<p>Please comment on the residential college system. How intricate a part of student life are they and why? Are there better colleges than others and which have been renovated? THANKS</p>
<p>Yale's website best describes it:</p>
<p>With that, it's the core of student life and your closest relationships are usually developed there. Today, when alumni meet one another, they say "Jane Smith, Silliman, Class of '77" or "Joe Walker, Branford '98" -- never anything like "Jane Smith, mechanical engineering, class of '77"</p>
<p>While I may be Blue and White outside, I bleed Jonathan Edwards Green! GO JE!</p>
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Please comment on the residential college system. How intricate a part of student life are they and why? Are there better colleges than others and which have been renovated? THANKS
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<p>As T26E4 said, and his link explains, residential colleges are the center of student life. In my mind, they are the single best thing about Yale - the single most important reason I would recommend it to a prospective student over any of its peer institutions. </p>
<p>Yes, there are some colleges considered "better" than others. Morse and Stiles are generally thought to be the worst (they are built in a much more modern style that most Yalies consider ugly, plus the rooms in them lack right angles). All of the colleges except Morse, Stiles, Calhoun, and Jonathan Edwards have been renovated (though JE did its own renovation a number of years ago). JE will be renovated next year, and Calhoun the following year (and possibly Morse and Stiles following, though I'm not sure about that). Silliman is being renovated this year. </p>
<p>But all the colleges are awesome, with even the worst being better than the best dorm at almost any other college, and all of them providing the same benefits to student life. </p>
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While I may be Blue and White outside, I bleed Jonathan Edwards Green! GO JE!
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Personally, I've always thought that a college whose motto is JE Sux can't really be that great. On the other hand,
Say What?
SAYBROOK!!!!</p>
<p>When we played IMs, we took the more classical "JE Spiders" -- but who am I to argue tradition? The JE Sux came in 1975 (we were derided at a Dartmouth FB game after we cause to malfunction, the bladderball game the day before). Then our IM hockey team took it as their motto. They went on to go undefeated for 4 years, one of the longest IM winning streaks. The JE Sux motto, spread to other IM teams and there you go...</p>
<p>Go JE!</p>
<p>Morse & Stiles are going to be fully renovated. I know this b/c my D, who graduated last year, lived in one of them and as an alum has been kept in the loop. Though not in the classic Yale gothic style they are, believe it or not, considered landmarks by architecture buffs because they were designed by a famous architect named Eero Saarinen, and because of that can't be altered at all on the outside.</p>
<p>The insides are going to be completely rebuilt and turned into suites similar to those in the other colleges. And in an open area between Morse/Stiles and the Payne Whitney gym is going to be built an entire below-ground complex of rooms & courtyards & skylights containing all sorts of extra common space, something in short supply there now.</p>
<p>Not to mention that in the meantime, Morse and Stiles both have an abundance of single rooms. My D is in Stiles, and while she was initially a bit disappointed, she now loves her college (and she has terrific freshman housing). As she put it, "on any other campus Stiles and Morse would be considered great living spaces; it's only because the rest of Yale is so beautiful that they suffer in comparison." :)</p>
<p>Booklady is correct, and the singles are very big -- most have room for sofa/chairs/etc in addition to the usual bed, desk, etc...even walk-in closets! Also Stiles literally abuts the bookstore and is steps away from all the Broadway stores & conveniences.</p>
<p>Random architecture history: Saarinen said his inspiration for Morse & Stiles were the towers, golden stone walls, and charmingly irregular streets of the lovely Tuscan hilltown San Gimignano. (What that had to do with Yale and New England I have no idea.) After her graduation, my D and I took a trip to Italy and visited there, and we both agreed that there was indeed an extreme family resemblance.</p>
<p>Some other schools say they have a college (or "house") system, but Yale has the only true 4-year residential system, and the only one that offers so much to students. Yale's colleges even have their own endowments. Most of the other universities that claim to have a college system do it primarily for marketing purposes. Visit Yale for a few days, then visit any of its rivals, and you'll immediately notice the difference.</p>
<p>How many people to a bathroom?
Thanks</p>
<p>It depends as the colleges have different layouts and architecture. The most people whom I had to share was my soph year when I lived in a triple (a single BR and a double BR, with living room w/fireplace) where four triples were banked together to share the bathroom in the hallway. Officially, our bath was for 12 but since it was in the hallway, housekeeping took care of it. If your bathroom is in your suite, they you're responsible (both good and bad).</p>
<p>Go JE!</p>
<p>Sophomore year I only shared a bathroom with 3 other people, and since it wasn't technically an in-suite bathroom, it was cleaned/maintained by the university. In Silliman (at least pre-renovation), you never had to share a bathroom with more than 8 people, at least from what I know.</p>