<p>I've been accepted as a member of the Class of 2016, and had two questions for any experienced Yalies out there:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I assume that each residential college has its own unique vibe. Can anyone share the characteristics/qualities/vibe of some of the individual Residential colleges? </p></li>
<li><p>I understand that freshmen are randomly assigned to one of the 12 residential colleges. But I would really, really like to join one of the colleges and was wondering if there is any PC, meaningful way for me to make my preference known?</p></li>
</ol>
I am curious as to why you like a particular college? Many of what were the less desirable colleges are now popular after the many renovations that have taken place. My son thought Morse wasn’t so great and he LOVES it there. He did stay on Old Campus this year in Durfee (one of more spacious in Old Campus) but moves into some awesome suites next year in Morse. Check out the Walrus Gallery under Photos. They also have one of the most popular dining halls.</p>
<p>Its pretty black and white that I - a regular decision admit with no legacy - don’t have a say, but I took a gap year and some of my best friends from high school are in a couple of specific colleges, would they even consider an email asking if there’s a chance to be considered for a specific college?</p>
<p>EDIT: And they wouldn’t rescind my place for such a boneheaded email?</p>
<p>They won’t rescind your offer of acceptance, but they won’t entertain your friends’ requests, either. Yale does not want to place students with kids they already know. It would be contrary to the spirit of the RC system. Part of the beauty of the housing system at Yale is the element of random assignment. It creates a high-functioning artificial community that’s a place to make friends who aren’t exactly like you, and to do it with almost no effort. So you wind up with circles of close friends – some RC based, some activity based, and maybe in your case some high school based.</p>
<p>Below is what my son wrote this year as part of his financial aid renewal application. I think his experience with the residential college system is what Yale strives for in their housing.</p>
<p>“I seem to have lucked out with my housing situation. My dorm is on the first floor, right by the stairs. The door is often left open, and many members of the entryway drop in daily. At night, a large group of us gather in our room, where, for hours, we end up debating random topics: universal morality and the nature of infinity to which flavor of Easy Mac tastes the best. While sometimes frustrating, the discussions are almost always thought provoking. I’ve never been more thankful to be surrounded by highly intelligent people.”</p>
Don’t worry about it. I guarantee that you will be randomly assigned to the best residential college at Yale. This will become clear to you within minutes of arriving on campus.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t be worried about particular differences between the residential colleges, in reality they are quite similar and you will surely have friends in any of them. If you really do want to be in a particular college but are assigned to another one, you will almost definitely come to love the college in which you are placed. If it turns out that you still prefer another college to your own, you do have the option of transferring during your sophomore year, when you actually live in your residential college (except for Silliman and Timothy Dwight).</p>
<p>And congratulations on your acceptance! This place is the best.</p>
<p>
[quoteBelow is what my son wrote this year as part of his financial aid renewal application. I think his experience with the residential college system is what Yale strives for in their housing.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Gibby, where in the fin aid apps is there a requests for comments etc from the student?
We just finished the FAFSA and Profile forms and have the stack for IDCO ready to go. I know there are some forms that are directly related to Y’s finaid office.
I don’t recall anything that asks for a personal sttement.
Want to be sure neither our student nor we forget anything,</p>
<p>Is it true that Yale tends to put people who are very dissimlar together as roommates? Are there many instances where people just don’t get along with each other for that reason or do most become good friends with their roommates/residential college mates?</p>
<p>There are no guarantees, but I think most people become friends with at least some of their freshman roommates–most people are in suites of four or five people, so you’ll probably find at least one you’ll get along with well.</p>
<p>In my original six, four of us stayed together for all four years. I’ve been to all their weddings and they to mine. Every christmas, my cards to them and theirs to me are like clockwork.</p>
<p>Residential college assignments are mostly random (but, from what I’ve been told, Admissions does play a role even beyond assigning legacies their preference).</p>
<p>Suitemate and roommate decisions are at the discretion of each college’s dean. You get a mix of rooms–from very happy together to unable to stand one another. But that’s what will happen when you try to assign people to suites and rooms with very limited information. I have, however, heard stories of the dean of Trumbull consistently making some odd bordering on perverse assignments (e.g. five Asian girls and one white girl).</p>
<p>From the “cribs” videos online it seems like some freshmen have singles while others are in bunk beds in rooms small enough to be singles. Also random? Is there any way to avoid the latter? Not that freshmen absolutely must have singles, but bunk beds in a tiny room seems a bit much, even with a common space available.</p>
<p>Not sure what residential hall you saw small rooms in but it sure wasn’t Durfee. My son has a single almost as big as his sister’s double at her public and the double in his suite is huge (no bunk beds). He moves into Morse next year and we toured their suites and they are even bigger. Until you know what college you are in there is no sense stressing. Also, other than Silliman and Timothy Dwight, where you spend freshman year will not be where you spend your future years.</p>
<p>I can only offer an anecdotal example, but my son was randomly sorted into a suite of 6 boys and they have become a very tight knit group and are staying together for next year. When I went to a residential college parent meeting last April (for Bulldog Days), the dean of that college spoke about the lengths he went to to match freshmen for their initial housing assignments by carefully going over each kid’s housing questionnaire. </p>
<p>He said the very first most heavily weighted question he looks at is the question about how much social input you like. It’s basically on a 4 point scale and it ranges from 1 (extreme introvert) to 4 (extreme extrovert). Though this was a dean from a college my son did not get assigned to, I assume all the deans take a lot of care in matching kids up. </p>
<p>Anyway, as I said before, purely anecdotally, the dean who set up my son’s suite hit it out of the park. While being extremely different kids with many other outside activities, they have formed a core bond of friendship that I imagine will last their whole lives. I realize that this doesn’t always happen, but I guess my advice would be take the time to answer the housing question carefully and thoroughly. You will never have the opportunity to make such purely random friendships again in your whole life!</p>
<p>p.s.: I also suspect they look at the kids’ college apps as well, because one of my son’s suite mates shared a more unusual hobby with my son (fly-fishing, I guess not unusual, but certainly less common).</p>
<p>My advice is to answer the housing questionnaire honestly. And the answers should be the kid’s own honest answers, not what the parents think the answers should be. Don’t make your kids say he’s neat if he’s actually sloppy, or that he prefers a quiet room for study if he really doesn’t prefer that.</p>