<p>I was just wondering are all 12 of the colleges pretty evenly balanced in terms of the resources/aesthetics? It seems like some colleges are less popular amongst the group and others get a lot more attention...would going to one of those colleges that people know/desire less about be a bit a drag at Yale?</p>
<p>Most everyone ends up loving their residential college and the friendships they make there. The few who aren't happy have the opportunity to transfer to a different residential college. No, they are not balanced in terms of resources/aesthetics. Morse and Stiles do not look like the other colleges, as they are modern construction. JE has bigger endowments than other colleges.</p>
<p>there are lots of other threads on this. There's also an extensive thread on the yale 2012 facebook group. Do some research and you'll find what you're looking for.</p>
<p>"Most everyone ends up loving their residential college and the friendships they make there."</p>
<p>Agreed. Even though there are differences, people generally quickly become rabidly devoted to their assigned college. These loyalties remain long afterward. Like cleveland said, there are a few transfers every year but the bulk of folks remain in the one to which they were assigned as Freshmen.</p>
<p>Once there, you don't really care about what the others have and don't have. You're just enamored with your new "home". Just watch out come the first few weeks of September when you're talking to your family and saying how you had to rush "home" before classes to pick up a few books or you'll refer to the work waiting for you "at home" AFTER you get back to New Haven from Thanksgiving break.</p>
<p>"Home" is no longer your parents' address but your dorm room or your college. It's inevitable. Prepare your folks for this -- it could salve some hurt feelings in advance! LOL</p>
<p>(Go JE!)</p>
<p>Silliman: Big, recently renovated, lot of resources. Minus: a little impersonal. To me, their dining hall looks like an overly frumpy museum hall.
Saybrook: Small and cozy. Their courtyards are amazingly beautiful (same goes for Branford, but the latter isn't as quaint or how to say). Rooms are a little shabby, basement area and facilities as well.
Trumbull: Small and cozy. Renovated, great dining hall, amazing basement (when I say basement I mean where all the facilities and the buttery are), sweet rooms. Courtyard is very pretty.
Morse & Stiles: You'll hear to no end that they are the shabbier and less quaint colleges, but they really do have a good residential atmosphere.
Calhoun: Don't know much about it, but their rooms are on par with Saybrook, which is to say a little on the shabby side. Courtyard is nice.
JE: Don't know about this one either. I hear they've got more resources than the average college.
Davenport: Far away. Probably the only college I actively didn't want to be put in.
Berkeley: No idea.</p>
<p>I really want to echo the truism that once you're in your designated college, you will be FANATIC about it either way!</p>
<p>Berkeley = magnificence. Best location, master, dining hall, mascot, people. 2 courts = 2x the fun. Vandy is gorgeous. No lie, BK is the best college.</p>
<p>JE is being renovated and is supposed to reopen in the fall (but the construction is WAY behind). Pay attention to the pride kwijiborjt shows in post #6----it supports what I said previously; college loyalty reigns supreme at Yale. The residential college system is a BIG plus.</p>