COMMENCEMENT 2025
Changes to testing, affirmative action policies reshape undergraduate admissions

This year’s graduating seniors have witnessed a myriad of changes to Yale’s admissions process, from affirmative action to testing policies.

MACKAY: Reviving Yale and America

Today, Yale is rightfully held in suspicion and distrust for its shameful discarding of the past, as evidenced by Yale’s negative relationship with its own namesake.

DE GENNARO: In defense of saying something

Regardless of what stances Yale takes, students will always be able to speak up, to agree or disagree with the institutions around them. We can help shape the intellectual climate of our campus ourselves, fostering diversity of thought from the ground up.

YUNG: Overcoming nihilism at Danbury Correctional Institution

Every week during my senior year, I’d drive an hour away from New Haven to the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution, weaving through a small neighborhood and up a hill overlooking miles of trees before arriving.

Mental health resources expand after student group lawsuit

In the last four years, Yale’s mental health policies and resources have expanded to include increased flexibility for academic accommodations and increased mental health support for students.

ELLIS: Wearing the uniform at Yale

Yale celebrates academic freedom and encourages exploration; military training demands discipline and adherence to standards. We rarely talk about this tension explicitly.

KOTHARI & MOOS: Graduating seniors say to support U-ACT’s People’s Budget

Though we might not have grown up in New Haven, we are grateful for the love, care and support we have received from community members.

Certificate programs expand as students propose more

Since the 2021-22 school year, the number of certificates offered at Yale College increased from 24 to 39.

TRAN: Seniors, have faith in the journey ahead

Several years ago, Father Ryan Lerner of St. Thomas More gave a homily in which he invited us to contemplate what kind of legacy we want to leave behind. When our obituaries are written, would we want our loved ones to harp on about the wealth and prestige we had accumulated or would we want to be remembered by the lives we have touched?

SCHWARTZ: Of time

I will celebrate that I came to Yale in part to escape my Orthodox upbringing, only to find myself writing my last papers on Jews in English literature.

KWONG: Will the Son of Man find faith at Yale?

To the casual observer, Yale may appear as just another secular institution, where religion faded away generations ago, never to return. But beneath the surface, something more nuanced, more mysterious, is unfolding.