<p>how does it work?
are you randomly assigned to a college?
are people in your classes only from your college or from all of the colleges?
does it cause a "cliquish" environment?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>how does it work?
Residential</a> Life | Freshmen | Office of Undergraduate Admissions</p>
<p>are you randomly assigned to a college?</p>
<p>-- Yes, unless you're a legacy (you can opt IN or OUT of your relative's college)</p>
<p>are people in your classes only from your college or from all of the colleges?</p>
<p>-- People in your colleges aren't grouped together by areas of study. Your best friends could be an engineer, theatre major and budding Wall Street banker. So NO, your academic classmates are represented by the whole gamut of residential colleges.</p>
<p>does it cause a "cliquish" environment?</p>
<p>-- by living in close proximity with different people from day one (and you're more or less randomly assigned), the broad cliques evident at some other colleges actually DON'T form. It's not as if one college has all the athletes, another has the "artsy" folks and another the "science" people and another has a strong concentration of minorities. Each college has the full representation from disparate backgrounds, interests and areas of study.</p>
<p>If you ask 100 alumni what they feel the BEST feature of attending Yale College was -- I'd hazard to say that 95 of them would say the Residential College system. Frankly, it is one of the cornerstones of the Yale experience. And other colleges' attempts at this don't foster the EXTREME loyalty and devotion as Yale's resco system generates. Alums meet each other and say: "What college were you in and what year did you graduate?" not "What did you study?"</p>
<p>(note the friendly jabbing at the other thread about which college is the "best")</p>
<p>((JE of course)) LOL</p>