Best of luck everyone! Just wanted to reiterate that I'm happy to answer any questions at all about the school or sending LOIs. Feel free to DM me, I'll try to respond promptly! Yale is a wonderful school and I hope to meet y'all here next year
Edit: and at the second look party!
I got a question about how easy it is to meet people & social at Yale with everyone "doing their own thing" with the Yale System. Figured I'd share my response here since it's a good question!!
I love my classmates and it has been really easy to get to know them. Your first 2 weeks at Yale are an orientation course - so everyone is pretty much attending everything the first 2 weeks and it's really easy to get to know people. We have a class groupme, and it has been active since over the summer. During the first 2 weeks people would organize lots of large gatherings for birthdays, etc., that everyone was invited to.
After the first 2 weeks, the real courses start. The folks that go to class have a great time socializing between lectures, and many go for the social aspect. However, we do have interspersed mandatory sessions, such as the once a week clinical skills course and professional responsibility course, where you will see everyone.
Many of the people who don't attend lectures will organize groups to study together in the library or other places on campus.
During the fall, there are a TON of extracurricular events going on - lots of interest group events with free food, free dinner, free drinks, lunch, etc. - and especially as first years this is a great way to socialize and see people outside of class.
Most first years live downtown, either in Harkness dorms or in the New Haven Towers (6min walk from campus) (Crown Court, Crown Towers, and Madison Towers buildings) - so if you live here you'll see your classmates all the time walking to class, at the gym, etc.
My advice is to be a 'yes' person - especially in the beginning of the year/meeting people stage! Always going to a variety of events, social gatherings, and signing up for various email lists and joining different activity groupmes, etc. because you never know who will end up being your long-term friends or what group you'll end up vibing with!