Dorms in Yale?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

I’m not an american student (yet) but I would like to apply to Yale in a few years. I researched most of the things about Yale, but there are still a few things that I don’t understand, mostly about the dorms.

  1. Can I have roommates without being in a group? - It would be a new city for me, where I don’t know anybody, so there is no chance that I will get in a group before moving in, but I would like to have roommates anyways to get to know other people, find friends, etc. Is that possible to get in a dorm with basically strangers who are also study in Yale?
  2. How long do you ‘live’ in a dorm? - Every college and university has a different amount of ‘living time’ in the dorms and by that, I mean, how much time later do you have to move out after moving in? Because somewhere you get new dorms every semester, but somewhere you only have to move out in the summers. How does that work in Yale?
    Thank you for answers in advance :slight_smile:
2

  1. Yale first years are assigned roommates and suitemates randomly, so there’s no choosing involved. In other words knowing or not knowing people beforehand won’t change anything.

  2. You stay in the same dorm room the entire academic year. Additionally, students living in a dorm room have first priority to stay in that room for the next academic year.

3

My first-year son was randomly assigned to Branford. He lived during fall semester in a suite for 8, but because of COVID there were only 4 of them (one per bedroom instead of two). They had a big common room as well. He didn’t know his three suitemates before.
The upcoming semester he will be remote.
For his sophomore year they are organizing groups, so he can live on campus with his friends that he made during last semester.