Students at Yale have access to a wide range of activities within the School of Architecture and elsewhere in the university or the community. These focus on academic, cultural, political, and community-based interests. At the school, one may join the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS). A student also has the opportunity to be elected to one of several committees, including the Admissions Committee and the Curriculum Advisory Committee. 

Students have founded many organizations at the School of Architecture including Paprika!, the weekly independent student publication; Outlines, the LGBTQ+ student group; YSOA Christian Fellowship; Green Action in Architecture (GAIA); Latin YSOA; the Indigenous Scholars of Architecture, Planning and Design (ISAPD); Yale Women in Architecture; All Ball YSOA; and the YSOA Badminton League, among others.

Students have the opportunity to edit school publications. Perspecta, the Yale Architectural Journal, is the oldest student-edited architecture journal in the country, and each year gathers essays, articles, and projects from a range of leading scholars and designers. Retrospecta is the school’s annual student-edited yearbook; students have the opportunity to edit Retrospecta as a team in the summer after their first year of study.

Outside the School of Architecture, there are many student organizations, including the Black Graduate Student Network (BGN), the Graduate and Professional Student Center at Yale (The Gryphon), the Yale Law School Housing and Community Development Clinic (integrating pro bono legal and architectural services to the New Haven community), and the Women’s Center, as well as the many Yale cultural centers. Countless groups offer membership in other endeavors. Among these are the Yale Cabaret, the Yale Daily News, the Yale Gospel Choir, and the Yale Russian Chorus. Students may also apply for grants through Yale University to support local summer public-service internships that already exist or are of a student’s own design.