When I was applying to Yale, I was struck by the housing system, particularly for first-year students. Incoming Yalies live either in their assigned residential college or on Old Campus - a two acre green quad surrounded by eight buildings that house suites. Before arriving on campus, all first-years are sorted into one of fourteen residential colleges. Students belong to one of these communities for all four years at Yale. Many first-years, however, live on Old Campus, in a building set aside for all the new students in a particular residential college. This makes Old Campus a hub for first-year students. Depending on our residential college assignment, we either spend our first year in our residential college or on Old Campus. Both are distinct experiences and both offer a great way to experience Yale.
Old Campus houses most of the first-years and it offers a wide range of perks.Chief among these benefits is that living on Old Campus gives you the opportunity to interact with lots of other first year students. Old Campus also hosts the annual Fall Festival and the Extracurricular Bazaar, among other events. It is also centrally located so all the first-years living there are close to classroom buildings and the major libraries. Living on Old Campus also means you have the opportunity to meet people from different residential colleges. There are, however, some minor drawbacks. Most significantly, living on Old Campus means you are separated from your dining hall, library, laundry facilities, and buttery. The rooms in Old Campus buildings are also often smaller than rooms in residential college buildings
A picture from Fall Fest, an annual event hosted on Old Campus.
Living in your residential college as a first year is a less common arrangement, although more common this year with our record-sized first year class. The main advantage to living in your residential college is that you are just steps away from your dining hall, library, laundry facilities, and buttery. Living in your residential college is also nice because you are always around the first-years from your college which makes it much easier to build community. Residential college housing is also home to bigger rooms and more updated facilities (as a general rule). The biggest downside to living in residential college housing is that you are somewhat separated from the community of 1,000 first-years on Old Campus.
Morse College
Personally, I live in my residential college (Morse College) and I absolutely love it. I really like how convenient it is being close to my library, laundry, and dining hall. I also feel like we have a great community of first-year Morse students and most of my friends live right next to me. My room is also quite large and I have the luxury of having my own bathroom. However, even though life in my residential college is great, I have some friends who live on Old Campus and they love the community they have created and their central location. Moral of the story, no matter which living situation you find yourself in for your first year, both Old Campus and residential college housing are great ways to experience Yale.
