<p>
[quote]
What does private and wealthy Princeton University have in common with the public and less-wealthy University of Central Arkansas? What links Acadia University in the Canadian Maritimes and Vanderbilt University in the American South? What does the new International University in Bremen, Germany, share with the Universidad de las Am</p>
<p>Santa Clara has Residential Learning Communities. Students have various things they do with their RLC including taking core course requirements, doing community service and participating in social events. The RLC’s are housed in the residence halls…with students from the same RLC living together. DD has found this to be a nice way to form a small community…even though SCU isn’t all that large.</p>
<p>Several Canadian universities operate on this model and always have, including University of Toronto where one of my Ds attends. It’s a very good system for those kids who want the benefits of a large university because they also get the advantage of that smaller college ‘feel’.</p>
<p>I found the following list of universities in the U.S.that have Oxford-Cambridge style residential colleges:</p>
<h1>Binghamton University Colleges — College in the Woods, Hinman College, Mountainview College, Newing College.</h1>
<h1>Harvard University Houses — Adams House, Cabot House, Currier House, Dudley House, Dunster House, Eliot House, Kirkland House, Leverett House, Lowell House, Mather House, Pforzheimer House, Quincy House, Winthrop House.</h1>
<h1>Lehigh University — Taylor College.</h1>
<h1>Messiah College Houses</h1>
<h1>Middlebury College Commons — Atwater Commons, Brainerd Commons, Cook Commons, Ross Commons, Wonnacott Commons.</h1>
<h1>Murray State University Colleges — Clark College, Elizabeth College, Hart College, Hester College, Regents College, Richmond College, Springer-Franklin College, White College.</h1>
<h1>Northwestern University Colleges.</h1>
<h1>Princeton University Colleges — Butler College, Forbes College, Mathey College, Rockefeller College, Wilson College.</h1>
<h1>Rice University Colleges — Baker College, Brown College, Hanszen College, Jones College, Lovett College, Martel College, Will Rice College, Sid Richardson College, Wiess College.</h1>
<h1>Truman State University Colleges — Blanton-Nason College, Centennial College, Dobson College, Missouri College, Ryle College.</h1>
<h1>Tulane University Colleges.</h1>
<h1>University of California at San Diego Colleges — Eleanor Roosevelt College, Muir College, Revelle College, Sixth College, Thurgood Marshall College, Warren College.</h1>
<h1>University of Central Arkansas Colleges — Hughes College, Minton College, State College.</h1>
<h1>University of California at Santa Cruz Colleges — Cowell College, Crown College, College Eight, Kresge College, Merrill College, College Nine, Oakes College, Porter College, Stevenson College, College Ten.</h1>
<h1>University of Georgia — Franklin College.</h1>
<h1>University of Miami Colleges — Eaton College, Hecht College, Mahoney College, Pearson College, Stanford College.</h1>
<h1>University of Michigan — Residential College.</h1>
<h1>University of Missouri–St. Louis — Pierre Laclede College.</h1>
<h1>University of Pennsylvania College Houses — DuBois House, Fisher Hassenfeld House, Gregory House, Hamilton House, Harnwell House, Harrison House, Hill House, Kings Court–English House, Spruce House, Stouffer House, Ware House.</h1>
<h1>University of South Carolina — Preston College.</h1>
<h1>University of Virginia Colleges — Brown College, Hereford College.</h1>
<h1>University of Wisconsin–Madison — Chadbourne College.</h1>
<h1>Vanderbilt University Colleges.</h1>
<h1>Washington University Colleges — Park-Mudd College, Robert S. Brookings College, William Greenleaf Eliot College.</h1>
<h1>Yale University Colleges — Berkeley College, Branford College, Calhoun College, Davenport College, Ezra Stiles College, Jonathan Edwards College, Morse College, Pierson College, Saybrook College, Silliman College, Timothy Dwight College, Trumbull College.</h1>
<p>Here is the list for Canada:</p>
<pre><code>* Trent University Colleges — Catharine Parr Traill College, Champlain College, Julian Blackburn College, Lady Eaton College, Otonabee College, Peter Gzowski College, Peter Robinson College.
University of British Columbia Colleges — Green College, St. John’s College.
University of Manitoba Colleges — Le Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface, St. Andrew’s College, St. John’s College, St. Paul’s College, University College.
University of Toronto Colleges — Innis College, Massey College, New College, St. Michael’s College, Trinity College, University College, Victoria College, Woodsworth College.
University of Waterloo Colleges — Conrad Grebel University College, Renison College, St. Jerome’s University College, St. Paul’s College.
York University Colleges — Bethune College, Calumet College, Founders College, McLaughlin College, Stong College, Vanier College.
</code></pre>
<p>The University of Chicago has a “house” system that is intended to be similar to the residential college system.</p>
<p>There are three barriers to an effective residential college system that most institutions that aren’t Harvard, Yale, or Princeton face: (1) If the school doesn’t have enough on-campus housing for the vast majority of its students, it’s hard to have residential colleges that really work. For example, Toronto really only houses freshmen. It can’t get the benefits of continuous relationships across age cohorts over a period of years. (2) Most schools have dorms that are large and homogeneous in room type. They aren’t set up for smaller communities, they don’t have the appropriate number of separate dining facilities (a really important community-builder), and they aren’t the sort of place where anyone would like to live for four years in a row. One of the reasons why the residential college system works so well and Yale and Harvard is that the dorms were generally built for that purpose, and have separate dining halls and a variety of rooming options so that there is an advantage to staying in the system and moving up to the cool rooms (or the singles). (3) If the system isn’t universal and random, it becomes one more affinity-type housing option, and you lose the diverse community and dynamic character that the best residential colleges have.</p>
<p>I am a great fan of residential colleges by the way. In a sense, I owe my life (at least, my life-style) to my college – I would never have met and befriended my wife but for our residential college and its dining room. Even though she only lived there for one semester, she ate there a lot and had lots of friends there, some of whom were friends of my friends, etc.</p>
<p>I thought Michigan State had a similar program, although i doubt it involves the entire campus.</p>
<p>Great topic asteriskea. I think residential college systems are excellent and believe many schools/students could benefit from them. Even if it’s not as formal as the colleges at Yale, I believe there’s a lot to be gained by some sort of living community and structure. At MIT the students get a hand in which places they live in and each has a unique form of ‘community’ that involves students from all grades. Many have ‘adult’ housemasters, sometimes a male/female couple which adds to the residential feeling. One of my other kids attended a college with an undergrad population half that of MIT’s and lived in a dorm populated with only freshmen and attended to by an RA who was a grade or two ahead of them. He may have had fun but it wasn’t what I consider a good situation.</p>
<p>Duke has toyed with the idea but decided to go in other directions (freshmen on separate campus, selective living groups, etc.). A lot of people thought Brodhead would bring Yale’s system to Duke, but he hasn’t yet. </p>
<p>
<a href=“http://www.duke.edu/web/wel/resuniv9-21-99.html[/url]”>http://www.duke.edu/web/wel/resuniv9-21-99.html</a></p>
<p>I may be jumping in the middle and missed something, but what exactly is meant by a residential college…
because some of the examples above don’t really fit with what I thought it was ie UCSD and UCSC…as far as I know they do have some of the features (separate colleges with different themes), but not others (professor/mentor types in residence).
Can anyone list some colleges, including west coast, that have the mentor in residence feature (not just an RA)?</p>
<p>Yes, the code in Brodhead’s statement reminds me of another barrier lots of institutions face: Strong residential colleges are incompatible with a strong Greek system (if it houses a significant number of students).</p>
<p>Smith College is another that has a House-centered residence system. </p>
<p>As JHS notes, it does require on-campus housing available for all four years. I like what I’ve seen of this system very much.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/11/28/news/16742.shtml[/url]”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/11/28/news/16742.shtml</a></p>
<p>Interesting article on the problems of creating residential colleges at Princeton while keeping/not keeping the eating clubs.</p>
<p>
Rice has residential colleges, and is building two more as they seek to grow the enrollment. From the best of my knowledge… Each college has a house Master, who lives in a house attached to the “college” (dorm), and several Resident Associates (or something like that), who are professors who live in apartments in the dorm. Each college has its own dining hall OR shares a dining hall with a few other colleges. The house masters often eat and socialize with their college as do the RA’s. Students are part of their college (randomly selected for them by Rice) for their entire 4 years. Most students live in their colleges for 3 years, but are kicked out for one year due to lack of space. Colleges are RUN by the students; they set their own rules, spend their budgets etc. Dd’s college is one of the ugliest -but she really likes her friends there, and all the activities and she will identify with her college all her life. It’s a great way to form community, and the older students/college masters/RA’s provide mentorship for the newbies.</p>
<p>I believe that Hogwarts also has a house-centered system, or so my younger daughter tells me.</p>
<p>My sons attends a high school with a House system. The school is nearly half boarding Houses, half dayboy houses. Tourists often comment on it’s Hogwarts feel.</p>
<p>Two of his best friends came out of his house–the other thirty are spread out in other houses and the result of friendships made in the classroom, on stage and on the sporting fields.</p>
<p>Interesting article, a. Thanks for posting it. Can you give the source for that list or did you compile it yourself?</p>
<p>Coureur,
that is a cute post…</p>
<p>I was in NYC recently…my girlfriend took us to a speakeasy… completely invisible as an establishment from outside… once we opened the door, it was like the Room of Requirement in the Potter books…you open the door to the room, and it becomes exactly what you want…in this case, the speakeasy was like a classic English Pub… </p>
<p>I enjoy almost all things Potter/Hogwarts…</p>
<p>and I have a child in the residential college system at Yale and it is a tremendous way to give a student an identity for early days, for life. It is a system that merits consideration in college selection…definitely give a school a plus if they offer residential colleges. IMHO…</p>
<p>JHS, </p>
<p>I’m not sure how familiar you are with the University of Toronto but the information you’ve posted in #6 is incorrect. It isn’t true that U of T “really only houses freshmen”. All of its dorms are a mix of students from all four years, and there is definitely a variety of types of dorms. For example, in my D’s college, there is an all girls traditional style dorm with either single or double rooms; there is a co-ed traditional style, also with singles and doubles, and this one also has a wing which is just boys; there are two suite/apartment style dorms, which have single and double rooms. My D’s in a suite this year with three others (one older, one same year, and one younger), there are four bedrooms and three baths, a large living room and a big kitchen. Each college has its own dining hall, and even those in the suite style dorms are required to have a mealplan. The system works well, as I said before, because it affords the students the benefits of a smaller college while still having everything a large university has to offer.</p>
<p>My s. picked Rice in large part because of the residential college system. It is an ideal arrangement-- almost like a built-in family. You are automatically connected with people in all 4 years, from different walks of life and with different interests, but with a huge community commonality. It is a wonderful system! He loves it, and I highly recommend it.</p>