It’s not about the subject matter, the title, or even the reputation of the department. It’s about finding instructors who are passionate about their field and who care about their students’ learning and growth.

A skilled and inspiring professor can make even the driest subject matter come to life, while a lackluster instructor can turn the most fascinating topic into a snooze-fest.

An outline of Bluebooking for Happiness :

Only the Professor Matters

• Make your own criteria for what a good professor is
• Attending classes is the best way to verify if a professor is good
• Course reviews are an okay approximation but can be biased
• Popular professors may be overrated
• New professors are underrated and can be some of the best
• Course title, description, syllabus, and content don’t matter as much as the professor
• Drop a major to avoid a bad professor

Take Easy Classes

• Take at most two high-workload classes per semester
• Your time is valuable, prioritize real-world experience and building connections
• Pick high-workload classes that teach you something unique
• Low-workload, serious classes are better than traditional “guts”
• Find classes others are taking for the material or professor that are also low-workload
• The value of college comes from more than just classes

Don’t Take Classes with Section

• Sections are designed to fail and rarely have the expertise of the professor
• TAs may not have the incentive or knowledge to give accurate information
• Section adds extra time and overhead

Timing Considerations

• Don’t take classes because you “have to” (except for language and limited classes)
• Don’t take classes that meet more than twice a week
• Don’t take classes that meet on Friday
• Don’t take labs
• Don’t take languages (unless required)
• Don’t double major

Advising

• Get good advisors who will give different extreme opinions
• Be decisive and don’t average the advice you get

Subject: Yale Course Superlatives Results 📘

Hey everyone!

Thank you again for completing the Yale Course Superlatives Survey. We have over 350 responses and 2500 courses filled out! 🚀

Here is a breakdown of the responses:

1. All responses (feel free to search your friends!)
2. Favorite professors (the most useful page in my opinion)
3. Overall favorites
4. Guttiest
5. Favorite Major Courses
6. Favorite Distributional Requirements
7. Best Lectures
8. Best Seminars
9. Aggregate courses across all categories 3-8
10. Breakdown of majors in responses

2-10 are pivot tables, descending by frequency. Favorite professors are, in my opinion, the most important page to look at (see Bluebooking for Happiness).

I will be expanding this project in the future, such as integration with Yalies.io to filter results by grade. If any of you are currently interested in data science, feel free to ping me and I would be happy to share the dataset!

Blog Post and Substack

You can also see a detailed blog post of how it was made here:

https://bradenwong.com/articles/announcing-the-release-of-course-superlatives/

This project was more difficult than it seems, and you can see some of my thought processes there! 

If you would like to keep in touch, you can also join my Substack—I will be posting articles there about college, productivity, and life during the upcoming summer!

Cheers!

Subject: What are your favorite courses at Yale? Due May 1

Hey Seniors!

We’re creating a snapshot of the very best courses at Yale, and we need your help!

superlatives.yaleapps.com 🚀

Please complete this form by May 1st. You must participate to see results.

As the end of the academic year approaches, it’s time to look back. You’ll not only be contributing to a unique snapshot of our academic community, but also helping future students make informed decisions about their course selections (plus, nostalgia!).

We look forward to sharing the courses that have made a lasting impact on you and discovering the hidden gems Yale has to offer. Thank you in advance for your contributions, and let’s celebrate the spirit of learning at Yale together!

Older Drafts That Didn’t Make it

Subject: 2023 Yale Course Superlatives: What are your favorite courses on Yale? Due May 1

Hey Seniors!

As the end of the academic year approaches, it’s time to look back on the courses that have shaped us, excited us, and disappointed us. We’re creating a snapshot of the very best courses you guys enjoyed at Yale, and we need your help!

https://superlatives.yaleapps.com/

Some of our superlatives include:

• Favorite courses of all time
• Worst courses of all time
• Most disappointing
• Chillest (guttiest) courses
• Best writing, science, humanities, and social sciences courses
• Best professors of all time

To participate, please complete the form by May 1st. I will compile the responses and (hopefully) share the results with all respondents by May 7, so you can look back with nostalgia and hopefully pick better courses next year.

We look forward to reading about and sharing the courses and professors that have made a lasting impact on you and discovering the hidden gems that our campus has to offer. Thank you in advance for your contributions, and let’s celebrate the spirit of learning at Yale together!

Hey Seniors!

What were the best courses you took during your Yale career?

As the end of the academic year approaches, it’s time to look back. We’re creating a snapshot of the very best courses at Yale, and we need your help!

To participate and see results, please complete this form by May 1st:

https://superlatives.yaleapps.com/

You’ll not only be contributing to a unique snapshot of our academic community but also helping future students make informed decisions about their course selections (plus, nostalgia!).

We look forward to reading about and sharing the courses that have made a lasting impact on you and discovering the hidden gems that our campus has to offer. Thank you in advance for your contributions, and let’s celebrate the spirit of learning at Yale together!

In this form, we invite you to share your favorite courses, the most challenging ones, the most enlightening experiences, and even the most laid-back classes you’ve encountered during your Yale journey.

In my opinion, Franklin and Murray serve the highest quality salmon. Salmon in a lot of the other dining halls feels very greasy—it’s as if the salmon swims in a pot of grease.

I don’t know what it is about the other dining halls in Franklin and Murray. But it seems like they cook the salmon differently, or the light brown wooden aesthetic in their dining hall distracts me from the grease, or this is completely placebo.

A term used to describe a tendency to explore and take on a variety of different interests, often at the cost of being flaky. Yale Students are often referred to as “Voracious Butterflies.”

See also Daily Theme 15—A Totally Honest, Quintessential, 100% Representative Description of the Ideal Yale Student.