Why is there so much negative feedback about Yale?

[golfpropsychguy]

Ive tried to go through all of the threads about Yale. It seems that most people agree that the program is not that great and not impressed. I would have thought that being Yale it would have been outstanding. Can anyone elaborate on the program?
Thanks

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[strangeglove]

The program at Yale is actually pretty good, especially if you're interested in research. A large number of heads of departments have come from Yale. However, New Haven is considered to be sort-of an armpit, which is why it's not the most competitive program.

 

[Chimed]

Yale is known to be a strong program. The best way to evaluate a program is to go to the interview and see for yourself. Remember that those who post on this forum have their own biases and have different opinions on what is a good program based on what they want from a program.

 

[PsychMD2100]

Yale is a strong program but many were surprised at how many FMGs they take into their residency. Not to say that FMGs are all bad, but most people expect a place like Yale to have more competitive residents.

The neighborhood has improved. The things that made me rank it lower were my interactions with some of the residents. One resident in particular seemed uninterested in answering questions and overall unpleasant. It's only 1 person but it made an impression.

 

[cleareyedguy]

Yale has historically been a top tier psych program, and the rest of the university is as good as it gets. When Yale gets dissed, it's in comparison to what it used to be or in comparison to the very best programs in the country. It may not be as good as it was 20 years ago, and it generally loses the recruitment battle against the better programs in New York and Boston, but it's still an excellent place. I'm not sure why it has stagnated a bit. People say it's the town, but Yale sure recruits well for most of the rest of the university (its law school is clearly the best in the country, for example). And if you want to live in a nice place after residency, semirural Connecticut might be very nice.

 

[grishko2007]

I interviewed there last year and really liked it, I never got around to posting a review but I'll try to do one soon.

 

[slipstream99]

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[grishko2007]

Ok, it has been almost a year but from what I remember:

Things I liked: Has a strong international presence in their residents. Their FMG's are highly accomplished and competitive, and the dept strongly supports international research so it only makes sense that this would be reflected in their resident population. Strong in child psych, research, neuropsych and psychoanalysis (probably other things too but these are things that stick out in my rapidly fading memory). You get to choose where you do your 6 months of medicine the first year, either at the smaller community hospital or at the bigger university teaching hospital. The residents seemed happy with the program, and the Yale medical students I spoke with on the interview trail had only positive things to say about it.

Things I didn't: This may not appeal to some, but it's a very cerebral and academic environment, almost oppressively so even if this is your thing. New Haven doesn't seem like such an exciting or aesthetically pleasing place to live outside of the Yale campus although the cost of living is very reasonable and it's really close to NYC, Providence, Hartford and Boston. There are nice suburbs you can live in though that are very family friendly and many residents commute. The only other thing that was weird about the interview day is that you have these 2 hour long interviews (in addition to 2 half hour interviews) that are very intense and can at times get nasty and unpleasant. I didn't have these problems, although one of my 2 hours was pretty grueling, but I have heard of people crying and being asked some very offensive and personal questions after which they were not happy campers.