What is life like for students living on campus?

[Alos]

Hi I wanted to know if anyone would be able to tell me about what life on campus is like. How is the housing for MBA students? Are students provided with dorm rooms and what are the amenities like? How is the social atmosphere at Yale for MBA students? Did students really enjoy life on campus?
Thank you

[gladiatorma]

Howdy Alos...

I'm one of the few people who live in on-campus housing... meaning DORM life. Most SOM students live in houses very close by, but a small percentage of us do live in the Yale Dorm system.

The dorm i'm at houses only graduate students. On my floor there are plenty of PHDs in Economics, Music, History, whatever.

I had to apply to get in, and I was lucky to secure a "large" room (10x14 as opposed 10x12 for the smaller rooms).

I'd have to say though that living in dorms is NOT the norm for SOM students. The social life in the dorm is unlike the undergraduate experience - because of the nature of most graduate students people tend to use the dorm as a place to sleep and nothing more.

The social life at SOM is very robust - plenty of house parties, lots of gatherings, happy hours and so forth.

I don't mind living in a dorm mainly because I was too lazy to come here looking for a house after welcome weekend. House hunting however, is not that hard and had I not been so lazy, I probably would have found a house and lived with some other SOM students.

Hope that helps,
~ Gladiatorma (class of 2008)

[paulip88]

And people like me make fun of gladiatorma for living at Helen Hadley Hall.

Find a place to live is a cause for anxiety for a lot of people, but generally everyone that I know is pretty happy with their situation. The only piece of advice is to know yourself. If you know you want some space back at home to get some work done, a studio apartment probably isn't for you, especially if you have a lot of stuff.

There's quite a variety of good options here in New Haven. If you prefer living close to a lot of bars/restaurants, then live downtown. The apartments in downtown also tend to be newer. If you're looking for a quiet neighborhood with a lot of character, then live in East Rock (aka the grad ghetto). If you want to live ridiculously close to school and a lot of your classmates, but don't mind the area being a little grittier (kinda?), then live on Mansfield St. If you want really really want to see if grad dorms are like undergrad dorms (which they aren't), then follow the footsteps of gladiatorma!

[soarer]

Alos,
I would just like to add one more point.. there are lots of "university owned" houses that are close to SOM. These houses are rented only to graduate students.
Hope this helps.