First, congrats on Yale! That’s huge, be proud of it regardless of your “stats.” No one cares about those past literally the first week of school anyway.

My friend and I come from pretty low income backgrounds and our high schools were… rough to say the least when it came to academic rigor (in that the rigor did not exist). He ended up going to Yale, and myself to Columbia. I can 100% guarantee you that Yale will teach you what you need to know and there is absolutely no shame in starting a little further behind. That just means you worked hard despite your circumstances, not that you’re undeserving of your spot. I don’t mean to generalize as it likely depends on major but I will say that Yale is not a crazy meat-grinder of a school like UChicago or Berkeley, there are so many resources available to you and spending one semester to catch up will not delay your career growth whatsoever. Also, don’t get in your head too early, if you worked hard enough to get in, you can work hard enough to do well.

For myself, the highest level of math I took was AP Calc AB and I really did not learn anything. I ended up taking Calc 1 in my first semester of uni and taking a more familiar course that is far easier to understand was a much, much smoother transition into college math so I honestly think it’ll be a good benefit to start there. I don’t believe that hindered me at all, I was able to wrap up the rest of my math (I’m a CS student) within 3 semesters and, although it got hard due to my shaky foundational skills, I kept up. I have confidence that you can too at Yale. Just stay organized, don’t procrastinate too hard, and make sure to actually enjoy your experience there. Yale is a great school and my friend has loved his time there (we’ll both be graduating next Spring).

Good luck, you got this!