<p>Another Old Blue here to agree that the Residential Colleges are among the best things about Yale. Hunt and T26E4 have given a good description. What they haven’t said, although you can pick it up from T26E4, is that the college housing is not just all cookie-cutter doubles or singles. There are some great, unique room set-ups in almost all of the colleges. (I’m not sure about Morse and Stiles, the Saarinen-designed 60s colleges.) Rooms that are multi-floor, or have towers attached to them. Lots of fireplaces. Beautiful courtyards, including ones that are tucked away and hidden from tourists. Each college has its own library, common room, and dining hall, many have theaters, athletic facilities, art studios, practice rooms, etc. 3-4 different faculty, including a Master and a Dean for each, live in each college with their families. The Masters have “teas” that are usually little cultural programs, and each college sponsors ad hoc seminars for credit that range from gifted grad students teaching their theses to famous people jetting in to talk about themselves a lot.</p>
<p>One of the good aspects of the system is that freshmen have a great way to meet upperclassmen and get the benefit of their friendship and advice through their college.</p>
<p>I owe my marriage to my college. My future wife was in the same college as I, but she hated its (then) jocky, noisy atmosphere. (Although everyone is assigned at random, random variations can make a college acquire a specific character for a while, although the character will tend to change over the course of a few years. My college went from English Majors On Acid to Varsity Athletes in a couple of years.) So she moved off campus her sophomore year and never really lived in the college. But she still ate there several times a week, and had a bunch of friends from freshman year there, one of whom was dating one of my friends, and another of whom lived one floor up from me in the same entryway. So . . . we wound up having a few meals together, and running into each other periodically, and then TRYING to run into each other periodically, etc. . . . this over the course of two years. A wonderful system!</p>
<p>Downside: It’s not that hard to form friendships with people in other colleges, but you have to work a little harder to maintain them.</p>