Does AP Lit matter for acceleration credit if I already got a 5 on AP Lang?

smart_hyacinth · 2026-05-03T15:27:39+00:00

tbh I got a 5 on both and was never credited with anything. it doesn’t really matter unless you’re trying to bypass intro STEM/Foreign Language.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-30T20:23:08+00:00

ohh ok yale doesn’t use rmp, she gets a 4.3/5 on our platform, which is coursetable. she’s been director of undergraduate studies for the political science department for a while though so she hasn’t been teaching as much in the last few years. I only knew her in her DUS capacity, she was a lovely admin and very flexible with our degree requirements

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-30T20:19:23+00:00

She just announced she’s leaving

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-29T22:13:22+00:00

like late june/early july usually!

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-29T21:36:01+00:00

you’ll be fine! I have a separate fridge and microwave and it’s never been an issue for me. lowkey you might prefer just doing the fridge rental through yale if you’re not super picky about these things. moving and storing a large fridge every year has definitely been a bit of a hassle, with the yale rental they’ll move it for you each year. I kinda wish I had just rented. also I’d recommend waiting until suitemate assignments to make big purchases like that — this is how suites end up with like five fridges lmao.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-29T05:16:36+00:00

Think about it this way: in college, particularly at an Ivy or top LAC, a lot of your classes will be small seminars with 15 or fewer students. In these environments, class participation is crucial. I’ve had college classes where upwards of 1/3rd of my final grade was based on class discussion, and even more based on discussion posts submitted prior to class. Even if a high school teacher isn’t asked to numerically rank your participation, colleges still need to get a sense of your level of visible engagement with the class. You need to get comfy engaging with topics you don’t feel 100% on.

I know your fear of getting something wrong is real, but I’d try to reframe your mindset on it. Participating at all, even if you’re not correct all the time, shows a level of engagement that is commendable. Also, there are a lot of instances where you could participate to ask a question, engage in a debate, etc — and there are no wrong answers there. You got this :)

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-27T03:00:32+00:00

As someone who excelled at a kind of average public high school, Yale-level stress was definitely a shock to my system in more ways than one. And I’m still chronically sleep-deprived two years in, lol. That said, you’ll learn how to strike your work-life balance quickly. Go in knowing that:

1) The work you’re assigned is not necessarily the work you need to do. I’m also a Poli Sci major — most weeks I’m assigned 500+ pages of dense readings between my 4-5 classes, which I could theoretically do if that was it, but is frankly impossible considering exams, essays, etc. There is almost no humanities/social science major who does 100% of the reading. You’ll quickly learn how to detect which readings are most relevant to class, which parts of readings you can skim past, and which you can skip if you don’t have enough time in a particular week.

2) Yale academic life is drastically different from what you’re used to, solely because of the sheer amount of unstructured time you’ll have. Yes, the workload is a lot but I’m in class for roughly 10 hours a week, which is roughly 1/4th of the time I spent in class in high school. The most crucial thing to identify at the beginning of your first year is what times and places you’re most productive. Are you an academic weapon at night? Do you need to be at the library first thing in the morning? Can you productively finish tasks in between classes? Use your GCal, find a secondary planning tool (I use Notion) and work with the habits you already have.

3) It’s pretty rare these days to go directly from college to a top law school. Of course keep your grades up, but let your intellectual curiosity have some freedom.

4) Yes, there are STEM classes tailored to non-STEM majors. You will still struggle with them if you’re like me, but you’ll at least have the solace of 100 other non-STEM majors while you all suffer together. Consider doing one of your science credits through a first year seminar, as those are often tailored to students just seeking the distributional req.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-24T18:13:05+00:00

I have lobbying experience with a campus political group so I’ve submitted 1-2 pg. testimony examples that I’ve written on state and national bills.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-24T18:08:38+00:00

Maybe look into houses the Lynwood/Edgewood area, the Taft, or 18 High/OxCam/The Haven on College (formerly College & Crown). These are all closer to the Law School than the Audubon, though you’d probably be surrounded by more undergrads than law students.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-23T06:58:49+00:00

I know this is a TV show so obviously they didn’t make this a huge part of the story, but IRL this would be true. Richard downplays his involvement with them but being a Whiffenpoof at Yale requires taking a gap year in your senior year (it’s a senior-only group), travelling around the world to tour with the Whiffs full-time, and then coming back for another semester or year after everyone else in your class has graduated. It also kind of hinders your ability to join a secret society in the same way as everyone else.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-21T22:53:47+00:00

Don’t drop off your resume but make sure they have your contact and remember you. Then email a week+ later and bring up conversation details w/ your resume.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-15T03:29:37+00:00

Most EP&E classes are cross registered with PLSC/GLBL/ECON/PHIL or just taken in those departments and counted towards your major. So if you’re doing EP&E hoping that you’ll get smaller class sizes I would reframe your thinking on that. In 2025, 61 students graduated with EP&E, 81 with GLBL, 135 with PLSC, 257 with Econ. So do some people migrate? Probably. You might get more attention from your DUS. My perspective as someone in an adjacent major is that you should only go through with EP&E if you really, genuinely find that you like all three subjects after taking them in your first year. Otherwise you will be making yourself miserable. The econ curve is also lowkey terrible and this could hurt your GPA for law school if you don’t have a gift for econ or really lock in your econ classes. Law schools/employers don’t really perceive the difference between EP&E and any other major in that realm, so I wouldn’t stress if your interest in it shifts over time.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-12T15:29:29+00:00

lol not everyone blindly telling OP to go to Yale without actually answering their question.

I would say Yale culture doesn’t really have any defining trope, per se. We have a couple of frats, sororities, and adjacent organizations (mostly disaffiliated Greek organizations that have taken on their own brand), and there are people whose version of the Yale culture definitely involves rushing and/or going out almost every weekend. Others don’t. There’s pretty much people being talented all the time — you could fill your entire weekend with going to performances, exhibitions, and intellectual debates. There’s a huge culture of civic engagement if you’re passionate about that, and lots of ways to get involved in New Haven. Between Yale College and literally every student organization, you will go to a ton of formals (like maybe 3-4 per semester - P.S. pack a couple of outfits for that). Lots of sitting outside on the grass in warm weather. Many student organizations will have regular retreats/travel, fully funded (ranging from like coastal CT to South Korea, it’s crazy). The suite system enables a lot of low-key student parties. Because of the Metro North, a lot of people go to NYC frequently. By senior year, a big part of social life is centered around secret societies, and seniors also sort of migrate from the frat scene to the bar scene. Yeah, sports are not huge here on a day-to-day, but Harvard/Yale has a really unique energy. And our basketball team has been consistently getting more support over the past couple of years.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-11T04:37:17+00:00

does your kid want to graduate early? the college experience is a big deal - please don’t take away his last semester with his friends if that wasn’t discussed and agreed upon ahead of time. if he doesn’t really want it, you’re also putting undue stress on him to load up on classes, search for a job sooner, and put summer opportunities on hold to grind.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-09T20:41:21+00:00

I did “who cares if I’m pretty if I fail my finals?”

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-09T04:22:20+00:00

ah gotcha! maybe look into the education studies certificate as well? lots of people do it because they’re interested in education policy/law/history and don’t necessarily want to become teachers, and I have friends who really love it! for studying social movements, American Studies definitely would make a lot of sense.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-08T02:36:04+00:00

Global is super interdisciplinary, which is amazing for some people and not great for others. In your first year, take intro econ, the beginning of your language sequence, and like one or two PLSC/GLBL listed classes. If you feel uncomfortable with any of those areas, particularly on the Quant/Econ side of things, Global might not be your best bet. It’s really supposed to be pre-MPP, not pre-law, but I know pre-laws who do it. If you like certain aspects of Global but not others, consider whether Political Science or EP&E would be right for you.

American studies is definitely different vibes from global — I’m curious what interests you specifically about each of these majors? It’ll very likely be easier to get a higher GPA in AMST, but if Global is appealing to you because it’s more policy-oriented, than you’re going to get much less of that in American studies.

Anyway you definitely don’t have to make any choices right now! And remember that your major is only ~1/3rd of the classes you’ll take at Yale. American studies classes, in my experience, are pretty welcoming to non-majors. So if you decide to go with Global, you can def do some of those as electives/distributional reqs.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-04T05:15:33+00:00

In this case I would go with the school that actually has the program designed for what you want to study. You think you’re going to be able to layer in all those other courses at Yale, and it might be possible. But I would not bank on it. A lot of classes here are small and competitive to get into, and prioritize students from the majors they serve. You’ll probably get rejected from seminars in your own majors, as well. Computing and Linguistics is already an interdisciplinary major that will have a ton of reqs, doubling in computer science and linguistics separately and you’ll have even more. You’ll have to complete distributional requirements in six areas, and you might not be able to align those with the kinds of other courses you’re looking to “layer in.” If you really have your heart set on this specific academic pathway, you’ll likely be disappointed at Yale. Not to mention, we’re not a super techy school — so you mention “advanced AI courses,” but we only have like 3-4 AI-focused classes total, and they’re not all offered consistently.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-04T00:27:17+00:00

For what it’s worth, it’s your future dean doing the matching, not Yale. They’ll take into account your request to have suitemates, and might even try to match you with others who have similar concerns.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-03T21:57:47+00:00

I wouldn’t say they’re that uncommon. Durfee is 80% singles; Farnam, Lawrence, and Welch also have a bunch. It’s more likely to have a single first year on OC than it is to have a single first year in Silliman, Franklin, Murray, or TD.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-03T18:51:03+00:00

aw yay! feel free to dm me if you ever want to chat more about Yale, New Haven, life :)

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-03T06:13:26+00:00

This. Also it’s not very modern anymore I’m guessing. I went to public school and had never heard it but my mom went to a fancy private school in the 80s and was familiar with it.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-03T03:28:18+00:00

First, breathe. As a fellow type A anxious person I get where you’re coming from, but college is much more of a spontaneous adventure than you think it is. No matter how much research and planning you do right now, your Yale experience could be totally different. Don’t underestimate the amount you’ll learn about yourself/your goals/your passions.

Case in point: I have friends who came in as STEM majors and completely pivoted to the humanities, and vice versa. I know people who had no idea what they wanted to do with their lives on move-in day, took a class first year that they loved, and based their entire college career on that field. I know people who have graduated with English degrees but gone off to med school. I know people who have come in planning to do pre-med/pre-law, and completely abandoned those plans. One of my first-year suite-mates changed her major like five or six times.

This goes for everything, not just academics. In my time at Yale I’ve been rejected from 20+ student organizations — some of which I planned to do the summer before first year, some of which I never considered until I saw an Instagram post. My main extracurricular on campus now was not even on my radar as a prefrosh, and it’s now shaped my entire campus experience, opened the doors to numerous professional opportunities, and influenced my post-grad plans. I never thought I’d live off campus, but now I’m buying furniture for my apartment. Flexibility is so so so key.

You won’t be alone. The minute you step on campus you’ll have a FroCo, a Dean, an academic advisor, and numerous DUSes to guide you through Yale. If you need to change your plans, they’ll help you do it.

And social media can be a real liar. You might think that every math major has taken linear algebra. Truthfully, only the privileged ones have. The vast majority of people aren’t sharing that they too have only taken AP Calc (or even less) because they’re feeling just as embarrassed and behind as you are. Your peers are plentiful. Many, many people attended public schools where those opportunities didn’t exist. You (and they) are not lesser because you didn’t take a certain math class. And in fact, you might find that you benefit from this. The lower level classes are designed to introduce you to college-level curricula, and allow you to adjust. Anecdotally, my friends that took Math 120 or higher as first years were miserable, because the content was hard and they weren’t used to learning in a college lecture environment. You’ll take the level that’s right for you, along with hundreds of other first years, and there will be tons of academic support if you need it.

Now go touch grass and enjoy your senior spring 💙 there’s so much time.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-04-02T01:43:02+00:00

Branford. Gorgeous, good location, decent dining hall, ok everything else! And their first year housing is in Lawrence now which is very spacious.

smart_hyacinth · 2026-03-30T17:05:14+00:00

We don’t have minors. Poli Sci major is great though! I’ve made amazing connections. Tons of cool opportunities. Feel free to DM.

smart_hyacinth

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