More room at Yale -- in the future

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
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<p>Just received this mass email from the President's office at Yale -- all of you w/ younger children, take heart!</p>

<p>Dear Yale Alumni and Parents: </p>

<p>I am pleased to announce that the Yale Corporation has authorized increasing the enrollment of Yale College through the creation of two new residential colleges. This expansion will allow us to make an even greater contribution to society by preparing a larger number of talented and promising students of all backgrounds for leadership and service.</p>

<p>We will achieve this goal while ensuring that the quality of the Yale College educational and social experience will be as extraordinary as ever.</p>

<p>As I stated in February, when we shared the report of the Study Group to Consider New Residential Colleges, the last significant increase in the size of the Yale College student body came with the admission of women in 1969. By 1978, undergraduate enrollment first reached 5,200, and it has remained between 5,150 and 5,350 ever since. When women were first allowed to apply to Yale College, the number of applications soared immediately from 6,781 to 10,039, and the number fluctuated between 9,000 and 13,000 until 2001, when it began a steady rise to its current level of 22,500, spurred by dramatic improvements in financial aid, wider awareness of Yale's accessibility, the extension of full need-based aid to international students, and a growing appreciation of the quality of a Yale College education. Along with the rise in applications has come an equally dramatic increase in the percentage of those admitted who accept Yale's offer, from 53 percent when I became president, to over 70 percent in recent years.</p>

<p>The principal result of these changes in the admissions picture is that Yale College has become significantly more selective. From 1969 to 2000, the percentage of applicants admitted to Yale College ranged from 18 to 27 percent. It was above 20 percent as recently as 1999. Today, Yale College admits fewer than 10 percent of its applicants. Admissions officers agree that in each of the past several years we have denied admission to hundreds of applicants who would have been admitted ten years ago.</p>

<p>The mission of Yale College is to seek exceptionally promising students of all backgrounds from across the nation and around the world and to educate them, through mental discipline and social experience, to develop their intellectual, moral, civic and creative capacities. The aim of this education is the cultivation of citizens with a rich awareness of our heritage to lead and serve in every sphere of human activity. For three centuries, we have made this aspiration a reality, to the great benefit of the nation and, increasingly, the world. Today, we have a long queue of highly qualified applicants who collectively would allow Yale to make an even greater contribution to society if more could be educated here. In addition, since the late-1970s, when the undergraduate population ceased to grow, Yale is larger in virtually every dimension: faculty, staff, library and museum resources, and physical presence. We are well poised, therefore, to expand.</p>

<p>Our 12 existing residential colleges are admired because they create intimate communities and a superb environment for learning. The new colleges will emulate Yale's proven model with a master, dean, fellows, and students forming a close-knit family, supported by the highest caliber public and private spaces for living and study. With an anticipated opening in 2013, these colleges will allow us not only to increase the undergraduate student body by about 15 percent, but also to alleviate crowding throughout the residential college system. We expect to reduce the population of the existing colleges by approximately 140 students and largely eliminate the need for annex housing.</p>

<p>Our goal is that students in every residential college, old and new, will have an even more robust and enlivening experience as a result of this expansion. Thus, we are adding facilities in the vicinity of the new colleges that support academics and student life, including classroom space, a student caf</p>

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<p>LOL -- cross-posted new thread w/ debateaddict.</p>

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<p>It sounds like a carefully thought out plan. It's a bit odd that there will be a large New Haven cemetery between the new colleges and the campus but I think this is a really good thing.</p>

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<p>Hmmm, interesting! Too bad I'll miss this by 2 years.</p>

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<p>So the class of 2014 will have more slots?</p>

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<p>well, I guess I should take 5 gap years now and try again</p>

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<p>So they'll be ready for the class of 2013?</p>

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<p>By class of 2014, I mean high school class of 2014.</p>

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<p>if the colleges are ready in 2013, they will first affect the college class of 2017.</p>

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<p>oo I'll miss it by one year then =/</p>

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<p>You're in eighth grade and you're already on Yale's CC? Jeez. You don't need to worry about college yet! Go have fun...enjoy summer!</p>

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<p>Will this affect the Class of 2013?</p>

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<p>I don't think I would spend much more time dreaming about this than you already do... When you think about it, that will only mean 140 or so more students each year. When applications run over 20,000, that is really only a drop in the huge bucket, even if the applicant pool shrinks by then, which is also supposed to happen. I agree-- spend time being a kid and dreaming about other things. Yale is always going to be Yale.</p>

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<p>franglish, would you happen to know why (and by how much) the applicant pool is supposed to shrink?</p>

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<p>^^^<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/education/09admissions.html?_r=1&em&ex=1205211600&en=a4dcb6b56ed9a072&ei=5087&oref=slogin%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/education/09admissions.html?_r=1&em&ex=1205211600&en=a4dcb6b56ed9a072&ei=5087&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The pool will shrink because the baby boomlet generation peaks in 08-09 (at about 2.9 million) and the number of college-bound high school graduates will then begin to decline. </p>

<p>According to the article, colleges' concern about the coming demographic shift is behind both the race to significantly expand financial aid to economically disadvantaged students and the surge in recruiting international students.</p>

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<p>Obligatorty posting of tokenadult's FAQ on demographics:</p>

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<p>I dislike the idea of new colleges. New college construction means:</p>

<p>1.) Tons of construction on campus for the next few years</p>

<p>2.) Bigger size (I like that Yale is a pretty small school)</p>

<p>3.) Less professors/resources/funding/everything else per student</p>

<p>4.) A less compact campus. Who wants to live on the other side of a cemetary? Ugh.</p>

<p>Any idea what kind of colleges these are going to be? If it's another attempt at modernism, I might faint.</p>

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<h1>3 on your list is incorrect. They will be hiring more faculty and increase spending. after all, they have a budget goal of $3.5 billion for the entire project, when they're only spending $600 million on the colleges themselves.</h1>

<p>for #4, Levin says that the addition of the colleges will allow the campus to seem smaller by incorporating science hill into the center.</p>

<p>Levin says the colleges are likely to be of Georgian architecture, and they for sure will not be modern.</p>

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<p>That's good news. I like Georgian.</p>

<p>Where are they coming up with the money for that $3.5 billion budget? Levin's email indicates that they've raised only a tiny fraction of the needed money. I am very doubtful that they will be able to make professors as accessable with a larger student body, but I suppose they're going to have planty of time to prove they're right.</p>

<p>I don't think the campus will feel smaller. TD and Silliman already feel a little far away... imagine what it will be like having a giant cemetary between the new colleges and everyone else!</p>

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<p>The hope for making the campus feel smaller lies in placing more people out there -- so that TD and Silliman won't be the only outlying colleges. If you shift the demographic center of campus, MORE students will feel closer to the center --- at least that's the goal. Yale is a TINY school relatively (ever visit Stanford?). This little increase won't hurt it at all IMHO. I'm excited about the change.</p>