"The Rest of Yale"

If you went to the Fall Open House, Admitted Students Day, or visited campus at some point, you probably heard one of the Admissions staff say that one of the great things about YDS is having "the rest of Yale" as a resource. What you may not realize is how large Yale University actually is—how many different schools and graduate and professional programs share the campus with us. Yale is a very decentralized school, with the various academic units operating more or less independently of one another, with no one place where all graduate and professional students converge (except for GPSCY, of course, and graduation). So, here's a run-down of the other academic units at Yale in their three major categories, including their sometimes overlapping acronyms and shields (yes, all academic units at Yale have a heraldic shield...who's copying Oxbridge?)

Look at the map that Patrick tirelessly crafted (Yale has bad campus maps available, so he made one for y'all) and follow along: schools are indicated by their shields and a tag.

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Yale College

We list Yale College because undergraduates are, well, funny. They are also numerous, in sum around 4,000. Most of the undergraduates live and stay in downtown New Haven, though some will venture up to Science Hill for labs or engineering. Some will even make an appearance in Div School classes. Yale College—again imitating Oxbridge—is organized into 12 residential colleges, which form the undergraduates' chief affiliation: they eat, live, socialize, study, work-out, etc. all in their colleges. The first-year students (except for those in two of the colleges) live on Old Campus, while the sophomores, juniors, and seniors live in their colleges scattered throughout downtown. There are programs (like the Graduate & Professional Affiliates program, or Students and Alumni of Yale [STAY]) that are specifically aimed at bringing graduate/professional students together with undergraduates.

Yale College's residential college shields

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Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS)

This is where things get confusing. The Graduate School is a completely separate entity from the professional schools, and its students are the only ones properly called "graduate students." That means that Div students, like Med, Law, Nursing, etc. are not included among its student body, but as members of their own professional schools. GSAS is the home of the 2,300 students studying for M.A., M.S., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in arts and sciences. (Somewhat confusingly, all Ph.D.s at Yale are given through GSAS, even though the coursework can be completed in one of the professional schools.) Our institutional division, however, is just that; we have access to the Hall of Graduate Studies (or HGS), to many of the services offered by the McDougal Center, as well as through the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS).

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Professional Schools

All of the rest of the schools listed are "professional schools," and its students are properly "professional students." Each exists independently from the others institutionally, but the student bodies of each live, work, take classes, and study together all the time. Many of the professional schools team up to offer joint degrees.


School of Architecture (YSOA)

Architecture has long been a part of Yale's offerings, originally as a part of the School of Art, and since 1979 as the School of Architecture. YSOA offers a three-year program leading to the degree of Master of Architecture (M.Arch. I); a two-year post-professional option also leading to the degree of Master of Architecture (M.Arch. II); a two-year program for advanced, independent research leading to the degree of Master of Environmental Design (M.E.D.); and a program leading to a Ph.D. degree awarded by GSAS. The physical location of YSOA is a towering brutalist structure that was originally designed to make the Art and Architecture students interact before the schools were split; now that floor-plan just gets people lost. Interestingly, though, the entire building is constructed in concrete, but uses different techniques to produce wildly different textures.


School of Art

The School of Art offers only one degree, the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.), in four different areas: graphic design, painting/printmaking, photography, and sculpture. Many students also pursue an unofficial interdisciplinary focus in film/video. The School of Art was the first institution of higher learning to successfully integrate a studio-based education into the broad pedagogical framework of a liberal arts university. There are two galleries operated by the School: one at the school itself at 1156 Chapel St., and a second focusing on global contemporary art at 32 Edgewood Ave.


Divinity School (YDS)

The Divinity School traces its origins back to beginning of Yale. When the University was founded as the Collegiate School in 1701, its mission was "to educate leaders for service in church and civil society." However, it wasn't until 1822 that YDS was separated into its own distinct school. YDS offers three degrees: the Master of Divinity (M.Div.), the Master of Arts in Religion (M.A.R.), and the Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) YDS has two affiliate institutions: Berkeley Divinity School (BDS), an originally independent Episcopal seminary that affiliated with YDS in 1971; and the Institute of Sacred Music (ISM), a joint venture of YDS and the School of Music in 1974.


School of Drama (YSD)

The Yale School of Drama is a graduate professional conservatory for theatre training in every discipline of the art form: acting, design (sets, costumes, lighting, projection, and sound), directing, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism, playwriting, stage management, technical design and production, and theater management. The Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) is offered in each area, and the Doctor of Fine Arts (D.F.A.) is offered in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism. YSD also offers a Certificate in Drama is conferred on students who do not hold an undergraduate degree, but who complete the same coursework as the M.F.A. YSD students train on three stages: the stage at the YSD itself, the Tony Award-winning Yale Repertory Theatre, and the experimental Yale Cabaret.


School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)

The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, founded in 1852, but tracing its roots in the now-defunct Sheffield Scientific School, is somewhat confusing organizationally. It is its own school, but all of its students are part of either Yale College or GSAS (because engineering and applied sciences count as a science). SEAS offers, via GSAS, a Master of Science (M.S.) and the Ph.D. in four departments: biomedical engineering, chemical & environmental engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering & materials science. Famous engineers studying at Yale include David Bushnell, the creator of the first American submarine, and Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin—and source of the name of Whitney Avenue in New Haven, Hamden, and Cheshire.


School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (FES)

The School of Forestry and Environmental Studies offers five degrees: the Master of Environmental Mangement (M.E.M.), the Master of Forestry (M.F.), the Master of Forest Science (M.F.S.), the Master of Environmental Science (M.E.Sc.), and the Ph.D. FES also offers nine joint degree programs, including with either the M.Div. or M.A.R. FES's research and teaching are focused on the following broad areas: ecology, ecosystems, and biodiversity; environmental management and social ecology in developing societies; forest science and management; global change science and policy; health and environment; industrial environmental management; policy, economics, and law; urban ecology, environmental planning, design, and values; and coastal and watershed systems. FES was founded in 1900 (making it the oldest forestry school in the Western Hemisphere) by two Yale alumni: Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief of the US Forest Service, and Henry S. Graves, its first dean.


Law School (YLS)

Yale Law School is one of the world’s premier law schools. Its graduates include Supreme Court justices, Cabinet members, and Presidents, including Bill and Hilary Clinton, Gerald Ford, and three of the sitting Supreme Court Justices (Alito, Sotomayor, and Thomas). YLS offers five degrees: the Juris Doctor (J.D.), the normal degree for lawyers, with a possible joint degree at the Div School; the Master of Laws (LL.M.), for aspiring academics who received their J.D. or LL.B. internationally; the Master of Science in Law (M.S.L.), for doctorate-holding non-lawyers wanting training in law; the Doctor of the Science of Law (J.S.D), for LL.M. graduates desiring to do advanced scholarly research; and the brand-new Ph.D., the first of its kind in the U.S., for J.D.s preparing for legal scholarship.


School of Management (SOM)

The School of Management offers three degrees: the Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)—both full-time (including a joint degree with the Div School) and executive, the Master of Advanced Management (M.A.M.), and the Ph.D. The SOM's curriculum was changed in 2005 to an integrative model with many short workshop-style classes (including a non-profit management course popular among Div Students). The SOM is currently amidst the construction of a new building on Whitney Ave. (you will see the skeleton being assembled).


School of Medicine (YSM)

The School of Medicine, in addition to educating future physicians, is a hub of biomedical research and healthcare. YSM offers two degrees, the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and the Master of Medical Science (M.M.Sc.) for Physician Assistant students, in a unique curriculum that promotes teaching in small seminar, conference and tutorial settings, and requires student self-evaluation, independent thinking and investigation. The M.D. may be pursued jointly with many other programs, including the M.Div. In keeping with its research emphasis, since 1839, YSM has required that each student complete a thesis based on original research prior to graduation. The YSM also operates a famous Child Study Center, as well as combining with affiliated institutions including the 944-bed Yale-New Haven Hospital—flagship of the Yale-New Haven Health System—and the Connecticut Mental Health Center, Pierce Laboratory, and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in nearby West Haven.



School of Music (also, but less often, YSM)

The School of Music, founded in 1894, became exclusively a graduate professional school in 1958, requiring an undergraduate degree for admission and conferring only the Master of Music (M.M.) degree. Additional programs of graduate professional studies, leading to the degrees of Master of Musical Art (M.M.A.) and Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.), were introduced in 1968. YSM's central areas of study are performance, conducting, and composition. YSM also offers an Artists Diploma for gifted composers and performers in residence holding a masters degree, and a Certificate in Performance for those without (with an eye towards subsequent undergraduate education for the performer and conversion of the certificate into an M.M.) YSM ensembles include the Yale Philharmonia Orchestra, the Yale Opera, various Chamber and Early Music ensembles, the Yale Percussion Group, Yale Cellos, choral groups (the Camerata, the Schola Cantorum, and the Voxtet), and the Graduate Quartet-in-Residence.


School of Nursing (YSN)

Founded in 1923, the Yale School of Nursing became the first school within a university to prepare nurses under an educational rather than an apprenticeship program. To that end, the YSN offers 3 degrees: the Master of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.), the Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.), and the Ph.D., in addition to various post-masters certificates and a post-doctorate program. YSN's major concentrations include: Adult Advanced Practice Nursing; Adult-Geronotology, Family and Women's Health; Nurse-Midwifery; Nursing Management, Policy, and Leadership; Pediatric Nurse Practitioner; and Psychiatric-Mental Health. YSN offers many joint-degree programs with its M.S.N., including the M.Div. and M.A.R. And see YSN waaaaaay down in the bottom right corner of the map? It's not there anymore. It is the first academic unit moving to Yale's West Campus in West Haven, starting this academic year.


School of Public Health (YSPH)

The School of Public Health, founded in 1916 as a department of the School of Medicine and accredited separately in 1946, is one of the seven oldest schools of Public Health in the country. YSPH offers three degrees: the Master of Public Health (M.P.H.), the Master of Science (M.S.), and the Ph.D. YSPH concentrates on a few major areas: biostatistics, chronic disease epidemiology, environmental health sciences, epidemiology of microbial diseases, health policy & management, and social & behavioral sciences, as well as separate focuses on global health and regulatory affairs. YSPH also co-sponsored a lecture by Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, which was held at the Div School in May.