Yale

Four days ago, I visited a friend of mine at Yale and got a chance to look around New Haven and campus. The University has a campus bigger than McGill’s; filled with beautiful, clean buildings and a rich history. At first it seems like an older, slightly cleaner version of McGill; then you learn that the University has an average class size that can be counted on one hand. If you look at the numbers, they are truly shocking.

McGill:

Faculty: 1,485

Students: 30,934

Campus: 80 acres (downtown)

Endowment: $760,000,000

Yale:

Faculty: 2,300

Students: 11,390

Campus: 260 acres (downtown)

Endowment: $20,000,000,000

In other words, McGill has 4 times more students per faculty member (21 compared to 5), ~31% of Yale’s land, and 3.8% of Yale’s endowment. I knew there was a big difference between public and private school, but I did not know it was so drastic. One of the best public universities receives 26 times less money than one of the best private universities. The only thing McGill can boast is beating out Yale this year for Sloan Fellowships by 4 to 3.

I enjoyed my trip to Yale. I came on a Saturday, so I did not socialize with many Yale students, but it was still nice to see my friend and find out how Yale was treating her. I don’t think I could ever fit in at a place like Yale. The vast amount of extra curricular activities the students are involved in overshadows their school work. I don’t think I would ever find activities other than attending school that I would be willing to dedicate so much time to. (I am also too lazy to be that dedicated and motivated).

Next on my list of school to visit is Harvard and MIT. I don’t have any friends attending those schools, but I think I still want to check them out (especially MIT).

In other news: I plan to finally update the structure of my blog a little, to reflect changing times.