Why I'll Donate to Yale

The difference between America and the world, why its universities are so good at pumping out talent and boosting the economy, is its liberal arts education - the emphasis on exploring oneself through different classes and activities. No other nation's education system has such an emphasis on mixing problem-solving, innovation, and leadership.

Along with being told you can do anything you want is an unsaid truism that lots of Yalies absorb in their minds - that they are important and will be leaders in this world.

Now, nobody says this to you. There isn't some information session where are you told how you're going to be some superstar who excels in everything you do. Rather, it is in the extravagance that Yale offers you, the little things you observe. One particular morning a couple weeks ago, in a meeting with the Yale Study Abroad office, I was told point blank that no school had more funding opportunities per capita for going abroad than Yale. In the afternoon, I went to a free olive oil tasting with one of the world's brightest minds in the field. And in the evening, I was, along with every senior in my residential college, treated to a fancy Roasted Beef Sirloin dinner with crisp sweet gem lettuces and Radicchio with herb crusted goat cheese as the starter.

This combination of events and funding screams a particular message: “The world is a big place and you deserve to make a mark in it - we think you are worth investing enormous resources in.

If you want to learn anything honestly, you have to be comfortable with making mistakes and feeling dumb. Yale was the perfect laboratory for me to get used to this. This doesn't mean getting complacent with being “dumb”, but putting myself in positions to learn about the world in a different way while improving.

People

College, especially when you barely know anyone, is a perfect opportunity to figure out what your values are. It's the first time in your life where you have full agency over who you want to hang out with - and I couldn't be happier at how it turned out.

Ask a Yalie what their favorite part of college is, and 9 out of 10 times they will say “the people”. What they mean by this, in my opinion, is the diversity of extraordinariness that you absorb by just being around each other. Most people who come to Yale are here because they had a “spike” in high school - something they did better than nearly anyone in the world. Whether it's winning nationals for debate, founding an international nonprofit, or groundbreaking lab research, there's so much that students here learn by just spending time together.

When I first observed this, I figured out very quickly that certain traits were prevalent especially at Yale. I remember asking myself over and over like a mantra, “Which of these traits do I really want to take away from this place?”

What I sought to absorb was, of course, the ambition and work ethic I saw in my peers. Those who initiate things, are proactive in planning trips, those who I would have in my C-suite if I was running a company. It's been so inspiring living with people who I know for a fact are some of the most hardworking and most ambitious people I've ever met. It's those who have a lot to say about the world I gravitate to. It still boggles my mind that my sophomore year suite mates and I speak/write a combined nine languages.

What I've tried my best to avoid is the pressure to feel insecure/need validation from others. There's this spirit at Yale of constant, I wouldn't say competition necessarily, but comparison with others. Let me try to explain.

When you take 1,600 valedictorians of their high schools and put them together, not everyone can be #1 and receive the same portion of attention they received in high school. This has resulted in an environment where Yalies are constantly fulfilling their need for attention, the need to be envied. This is completely normal from a human standpoint, but the degree to which I've seen it I've never seen anywhere else, as students are constantly wondering how they stack up to their peers.

What I have accordingly noticed embedded in countless conversations in dining halls are gossips about who won what fellowship, did they deserve to get in that club? Who got what job? This is a phenomenon that lends itself to you absorbing it if you aren't paying attention. It's something that you can so easily fall into the trap of since it surrounds you. It's something I struggled with a lot my first two years here but especially after finding my own path I feel these things a lot less, and value the lack of these things a lot in my friends.

Observing a phenomenon and reacting to it are two different things. There are many ways to take in this phenomenon of comparison and need for attention from others, but from especially junior year I've taken a different road in consciously realizing whenever I'm having that conversation and choosing to tune it out so it doesn't become something I absorb from here.