to the extent of deserving this grade-wide alienation. I've always prided myself on being a good person, but this event makes me really scared, anxious, and sad to think about the tank in my reputation. I don't want these friendships back, nor do I wish to seek revenge in any way, but I really would love to know what I should do/the mentality I should take about my reputation going forward. I don't want to live in the shadow of this event forever, where every new person I meet I'm concerned about whether they've heard about my turbulent high school experience & whether they believe me or believe the stories that disparage me.

Going through a really difficult place right now. Would appreciate any advice, wisdom, comfort etc anything really 😢 thanks.

Hi! Incoming first-year here :>

I'm an international student & WOC, and I’ve been trying to learn more about sororities at Yale. But it’s been a bit hard to get a clear sense of what they’re actually like day-to-day, especially since Greek life isn’t as big here as at other schools. I know that Yale's social scene is very fun and exciting even without Greek life, so I would really appreciate honest perspectives from people who’ve experienced sororities/experienced the rush process and decided not to join/or just decided not to from the get-go!

P.S. I know Yale also has affinity-based sororities, but this post is about the 3 traditionally panhellenic ones & also Aeris. Specifically curious about a few things:

1. What made you decide to rush/join/not join?

2. Is there a different vibe/culture for each of the 3 sororities (+Aeris)? How so?

3. How big of a time commitment is it week-to-week? I really wanted this to be a casual on-the-side type of social network in addition to other orgs founded in personal hobbies/academic interest, so I was wondering how many clubs sisters usually handle on the side.

4. As someone who wishes to avoid contact with both (though I guess I can handle a litttttle bit of alcohol haha), what's the culture of alcohol/drugs around Yale frat parties/mixers?

5. I wouldn't consider myself a typical "sorority girl", but the idea of doing philanthropy, attending fun socials, & making friends/meeting a widespread network of girls on your side across the nation really appeals to me. However, I've also heard of a lot of bad press on sororities in other universities. I know that Yale attracts a specific type of person, yet also seeing as only ~20% of the students are involved in Greek life, I was wondering if the sororities here leaned more into the traditional cliquey/aesthetics-dominated/hierarchy-infused stereotype, or if the girls & guys are genuinely different and much better here.

6. Are there any upsides vs downsides that people don’t always talk about/is there anything else I should know!

Thank you in advance for any and all insights ❤️

Hey friends! incoming co 30 here:)

I’m trying to decide whether to go for Directed Studies and would really appreciate any perspective, especially from people who’ve done DS or considered it. Currently thinking of double majoring in Global Affairs & Economics with the intent of consulting/finance down the line (though also open to law/wherever the wind takes me!)

I'm a HUGEE fan of Yale's Liberal Arts focus, which draws me to both DS & the possibility to explore many courses at Yale. I've seen a lot of posts on DS and heard various things (mostly along the lines of tough workload + tanked GPA but very worth it), but I still wanted to get some insights for my specific situation.

A few things I’ve been wondering about:

1. Workload & Scheduling: How many additional courses per semester do people usually take alongside DS? I know a major in Global Affairs has language requirements (I would have to take from scratch bc of circumstances...) and I would also like to get the intro to econ courses out of the way so I can even figure out if the major is for me/give me some insights on my future career paths. Would this be doable at all? And if (hopefully) yes, does this mean I have pretty much no flexibility in my first year to explore any other academic directions/get any of my stem distributional requirements out of the way?
2. Balancing it all: Referring back to the career paths, how much does GPA matter compared to clubs/connections/networking etc? I'm quite extroverted and excited to get involved in various organizations on Yale, so I'm wondering if DS would turn me into a studying hermit/take up time for other things. But I've also heard that DS really aids skill development in critical thinking & writing, so I'm wondering if the skills & network gained from DS is worth the GPA tank/time commitment.
3. Cohort vibe: How competitive is the environment within DS? I come from a school where there wasn't a lot of humanities resources so unfortunately the humanities kids had a constant air of competition amongst them...which was one of the reasons why I chose Yale actually, the collaborative environment :> However, I am also aware that DS is quite exclusive (takes only ~10% of each class?) and last year it had 100+ people on the waitlist. Since I'm going to be taking the same classes with a very small cohort of people, I'm very open to forming close bonds with my peers, which was one of the pros mentioned in other articles, but I'd also hate it if the environment became toxically competitive/wayy too insulated against outsiders/STEM kids or whatever. Never heard of anything like that at Yale (just my extrapolation from my high school 💀) but still thought I should ask!
4. Logistics: Speaking of the waitlist, approximately what's the timeline between course registration & DS announcement? I've heard of cases where kids on the DS WL got taken off the waitlist after they already booked a separate schedule of classes. Wondering if applying for & not getting in would ruin my chances/mess up my schedule for normal class reg?

Sorry for the long msg! Would appreciate any and all insight, and feel free to correct me if anything above is incorrect.

Thanks in advance to every kind soul who provides advice ❤️❤️❤️