I'm a Yale 2nd year staring down the barrel of Step 1, so if you were ever going to get a fair assessment out of me, this would be the time.
Whether you're going to be happy or not is really up to you, but Yale does have a lot of really happy kids. The trade off is that at times you'll be stressed because you've been happy for way longer than med students are supposed to be. If you can rely on yourself, Yale is the way to go. Seriously, I've gone months at a time w/o going to class, and a couple of weeks w/o even reading. But when I study I buckle down hard, I've got nothing else to do w/o class, right? So I'd have to say I'm pretty happy, I've persued a bunch of things outside of class that I wouldn't have been able to elsewhere.
Even with the boards looming, I;m still happy because at least I know I've done things my way up till now. I studied the way I thought was best for me, with the books I thought best suited me - not what my school told me to do. I did things on my schedule, w/ my timeline, in my order. It would be nice to know what to know where I stand relative to my class so I know what kind of shape I'm in going into the boards, but I don't think that that would have been worth competing against my classmates for.
If you get freaked out without people telling you exactly what to do, go PBL. If you want it half n' half, go lecture based. Actually that prob isn't a fair assessment because w/ PBL you have to go out and do a bunch of reading on your own, but still. And if you're pretty independent, go to Yale. You really only stress when you want, and can go through the first two years w/o ever feeling uncomfortable or overwhelmed. Just get everything done before the boards, study hard for em, and you'll be in great shape. Hope this helps.
