this is great! a fantastic choice of profile on the part of gordon and a humanizing look at a frequent commenter who can seem ornery. and good to the YDN for posting it. i’m waiting for a profile of FailBoat…

That’s a matter of opinion, Y10. Certainly the undergraduate experience is a unique one, but so is the grad experience. For that matter, so is the employee experience, the professor experience, etc. Why your four short years should make you a ‘Yalie’ while others have been here for decades and are not considered ‘Yalies’ is beyond me unless you define ‘Yalie’ to simply be the undergrad experience. Which seems a rather limited perspective for,.. well, a Yalie.

Jeff Gordon is a BOSS

I bet you won’t come back here. But Yale is very much known for its grad schools. Yale med school is #1. Yale history is #1. Granted, the top 3 are always in flux, but we are very much known for our grad schools. The sciences make new discoveries. We have the guy who discovered RNA man! The two I mentioned above are but a few examples but clearly areas we were are the finest in the world. True, they don’t have the Yale spirit as much since they don’t live in the colleges, etc. but think what you will of who is a yalie, you cannot deny our graduate reputation

I do not think I have been shy about MY OPINION of the relative bona fides of Yale’s undergraduate or graduate schools, but I will reiterate (all follows IMOO):

Yale College offers a unique experience, rarefied opportunities, and remains deserving of its prestige.

Many of Yale’s graduate schools are top-notch. FES, MED, LAW, SOM, YPH and others are stellar. GSAS, despite its marxian idiocy, er, idiocracy, er ideology, is rightly recognized as having within it some good departments and programs.

But as for DIV: I know, YOU know, and I *know* you know that DIV is a laughingstock. Viewed along any axis: admissions, achievement (note to PK: I mean from the last 40 years…), “theology”, indoctrination: DIV is a joke–with M.Div the lamest of punchlines.

In terms of selectivity, rigor, and prestige, DIV is Yale’s community college. Claiming “Yalie” status by virtue of one’s M.Div is only marginally superior to holding up one’s “Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies” as proof of a Cantabrigian alma mater.

That said: it is a free country, and even Monte Verdeans filled with self-love or leftover doob residue are entitled to their opinions. Anyone, even community college graduates, are free to comment here.