<p>Placement is not truly random.</p>
<p>Per the Yale website:</p>
<p>“Before freshman year, all incoming undergraduates are assigned to one of Yale’s twelve residential colleges. Students remain affiliated with their residential college for all four years (and beyond). Yale makes every effort to represent the diversity of the entire undergraduate community within every residential college. In this sense each college is a microcosm of the larger student population. The residential college system offers students a familiar, comfortable living environment, personal interaction with faculty members and administrators, and exciting opportunities for academic and extracurricular exploration.”</p>