Life at Yale
Learn about life as a Yale PA student beyond the classroom, lab, and clinic, from a window into the day in the life of a PA student, to recreational opportunities and special programs!
Recreation
Fitness and athletics
Students enjoying outside activity
Many Yale PA students credit exercise as the best way to unwind after a long day in the anatomy lab or on the wards; for this, Yale's Payne-Whitney Gym, open to all students at no cost, offers a wide range of classes and many facilities, such as squash and racquetball courts, indoor and outdoor running tracks, a par course, and two pools.
ES Harkness Hall on the Medical School campus hosts its own smaller Harkness Gym facility, whose access is limited to Yale School of Medicine students and, like Payne-Whitney, is free for our students.
The Yale Golf Course is one of the top 100 courses in the country.
Yale’s Outdoor Education Center, consisting of 1,500 acres in East Lyme, Connecticut, includes a trout pond, cabins and campsites, hiking trails, swimming, horseshoes, fishing, volleyball, cookouts, canoes, kayaks, rowboats, basketball, ping pong, and a picnic grove available for day trip or overnight stay.
In addition to use of Yale's world class athletic facilities, our students can attend Yale collegiate sporting events, including in significant venues like the Yale Bowl and Ingalls Rink.
Music and Theater
New Haven's strong cultural and artistic traditions continue to thrive. The city boasts two world-renowned theater houses: the Yale Repertory Theater and the historic Shubert Theater, where OKLAHOMA!, Carousel, A Streetcar Named Desire, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music all debuted.
Broadway touring shows, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and the abundance of artistic contributions of the University, such as the Yale Cabaret, Yale Symphony, Yale Chorale, Schwarzman Center, and Yale Glee Club, also offer an extraordinary caliber of musical and theatrical entertainment.
Museums and Galleries
The City is also home to some of our nation's most impressive art collections: the Yale University Art Gallery, the Yale Peabody Museum, and the Yale Center for British Art, as well as small galleries citywide.
Special Programs & Student Opportunities
Your reasons for coming to medical education are as varied and individual as each of you. We have a multitude of ways to bring your learning beyond the essential curriculum. Work in the local community, internationally, as an editor for a science journal, in biomedical ethics, or the humanities in medicine.
YSM Advisory Houses
Physician Associate, MD, and MD-PhD students are randomly assigned to one of six advisory houses for the duration of their degree program. Each house has a head of advisory house, elected student representatives, and faculty, fellow, resident, and alumni affiliates, who all contribute to the mentoring and social ecosystem of the houses. Activities range from networking dinners, to a fun spring-time competition between houses, involving games such as Mario Kart, Cornhole, Trivia, and Tug-of-War.