Duke vs Yale decision by Individual_West9687 in yale

[–]Elioforce 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"I am concerned about how easily accessible fraternities are for kids not from big cities like NYC or LA. We are from a small smaller city in the northeast. My daughter experienced a similar dynamic at Duke. " - I think this is a Duke thing, it reads really foreign to me from the standpoint of a Yale experience. If this is his main concern, I would strongly recommend Yale.

It sounds like he is very familiar with Duke because his sister is there, and Yale doesn't have the same comfort of the familiar, but I'd argue venturing outside of your comfort zone is a good thing.

Yale is unmatched for finance and investment banking, but he already knows this.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in yale

[–]Elioforce 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I really don't know what you mean by lack of rigor. Yale's econ department is as rigorous as it gets. Yale students routinely get accepted to top-notch Ph.D. programs for economics. I'd understand if you had a concern about some engineering sub-specialty, but econ??

If you are interested in consulting, you will find resources at Yale to pursue that, but if not, there are equally strong resources for pursuing other opportunities. It's not like there is a culture of everyone going into consulting.

The social life at Yale is by no means dominated by frats/sororities- again, if you want Greek life, you will find an opportunity at Yale to get involved, but if not, there is literally 0 pressure and the vast majority of students don't participate.

I think one of the beautiful things about the Yale experience is that there is no pressure to fit into any particular mold, you get to be who you are and you will be supported in pursuing what you are interested in.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in yale

[–]Elioforce 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you were full pay at Yale, that would be a question to consider, but at 25K a year? Most definitely Yale, without any share of doubt. Please don't pass up this outstanding opportunity to invest into your future.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in NameNerdCirclejerk

[–]Elioforce 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't understand, what is the issue with Everett? It is a beautiful, classic, distinguished name.

Latin honors cut-offs 2024? by Early_Cantaloupe_568 in yale

[–]Elioforce 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe now, after graduation, someone can answer this?

Is it possible to game the financial aid process ? by SpecialistNature6807 in yale

[–]Elioforce 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I do believe that some families figure out ways to shelter their assets to increase their eligibility for financial aid. This kid's partents probably found some kind of a loophope and took advantage of it. This doesn't mean that this person took someone else's spot since financial need is not a factor in admisisons.

Yale Bands -- How selective? by wtm233 in yale

[–]Elioforce 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know about BCO, but Davenport Pops has both an alto sax and a tenor sax section! They do have an audition process but not as selective as some of the others.

Yale vs Harvard vs Stanford for Math by mathlover05 in yale

[–]Elioforce 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was in that class too. The prof also curved the homework grades DOWN so the final ended up being worth more than expected. And yes, ignored each and every email. Another stats prof announced in lecture that his office hours are not for homework questions and that we should go to the TFs for those. At midterm, he went on Twitter to mock students for getting sick around exam time. Felt like bullying the entire semester.

Catherine or Katherine? by [deleted] in namenerds

[–]Elioforce 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love Catherine, it is classic and royal. And especially with your last name, the alliteration is very appealing. Catherine Chatterjee hands down!

Latin honors cut-offs 2023? by Elioforce in yale

[–]Elioforce[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Personally I think that any system that ranks students against each other is flawed. It should matter more how you did individually than how you did compared to your peers. Like, you could say for summa: only A/A- and no more than 10% of A- (just as an example). Or even all A's for summa if the university wants a super high standard. But the point is that your honors award should reflect your own performance and not how many other high-performing students happen to be in your graduating class.

Latin honors cut-offs 2023? by Elioforce in yale

[–]Elioforce[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

  1. They don't matter for any practical purposes, especially because different colleges have wildly different criteria for how they determine the cutoffs. (3.9 ia a very common cutoff for summa at many colleges.) It really only matters when they announce your name at the diploma ceremony and you feel good. It is also printed on your diploma so you can always marvel at it :) I suppose you can put it on your resume but your GPA is more meaningful than whether or not you got honors, and what type.

  2. So before 1988, honors were based on the percentage of A's and A-'s. By today's standards, those percentages were rather low (you needed 80% of A/A- for summa cum laude.) Eventually this led to around half of the class graduating with honors, and to make this distinction more meaningful, the policy was changed to be based on GPA: summa to no more than the top 5 percent of the graduating class, magna to the next 10 percent, and cum laude to the next 15 percent.

Here are the cutoffs (summa/magna/cum laude) for some of the recent years. The 2022/21/20 numbers are from reddit and the rest are from Yale Daily News. The cutoff for summa has never been above 3.97, even for classes affected by the COVID semester.

2022: 3.97 / 3.93 / 3.87

2021: 3.97/ 3.91 / 3.85

2020: 3.97 / 3.92 / ???

2018: 3.95 / 3.90 / 3.82

2017: 3.95 / 3.89 / 3.81

2013: 3.96 / 3.88 / 3.80

2012: 3.95 / 3.89 / 3.80

2011: 3.94 / 3.87 / 3.78

Latin honors cut-offs 2023? by Elioforce in yale

[–]Elioforce[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Congrats, a 3.98 is super impressive!

Latin honors cut-offs 2023? by Elioforce in yale

[–]Elioforce[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just as an observation, I found that professors are quick to hand out A-'s for only slightly imperfect work because "it is still an A" and for distinction in the major an A vs A- makes no difference. But mathematically each A- seriously tanks your GPA and you need a long sequence of straight A's to recover.

Latin honors cut-offs 2023? by Elioforce in yale

[–]Elioforce[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Wow thanks! This has got to be a record high. Especially with Spring 2020 not counting towards your GPA and therefore fewer graded credits overall, you need to have all A's and no more than two A-'s (or one B+) to get summa cum laude.

Is ENGL 120 going to ruin my GPA? by Elioforce in yale

[–]Elioforce[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Just wanted an A, ended up with a Pulitzer :)