<p>title spks for itself</p>
<p>i'm not entirely sure, but i think this is where u live, socialize etc.
basically each residential college is a community of its own.</p>
<p>it's like the residential colleges at oxford. at oxford they even review the applications by college, so essentially you are applying TO the residential college itself.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>it's like the residential colleges at oxford. at oxford they even review the applications by college, so essentially you are applying TO the residential college itself.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>The Yale system has some similarities to the Oxford system but some differences as well. At Yale you do not apply to the residence college. You apply to to the university and if accepted you are assigned to a college. You have no say in the assignment. You live all four years in the rooms in your college quad. The head of the college is responsible for your well being and oversees your academic progress.</p>
<p>Most Yale students quickly become very devoted to their residence colleges.</p>
<p>At Yale, each of the dorms are called residential colleges. There are twelve of them and everyone is placed randomly in a college. Each college is a sort of gated "community"; some are connected to each other (Branford and Saybrook) and others are completely separate from the others (although in close proximity). Residential colleges compete against each other in IMs and what not. They're sort of a small community within a larger community. It's a way to form close relationships with people and be in an environment that seems smaller than it really is. I dunno. I can't really explain it, but it's cool. <a href="http://www.yale.edu/yalecol/students/student_life/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.yale.edu/yalecol/students/student_life/index.html</a></p>
<p>I wonder if they try to distribute students among the colleges in somewhat even ways, such as a certain amount of potential history majors in each one or whether it's totally random.....?</p>
<p>From what I've heard at the info sessions and on tours, they place everyone randomly and then go through the lists to make sure that there aren't, for example, seventeen "David"s in one college and none in another, or, like you suggest, a bunch of history majors in TD, and none in Calhoun. So basically, the placement is random to a certain degree.</p>
<p>My understanding is that during Bulldog Days each incoming student is placed on a chair in the middle of Old Campus. A conical shaped hat is placed on their head and the hat, after due consideration, announces to which college they are assigned.</p>
<p>Seriously, I believe all freshman live in Old Campus, except for those assigned to one of the two colleges that have room for freshman.</p>
<p>lol a sorting hat. the residential college system is a lot like the houses in Harry Potter, yesh.</p>
<p>Per the Yale web site, the two colleges that have freshman living in (as opposed to livining in Old Campus) are Silliman and Timothy Dwight.</p>
<p>haha that would actually be sort of fun. Maybe they could release a few owls for the occasion. One of the main dining halls did look very Harry Potterish, they could do it in there.</p>
<p>lol my tour guide said that they don't do it randomly. They purposely try very hard to get a diverse group of students in each college, so there are no stereotypes associated with any of them. Yale students are intensely loyal to their college, and it creates this friendly competition and a nice small community inside of a big university. Each residential college has a dining hall, but there is interaction between members of different colleges (you can eat at any of them). Each college also has something unique about them: a sauna, organic food, a printing press, etc. </p>
<p>Professors and deans also live in residential colleges and each college will host visitors and master's teas and have tutors and libraries and things like that.</p>
<p>I was about to answer "See Harry Potter" but some people beat me too it. The residential colleges are what initially drew me to Yale. As the biggest HP fan ever (yes, I'm almost eighteen years old) I got really excited about the idea of having houses with competitions etc. So the house system is like a larger scale Hogwarts.</p>
<p>I was also thinking the incoming freshman should have some sort of sorting ceremony with a hat and a feast that magically appears in the great hall. Even if the hat doesn't talk. I dunno, might just be me. ooohh dumbledooore</p>
<p>Well...the competition between residential colleges is extremely low-key, so it isn't exactly like Hogwarts. No sorting hat either, alas, and I believe the assignments are pretty random. But most Yalies will tell you that their residential college is clearly the best (though that's not true unless they're in my old college :)).</p>
<p>While freshmen, except from Silliman and TD, live on the Old Campus, they're assigned to their colleges the previous summer, and housed with other freshmen from their college. Since the Old Campus doesn't have dining halls, freshmen usually gravitate toward their colleges for meals and (to some extent) social activities.</p>
<p>editrix - did your daughter get into the college that you were in?<br>
You must have been one of the first females to go there?</p>
<p>LOL - ah, yes, the res colleges. my interviewer, and everyone i've talked to since then, has said that they are sorted randomly and adjusted if needed. all you need to know about them, basically, is that TD (Timothy Dwight) is the best. Ashe!</p>
<p>everyone will tell you their residential college is the best.</p>
<p>ahem, trumbull is the best college.</p>
<p>Whichever one I'm going to be in is the best.</p>
<p>so which other schools have residential colleges?</p>
<p>Princeton and Harvard have similar things. Princeton has them for freshmen and sophomores, but they don't seem as enthusiastic about them. Harvard has the houses, but I don't know much about that.</p>
<p>According to my Harvard interviewer, Harvard freshmen all live in the freshmen dorms. At the end of freshmen year, they form blocking groups (up to about ten people maybe?) and the blocking groups are randomly assigned. I personally don't like that system as much as Yale's, since it seems to undo the randomness.</p>