Yasmine Halmane, Senior Photographer

When Ila Sundstrom ’28 was in high school, she was initially not interested in attending Yale due to its proximity to her hometown of New Haven. 

Sundstrom, who attended a public New Haven high school, is now one of 21 students in the class of 2028 from the New Haven Public Schools, the largest number in the University’s history. Initially, she wanted to move out of her hometown. However, she learned about Yale through the University’s programming, which she participated in during her senior year in high school, changing her mind.

“It was once I did this that I realized it actually had everything I was looking for in a school: the freedom to pursue multiple interests and disciplines, a welcoming and thoughtful community and a strong arts presence,” Sundstrom said.

Mark Dunn, senior associate director of admissions for outreach and recruitment, wrote to the News that the admissions office makes “a special effort” to connect with students in New Haven public schools.

Sundstrom participated in the Yale Pathways to Arts and Humanities, a program that welcomes local public high school students to Yale’s campus for a wide array of arts and humanities performances, talks, tours and seminars. Sundstrom said that the program provided her with an introduction to some of the facilities, such as the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Yale University Art Gallery. 

She added that the ability to take one class a semester at Yale during her senior year made “more of an impact” on her desire to go to Yale, and made her more confident while transitioning from high school to college. 

Dunn told the News that many of the applicants the admissions office sees from New Haven public schools have already had “meaningful academic and extracurricular experiences” with Yale faculty, students and staff through the University’s countless programs for local students. 

Such programs provide New Haven high schoolers with unique insight into the lives of Yale College students, Dunn added. 

The outreach efforts include Yale admissions officers visiting New Haven public schools, citywide college fairs and events hosted by New Haven Promise. This summer, Samantha O’Brien, Yale’s new senior assistant director for partnership programming, hosted two workshops for Yale Pathways to Science students on selective admission and financial aid. 

Alexandra Daum, associate vice president for New Haven affairs, told the News that Yale has created an expansive ecosystem of opportunities for middle and secondary school students to learn directly from Yale students, faculty and staff and to experience Yale from the inside.

These programs, she said, range from one-day events to 10-day summer programs, from drop-in programs to residential programs and six-week laboratory internships, with hundreds of individual sessions over the course of a year. 

Yale also admits many New Haveners who went to private high schools.

Gabriel Mena ’28 attended the Hopkins School in New Haven, which is only 10 minutes away from Yale’s campus. The proximity presented him with a few interesting opportunities, he said. 

Mena worked at the Yale Magnetic Resonance Research Center, looking into cardiac MRIs, through the Hopkins Authentic Research Program and Science program at his high school. The program is not affiliated with Yale. 

Mena also said that the proximity, in combination with Yale’s selectivity, deterred some of his fellow classmates in the college application process. He said that he felt similar concerns. 

However, he said he came to realize that Yale offered the things he was looking for in a school, from the community to the intensive Greek course his high school Latin teacher helped him discover.

“Once you actually look into the school and realize the opportunities that are there, the community that it has, I think that you start to really, really fall in love with it,” Mena said.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is located at 38 Hillhouse Ave.