Almost 90 percent of student respondents said they lived with two parents at home. The highest educational level attained by either parent skewed toward the high end of the spectrum, with 71 percent earning at least a Master's, professional or doctorate degree. Forty-six freshmen said that no parent had gone beyond graduating high school. Much like family education level, family income levels were generally high for the class of 2018: 314 of the 582 respondents reported an annual household income of more than $125,000, 83 of which eclipsed $500,000 per year.
Still, 25 percent of those surveyed indicated that they were in the bottom two income brackets, earning $80,000 annually or below. Within those brackets, however, 85 percent said they were happy with their financial aid awards, compared to the overall 58 percent who said the same.
According to results from a similar freshman class survey conducted by the Harvard Crimson for Harvard freshman, Yales class of 2018 mirrored Harvards with both yielding similarly distributed income levels and ethnicities. At 58 percent, Harvard did have a larger contingent of public school students compared with Yales 55 percent. However, Harvard demonstrated a higher proportion of legacies with 73 percent of Harvard freshman reporting no prior family connection to the university compared with 78 percent at Yale.
IDENTITY
In religious beliefs, the Class of 2018 displays immense diversity, with no religion exceeding 18 percent of the class. Protestants, Catholics, atheists, agnostics and Jews made up the lions share of the class, with each accounting for between 13 and 18 percent.True to the adage that college students skew liberal, more than six-tenths of the 569 respondents characterized themselves as either somewhat or very liberal, while only 14 percent self-identified as somewhat or very conservative.
HIGH SCHOOL
Before Yale, slightly more than half of those surveyed attended a public high school, with the remainder generally attending private schools. Of those attending private schools, 3 out of 5 paid a tuition of more than $20,000 every year.71 percent said that they enjoyed at least an aboveaverage high school experience, while only 2 percent said that they did not enjoy theirs.