“To put it in perspective for you, the undergraduate population of Yale is the total population of my whole hometown”
“I graduated in a class of forty-five people”
“I’ve never seen a Target with more than one floor”
These are the statements that often let people know that I grew up in a place that is much different from the average US city or suburb. Applying to college, I wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to living in another place since I spent my whole life in a pretty rural part of Maine. When I got into Yale specifically, I wondered how I would adjust to living in a small city of 130,000 as opposed to a small town of about 4,000. Being a rural student at Yale has surprised me, challenged me, and changed me but so far it’s been an experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world.
Being a rural student comes with a big culture shock upon arriving on campus. While there was so much about Yale that was different from my hometown, there were a few key facets of my experience that surprised me from the start. Likely the most significant form of culture shock was the sheer number of people in one place. I will never forget one of my first days of college walking across the Beinecke Plaza to eat dinner and seeing a swarm of people bigger than I had ever seen. Another big adjustment for me was being able to walk everywhere. At home, I was accustomed to driving at least five or ten minutes to get to the nearest gas station and at least twenty or thirty to reach a grocery store. However, at Yale I’m within walking distance of everything I need from classroom buildings to ice cream shops. The lack of driving and abundance of walking was something that was hard to get used to at first, but now I’m very happy I don’t need to have a car to eat at a restaurant.
Probably the best part about being a rural student at Yale is having the opportunity to share my perspective with others and to hear their perspectives as well. My friends from New York City were so surprised that people in my hometown drive snowmobiles to school in the winter and I was shocked to hear that my suitemate from Los Angeles had so many high schools for a single city. Breaking free of my cultural bubble has been hands-down one of the best parts of my Yale experience. I grew up in a fairly homogenous and isolated rural town so being in a diverse and lively city like New Haven has been so fulfilling. More materially, it has been so great to find community with other rural students here at Yale. The Rural Students Alliance runs a Big Sib-Little Sib program where underclassmen are paired up with upperclassmen that share similar backgrounds in terms of being a rural student. Being able to connect with someone else who really understands that part of my background was incredible and I’m so glad there is a community at Yale for people like me.
If I could go back in time and tell myself something about the rural student experience at Yale I would emphasize that it’s not as intimidating as one might think to move to a completely different environment. The fact that I have a very different experience than others is what makes Yale such a great place to be and I think it’s a good thing that my environment growing up was so different from those of my peers.
