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Jesus, you've asked way too much here. I know i can answer what parts of it I want to, but still it's overwhelming. The big picture with yale is that I guess i'm glad I went there. I have fond memories of it now, although I think i spent way too much of my time there unhappy. I met the people who remain my very best friends in the world there, but I also almost never hear from the people who were my very best friends while I was there anymore. I learned how to learn, how to think in totally new and dynamic ways while I was there, but I don't think the yale name or "network" or even its reputation for excellence has helped me once in getting work in the real world.

Profs at Yale generally know their students if the student takes the time get to know the professor. Almost all of them keep great visiting hours and many of them were once smart, cool kids themselves. Many Yalies work way harder than they need to once they're at the school, due to their competitive nature. But it's easy to get by on very little as well. My trick was to go to every class, and to take meticulous notes. That way you rarely had to do any of the reading at all, and to someone who reads a little slower than other smarties, there was always WAY too much reading.

I'd say that the Yale student body definitely takes all kinds ... There's an awful lot of interest group/race/religious cross-pollination unless you choose to stay specifically within your clique (I'm talking about YOU, overachieving Asians, Orthodox Jews and "political" Black kids.) But because Yalies are so driven and self-absorbed, no one really takes a huge amount of trouble being "social." People wear their pajamas and worse to class, and campus is so spread out that it's easy to fall into just hanging out with your roommates and their closest friends. Most Yale students are pretty liberal, which makes the conservatives who do go there react by being awfully loud and obnoxious.

Yale's social life takes place entirely on campus or in a few select bars right off campus. New Haven (though vastly improved since I lived there) is not a great city, or even a mediocre city. Most of what you do while at Yale actually happens AT Yale. Since everyone is so involved in so many things, there's always four plays going up at any given time, plus dance recitals, music performances, film screenings and so much goddamn acapella that you can't NOT see it at some point while you're a student. So, what I'm saying is a typical weekend night is going to see your friend in something they're doing, and then going and getting drunk at dorm parties. That's fine ... it's cheaper and more reliable than trying to drink with a fake ID at Rudy's. There's no Greek system to speak of. I mean, there are a couple frats and sororities, but they aren't recognized by Yale, so there's none of that Greek system running the social scene thing that you see in all the college movies.

There are two primary Yale stereotypes, depending on who the audience holding the bias is. The first is the Yale stereotype to people who didn't go to Ivy league schools, but who have heard of Yale. They think Yalies are stuck up, holier than thou, and are always looking for a way to make them feel stupider. Preemptively, they will go out of their way to make you look stupid first, and then point out that it sure was dumb of a YALIE to do something so boneheaded! The caveat of course is that this is probably true for kids who went to Harvard, Princeton, or any other Ivy league school in the country. The second Yale stereotype is the one held by students/alums from other Ivy league schools. To them, the Yalies are the mopey, artsy, emo Ivy leaguers, the ones who love movies without strong linear narratives, performance art and experimenting with homosexuality.

The first, the one about Yalies thinking they're better than everyone else is not accurate in my experience. The second? Well, I suppose there is some truth to it... the kids I knew who went to Yale were often mopey and self-obsessed. Some of it comes from the location of course ... living in a drafty gothic castle in the middle of a ghetto does weird things to your psyche.

If you know right now that you definitely, absolutely want a job in a field other than science, finance or academics I would recommend you go someplace cheaper with a more proactive real-world-oriented approach to your chosen field. If you are a film major at Yale, you'll become great at writing about and tearing apart films, but you'll barely get your hands on a camera, and you won't get credit for working on film sets over the summer. Living in New York now and trying to work in Television, I can tell you that had I gone to Syracuse I would be much more competitive in the marketplace, and also I'd run into many more of my school's alums in job interviews and production meetings. Of course, none of this is true if your mom, dad or favorite uncle is already well established in the industry.