Campus & Community
Learn, connect, and thrive at Yale Jackson.
There's no better way to experience Yale Jackson than by visiting our campus and exploring New Haven. Whether you're attending a Visit Day or planning your own trip, we're happy to help you get acquainted with the area. In the meantime, here are a few resources and recommendations from students, alumni, faculty, fellows, and staff to learn more about the campus and community you'll call home.
New Haven
Perennially ranked as among the most livable cities in the U.S., New Haven offers green neighborhoods, world-class art and theater, award-winning restaurants, and rich cultural life. With nearby beaches and hiking trails, a walkable downtown, and easy access to both Boston and New York, students enjoy the best of city life while taking advantages of being situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Appalachian Mountains.
Explore New Haven
Yale's campus
Situated on what Mark Twain called, "the most beautiful street in America," the Jackson campus comprises four historic buildings along Hillhouse Avenue that house classrooms, student gathering spaces, and offices, fostering a close-knit community where students engage closely with faculty, staff, and one another. Yale’s campus is known for its iconic buildings, particularly the Georgian-style and Gothic Revival buildings in Old Campus, as well as the more modern buildings such as the marble and granite-paned Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and Eero Saarinen’s distinctive Ingalls Rink (a.k.a. “The Whale”).
Yale’s tree-lined campus is also home to some of the world’s largest research libraries, most comprehensive art collections, and over one million square feet of laboratory research space. As members of the Yale community, Jackson students are part of the hundreds of lectures, performances, exhibitions, student organizations, and campus traditions of a 325-year-old university.
Discover Yale
A place to call home
Jackson students come to Yale from around the world, bringing a wide range of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds to the community. As they settle into life at Yale, they also make the New Haven area their home. Students have a variety of housing options in New Haven and surrounding towns, including graduate housing, Yale-owned off-campus apartments, and privately owned apartments and homes.
New Haven has been called “a city of neighborhoods,” offering a range of living options from downtown apartments and historic neighborhoods to quieter residential communities. Whether you prefer to live within walking distance of campus, explore options in nearby neighborhoods, or commute from a surrounding town, there are many housing options to fit your needs and lifestyle. Students walk or bike to campus, or take advantage of Yale’s free shuttle system, public transportation, or personal vehicles.
Graduate housing
Meaningful connections
Jackson students build a vibrant intellectual and social community outside the classroom through student-led programming, organizations, and activities. With support from the Office of Student Affairs, students connect with one another, explore shared interests, and engage with important issues facing communities around the world.
Student-led initiatives include guest speakers, community conversations, cultural celebrations, and informal gatherings that bring classmates together in meaningful ways. Whether presenting on a personal passion at Jackson Salon, decorating moon cakes for a Lunar New Year celebration, or meeting up for a weekend hike, students have many ways to engage around professional and academic interests, identities, hobbies, and traditions.
In their own words
Hear from our graduate students about what being a part of the Jackson community means to them.
“At Jackson, we pride ourselves on having a close-knit community, and that is true in various ways. We organize lots of social events to bond beyond the classroom, but I think it goes beyond the student community. Through our weekly coffee mornings or other social programs, I enjoyed the easy access to faculty and Senior Fellows to discuss academics, career opportunities, or life in general. I always feel the same bond when I talk to Jackson alumni as well. It is truly a tight community, even beyond New Haven."
Didace Irafasha, MPP '24
“I like how everyone knows everyone, we all have our niches carved out and because of it, are able to share opportunities with one another as well as not feel a sense of competition among each other. With Amb. Bisa Williams, we got access to fascinating stakeholders in a way that truly is only possible with someone of her stature, such as political science professors and students, Chambers of Congress, and renowned activists.”
Tiff Jiang, MPP '24
“What resonates for me is the camaraderie. In the classroom, our professors and peers encourage us to have honest and nuanced discussions about global affairs. These discussions help us push the boundaries of what we assume to be true about the world in a conducive and friendly environment. Out of the classroom, lifelong friendships, coffee chats, and impromptu gatherings underscore the compassionate nature of our community. Learning unique and enlightening insights into how diplomacy, human development, and history intersect on the ground has really stood out."
Mushfequr Rahman, MPP '25
"Undoubtedly, having the opportunity to attend top-tier events and meetings that Jackson provides is an unparalleled experience. Practically every day at Jackson, we have the chance to hear firsthand or even ask questions directly to world leaders, from presidents and ministers of various countries to CEOs of major companies or directors of multilateral organizations like the IMF or the UN. After watching so many movies, I never imagined I would be face-to-face with the director of the CIA or the FBI, as happened at Jackson.”
Santiago Falasca, MPP '24
"Rather than getting siloed into a narrow policy perspective, Jackson has encouraged me to broaden the way that I think about global issues. Jackson has this wonderful structure of clubs and interest groups. If we as policy makers aren’t in tune with things that are outside our area of interest, we can lose perspective into what the real world looks like. So having things like a film club where we watch a film and then analyze it from different areas of knowledge has been great."
Sofia Ginard Ramirez, MPP '26
"What I treasure the most is the personal connections formed. Thanks to the small cohort size, I had the chance to connect deeply with my classmates. I often look back at photos and find us gathered around a meal (often hotpot) in one of our apartments in New Haven, sipping coffee in a desert in Jordan, or enjoying homemade crispy chicken in Bangladesh. These shared moments remain some of my fondest memories, and I look forward to re-connecting with everyone and the Jackson community."
Eiichiro Takinami, MPP ’24
A Day in the Life of Hagan Han, MPP ‘26
9 a.m.
Wake up and walk to campus! My apartment in East Rock is only a ten minute walk to campus buildings.
9:30-11 a.m.
Head to Marx Social Science Library to get some work done.
11 a.m.-12 p.m.
Meeting of DESC (Development, Environment, Society, and Climate) to plan trip to the Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut. The goal is to better understand nuclear infrastructure and policy ramifications.
12-1 p.m.
Grab lunch with friends. There's always someone hanging out in the student lounge to eat with! I’m a big fan of the food trucks that are down the block from Jackson buildings.
1-3 p.m.
My current favorite Jackson class is the History and Global Affairs course. Professor Laura Robson teaches it, and I leave each lecture with a new perspective on international concepts like multilateralism, self-determination, and humanitarianism. Learning how nation states have historically leveraged these ideas to advance their own interests gave me a more critical eye towards how they’re used today.
4-5 p.m.
DESC-organized a panel with climate leaders including Jackson Senior Fellow, Susan Biniaz, former climate negotiator for the US State Department, to discuss the recent COP30 Climate Change Conference in Brazil.
6-8 p.m.
Sitar Indian restaurant with a smaller group after the panel to have a more intimate discussion. The small class size of Jackson means that I get incredible access to the world-class speakers that we have on campus.
8 p.m.
Spontaneous get-together with fellow students in the Jackson lounge to let off steam before finals start.
Visit Yale
Yale Jackson hosts drop-in information sessions on most days when classes are in session. We also offer on-campus Visit Days that include an information session with Admissions, campus tour, lunch with current students, and a class experience. We also host virtual information sessions at least twice every month.