There are a lot of great parties at Yale, and some of them happen every year. To make your lives easier in regards to deciding what’s worth going to and what’s okay to skip out on, I’ve ranked them from my personal experience at each one from worst to best. Please keep in mind, however, that this is just my opinion, and it has been highly influenced by the people I know and the social scene that I operate within. Everyone’s experience is different, so just get out there and have fun!
“Jammy Jams” — ADPhi
I went for the first time this year, and I was there for all of ten minutes. To say that it was a scary experience would be an understatement. I’d only been to ADPhi once before, and it was the first night of freshman year. I decided to go back this year, though, because who knows? Maybe Jammy Jams would be different! The second I stepped inside, I was drenched in hot, sweaty, beer-soaked air. I immediately began to panic. Should I turn around right now and leave? I slowly inched forward, trying to reach the basement through the hordes of large men. I finally made it outside, where I approached a group of friends who were standing around and complaining. Lit! At that point, I was pretty much done, so I hopped the fence to get out, knowing that it would be nearly impossible to get back outside by going through the house. It was pretty much a safety hazard in every way, but hey, maybe it’s some people’s scene. Just not mine.
“American Pie” — AEPi
I went once, and it was actually right before the ADPhi party on my first night of Camp Yale in freshman year. Pretty much everyone was standing around drinking beer, and it wasn’t very high-energy, so I wasn’t there for very long. However, being a freshman, I got there way too early, so to give the noble boys of AEPi some credit, I’m sure the party would have been going off had I arrived an hour later.
“Valentoads” — Toad’s Place
Given away by its name, “Valentoads” is the Woads night the week of Valentine’s Day. The night of, I left a mixer at the heavyweight crew house, slipped on the ice, and sprained my ankle. Being the idiot I am, however, I decided to go to Valentoads anyway. The ultimate rally! I limped through the Morse/Stiles stairway and waited in line for Toad’s alone, having lost track of the friends I was out with. I was there for around fifteen minutes, until they announced the Spring Fling lineup. After that, I began to feel the throbbing in my ankle, and limped home to Old Campus. The next day I woke up at 5 AM unable to move my left foot and had to call an Uber to Yale Health. Classy!
“Pardi Gras” — Leo
It was fun, but it was kind of like every other Leo party except with Mardi Gras decorations.
“Hallowoads” — Toad’s Place
You have to love these holiday themed Woads nights. Hallowoads popped off for sure, but it was also incredibly crowded. The place was packed up to the bathroom stairwells; people literally could not move. It was the place to be for sure, but that comes with a cost, which was extreme crowding. At one point I lost my friends and went into the bathroom, where I proceeded to cry in frustration because it was so crowded and I was a sad first-year lost in the middle of Toad’s. This year I might go as a sexy cop and literally handcuff myself to one of my friends. That way this kind of thing won’t happen again!
“Spook’d” — SigEp
Spook’d was a ton of fun. It was at Elevate and it was packed, but not TOO packed. I got a cute pic for the gram and danced on a platform for hours. My kind of night.
“Tang” — DKE
I rarely go to DKE, but oh did they surprise me with Tang. Tang attracts a larger crowd than the normal DKE scene, which made it so much fun because ~everyone~ was there. I danced on top of kegs, ruined my frat shoes in the mud, ate a quesadilla from the Rubamba food truck outside, drank half a bottle of rosé, ran inside to the bathroom when the rosé caught up with me, ran back outside immediately afterward, and continued to rage. The ultimate post-fling rally. 10/10 would recommend.
Missed: DKEmas, Wrapp’d, Mistletoads, RAD, Smooch’d, and probably some others that I can’t remember. As you can see, I didn’t go out much last winter because I was too busy sitting in my dorm room crying over how cold it was and how much I missed California. Catch me there this year!