Yale boasts of a world class gymnasium which is among the largest university gyms in the United States. On its second floor is the largest elevated swimming pool in the world. If you are interested in kayaking, you can train for that as well within the Gym building. So this should give you an idea of the scale of resources available as sports facilities. Yale regularly produces Olympic athletes that represent the U.S. so all facilities are designed catering to the need to train at that level. My Karate team also included members who represented the U.S. in world championships. The Yale Sterling Memorial Library houses over 15 million books and many more could be pulled through its network with other major universities (including the Ivy network, MIT, Berkeley, UChicago etc.). In addition, there are also smaller libraries scattered around the campus (e.g. the Math library is a building dedicated to mathematics). It never occurred during my 5 years at Yale that I wanted an information source (book, article etc.) and I didn't receive it. At this point, I'm of the opinion that Yale library services can reach any info item on the planet that you request them to find for you and all this happens at zero cost to you as a graduate student.

I stayed at Helen Hadley Hall for the first 2-3 years which is part of the Yale international housing. Later, I rented an apartment outside the university with a friend of mine. Yale housing costed roughly 800 dollars each month. The apartment costed about the same per person. The choice between an apartment vs a university hostel room depends on how you want to set up your place and how big you want it to be. Freedom-wise nothing changes. You are free to move in and out all 24 hours. Another factor to consider could be interactions with other cool people. In a university housing, you run into people all the time, hang out in common kitchens or lounge rooms etc and learn about all the great work other people are doing. The apartment will be your private setting. Hence, I decided to spend the first few years in the university housing before I moved into my own apartment.

Campus life is immersive but a bit of a struggle for food. Many events over the week

I live in a graduate housing unit having small sized apartments. rent is 900 dollars per month. Average rent in dorms is 750 dollars while off-campus avg is 1000 dollars in new haven