Around YMUN Korea 2014: Lounge Night
After a fruitful day of debate,
delegates at YMUN Korea 2014 took to the Lounge Night to speak with the Yale
chairs about various areas of interest, ranging from the social life to
studying abroad opportunities at Yale. With one chair occupying a table and a
specific field of “expertise” that they would
discuss with the students, all high school members of the conference eagerly
asked questions and asked for advice.
A current sophomore at Yale and the Chair of SOCHUM, Hannah Gonzalez spoke to
students about admissions to the school. Gonzalez explained to the students, a
vast majority of whom were Korean and unfamiliar with the American college
admissions system, that holistic and contextual evaluation is the main
objective of admissions officers at Yale. The holistic admissions refers to the
idea of evaluating all various aspects an applicant to grasp an idea of who the
individual is, rather than setting the ideal score range for the SAT’s or mandating that
applicants win a certain number of awards. “You
should really use your application to bring yourself to life on paper,” Gonzalez emphasized
again, and that she herself had to reflect on which activities and experiences
truly define her as she completed her application, rather than lengthen the
list as much as she could.
Joao
Pedro Dreschler, a rising junior and the Chair of WHO, spoke on the social
sciences department and economics, his major, at Yale. “I was unsure which
major I would be most satisfied with when I first came to Yale.” He described to the
attentive students at his table his process of taking courses in literature,
philosophy, and history and reading the great books of the West in
seminar-sized classes. Dreschler jokingly recalled that after taking a course
in intermediate microeconomics, which was “arguably
the hardest class I’ve ever taken and I
will ever take”, he decided to major
in economics. It was obvious to the students listening, however, that the life
at Yale had undeniably enriched and broadened the experiences of the Yale
chairs. As the Lounge Night smoothly progressed as planned, the first day of
YMUN Korea 2014 also came to an end.
by Seoyoon Choi
