My daughter's in TD and she was initially disappointed that she *wouldn't* be on old campus with the other freshman. That lasted until about 10 minutes after she arrived, by which time of course she understood that TD was by far the best RC
I was just at a program at Rice, which also has the residential college system. The speaker, however, indicated that Rice's system is different than Yale's as Rice's is an affiliation for all four years. I thought Yale's was that way, as well. Anyone have any idea how Yale's res colleges are different than Rice's?
TIA. And maybe I misunderstood what he was saying ...
Your residential college affiliation at Yale stays with you for all four years, although you can transfer if you want.
Most freshmen live on Old Campus, then live in the residential college dorms for the other three years. The exceptions 20+ years ago were TD and Silliman, where the freshmen lived in the residential colleges rather than on Old Campus. Maybe these living arrangements were what the Rice speaker was talking about.
Yale students are affiliated with their residential colleges for all 4 years as well. The difference between the two schools seems to be in the guarantee of housing.
Yale allows juniors and seniors to live off campus if they want. Some students voluntarily move off-campus, which free's up residential college beds. Rice, on the other hand, only guarantee's housing for freshman and then imposes a lottery system for future years.
"On-campus housing is guaranteed to freshmen and sophomores, for whom residence is required. Housing is generally available for all who request it, but availability is not guaranteed."
"We want to bring to your attention an issue regarding housing at Martel College and Rice University in general. Students are guaranteed on-campus housing for their freshman year, but there is not sufficient housing to guarantee on-campus housing to every student for all four years. At Martel, a Room-Draw Committee conducts a lottery each spring to determine which students (beyond freshman) can live on campus the following year. These rules are outlined in the Martel Constitution, a copy of which your daughter will receive soon."
Do Rice freshmen live in the residential college itself all four years? If so, that would be a (small) difference from Yale (except, still, for TD and Silliman). Perhaps the speaker meant to refer to Harvard, where you don't affiliate with a House until the end of freshman year.
Now it makes sense. The speaker seemed to indicate that the house affiliation didn't begin freshman year but in reality the affiliation is there but perhaps not the actual residency at the res college.
Hunt, at Rice you are affiliated with one of 11 res colleges from Day One. And freshmen are guaranteed housing. But, like gibby said above, you are only guaranteed housing for three of your four years. Each college does its room draw a little differently, but often you are kicked off campus for either your sophomore or junior years, regardless of your college. The Rice official said that they are looking to expand housing a bit so that 80% of students can live on campus.
Another question: If most freshmen don't live in their res college, do they still feel a strong affiliation with it right away, or do they bond mostly as freshmen and don't identify as much with the res college until their sophomore years? For instance, do freshmen compete on their college IM teams (assuming IM teams are largely centered on the res colleges).
^^ At Yale, ALL freshman and sophomores (unless married) MUST live on-campus. Most freshman live in the old yard, and then move into their residential college their sophomore year -- but from their first day they are associated with a specific college. There really isn't an issue with bonding, as all freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors play on a college's IM team. All eat in their residential colleges, etc.
How well you bond depends on the individual of course. I had trouble feeling lost on Old Campus and eating in the vast Freshmen Commons. But I quickly got comfortable sophomore year. It was my own fault. I should have gotten involved in more activities like intramurals.
The reason Yale gave for the freshmen all living on Old Campus is so that you bond as a class before segregating into the residential colleges.
Freshmen are able to bond easily with their colleges because all the freshman from their college live together in one of the dorms on Old Campus, e.g. Branford freshman live in Vandrbilt, Stiles freshmen live in Lawrance, etc.
Freshmen don't eat in Commons nearly as much as they used to--they eat dinner in the college. Also the colleges have a lot of resources (like gyms, libraries, etc.) that freshmen can use.
^There is no way to house more freshmen on old campus so that will certainly be the case but the search for the new president will certainly further slow down ground breaking on those two new colleges and it will take years for them to matter to current applicants.
It was really easy to bond with my residential college as a freshman, even though we lived on the Old Campus. Of course, everyone in my dorm was in the same residential college. But our advising also happened through the residential college and its dean. We ate lots of meals in the college, and we were encouraged -- begged, even -- to participate in intramural sports and other college-based activities. College membership was not just a loose affiliation for freshmen.
YaleGrad (or anyone), are they adding the two new colleges to increase enrollment or to accommodate what they've got?
FYI, ds has decided to not do Yale SCEA in favor of Georgetown's EA. But he'll apply RD through Questbridge. We spoke to an adcom who said they prefer the QB app because of the extra essays and information. And while his stats are competitive, I just don't thinks he the kind of off-the-charts kid they take in SCEA.
