aspiring_env

@hotmack - I am in the same boat here - got accepted into Duke Nicholas, Yale FES, UCSB Bren. Yale FES and Duke Nicholas have offered partial funding. I visited FES and Nicholas and interacted with students and some alumni of both schools. I'll be attending Duke-Nicholas, even though it would cost a bit more than Yale FES. In summary, I found, Yale FES' approach of portraying a good outside image of itself (maybe under the weight of its parent university) in contrast with Nicholas' School approach of looking inward and doing the hard work of silently enabling its students to achieve their post-graduation goals. I did my undergrad at Yale and would have loved to be there again after 4 years of work. Sadly, FES was unimpressive at best. Here's my analysis: 1. As an earlier post pointed out, Nicholas School is pulling all stops wrt spending resources for MEM students. Yale FES always seemed to have focussed on its Ph.D. students. 2. Nicholas School has exceptionally stronger alumni base in consulting and env. policy organizations. I choose a company on top of my head (SolarCity) - and a first-year student I met randomly could name 3 graduates in last 2 years who work there. 3. Placements: The median salary at Nicholas and Yale is the same - however, an average graduate of Yale FES is 1-3 years older than Nicholas School. In terms of value addition, Nicholas School seems to better than Yale. 4. Atmosphere: I felt students at Nicholas were so much more driven - I overheard conversations about Series A funding at least thrice in my half-day there. Yale FES, on the other hand, seemed to fit the stereotypical of a "hippie" environment school. I overheard people having naive conversations about the sacredness of nature. Please spare me that. 5. Curriculum: I am a stickler for developing concrete skills - at FES I found that it was more of a free-wheeling approach, in-line with its focus on developing leadership and global perspectives. At Duke, the conversation went like - so, if you want a job X, you'll need Y skills - and here's how you can use Z resources to accomplish that. On Bren: It seems to beat both Nicholas School and Yale FES in terms of placing students on the west coast. However, it's hard to give up partial funding from Duke. Anyone with an informed opinion on Bren?