<p>I’m currently trying to get a better picture of Yale, seeing as how I will apply EA in the fall, and I’ve heard much of the usual facts about Yale (Residential College, Humanities-oriented). However, what are some quirky and little known facts about the university; the kind that only students would know of or experience?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Nobody? Come on, I known there have to be some.</p>
<p>I think they’ve done away with Bladderball–that would have been a good example.</p>
<p>Our calendar was the envy of many others. In by Sept, shopping period, long Thnxgiving break, reading period. Finals before Christmas. Back in mid Jan, shopping period, long Spring break, reading period, finals done by mid May.</p>
<p>JE’s dining hall (very close to Old Campus) has made to order omelets weekdays.</p>
<p>Use your dining hall credit and go to School of Mgt cafeteria. Apply it to the cost of a steak for lunch. Pay out of pocket $2-3. </p>
<p>Most local theatres have crazy student discount the night of the performance. $5 for unsold seats.</p>
<p>take part in intramurals – great source of esprit de corps and fun</p>
<p>take advantage of NYC proximity, also explore greater New England</p>
<p>Done away with Bladderball??!! Noooooooo . . . . . !</p>
<p>Does Tang still exist?</p>
<p>Great examples! I’m really liking the calendar. </p>
<p>Any more?!</p>
<p>Probably the best quirks are quirks that are unique to certain groups on campus, as a lot of Yale EC groups are quirky enough to pretty much redefine the term.</p>
<p>The Vanderbilt Suite in Vanderbilt Hall.</p>
<p>princess suites in welch or wherever dport is</p>
<p>^What’s unique about those suites?</p>
<p>the Vanderbilt family paid for the construction of one of the Old Campus halls with the proviso that if any descendant is in a Yale Freshman class he (or she) gets the marvelous room that straddles the archway. The last one I know of is Anderson Cooper (yes, THAT Anderson Cooper), class of 89.</p>
<p>Bladderball was abolished in 1982, according to Wikipedia. As a former participant, I have to say that it was really, really dangerous. But gosh darn it, it was tradition!</p>
<p>How about cups at Mory’s, or tea at the Lizzie? Don’t tell me they’ve gone the way of bladderball, too. (OK, so bladderball did DESERVE to be abolished, but it’s still sad that happened. It was just so stupid and pointless – and dangerous, to people and property – but on a massive scale. You just don’t see too much stuff like that, except maybe for the Iraq War. Hmmmmm . . . .)</p>
<p>Feb Club: an unofficial series of 28 (or 29) parties throughout the dreary CT month of February. Some are even way off campus (NYC). My Sr. year, my bldg hosted three of them – and we were in McClellan on the Old Campus – what did we do with those frosh? I don’t remember.</p>
<p>Wow! I am having so much fun researching on Wikipedia (;)) what cups at Mory’s and tea at Lizzie’s are. I’m especially interested in the Elizabethan Club; can students join it?</p>
<p>Any more fun quirks?</p>
<p>I can attest that cups at Mory’s and tea at the Lizzie are alive and well, having done both recently. Students can indeed become members of the Lizzie, but must be nominated by a current student member, and seconded by another member before a Lizzie committee acts on the nomination. My son was fortunate enough to be seconded by a professor he had in Directed Studies, Jane Levin, the wife of Yale’s president. Needless to say, he treasures his key to the Lizzie, and it will probably be on his key chain for the rest of his life. The Lizzie is quite simply amazing, especially when the vault is opened.</p>
<p>I’m a junior at Yale and there are many quirky (some very secretive) societies and eating clubs. Google it if you like. =)</p>
<p>What about quirks other than societies and eating clubs; maybe rituals, games, classes, or buildings?</p>
<p>I’ve tried Google, but I haven’t found as many fun acts as I have here. =)</p>
<p>Tap night for the a capella singing groups is a big deal on Old Campus where most of the freshman live. The groups wait outside a gate and the senior men’s and senior women’s groups each sing a traditional Yale song then all the groups burst through the gate and run through the dorms and pick the new members of the group.</p>
<p>Everyone gets a clay pipe at graduation which you’re supposed to smoke and then crush.</p>
<p>Each residential college has a special chant or ritual at football games. Members of Saybrook College take their clothes off at the end of the third quarter (the Saybrook Strip), TD has the infamous “ring the bell” chant, etc.</p>
<p>Freshman year there is a formal holiday banquet for all freshman in the main dining hall. It features the “parade of comestibles” in which servers march through the hall carrying huge platters of food ranging from fruit piled many feet high to elaborate pastries (think bread shaped like a large swan). In my day, the highlight was a roast pig with an apple in its mouth, but they may not do that anymore.</p>
<p>Master’s teas are events the residential colleges hold where a famous or influential person is invited to tea in the house of the residential college master (the masters’ houses are part of the physical residential college). The person has tea with the students attending and gives a talk. The type of people who come range from Academy Award winning actors to Fortune 100 CEOs to former heads of state. These happen regularly and allow students to casually hang out with major newsmakers.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that Tang, a drinking competition between the residential colleges still exists.</p>
<p>Tailgating at the Game is always colorful, with lots of alumni really putting on the ritz and taking things to a whole 'nother level.</p>
<p>Every residential college and extracurricular has its own set of rituals and quirks.</p>
<p>I am disturbed that no student has confirmed the continued vitality of Tang. It was disgusting, but plenty quirky and fun, and as far as I know unique to Yale. Not all of the residential colleges could muster Tang teams in my day. There were probably only seven or eight of them, and only three or four with a semi-stable line-up month to month.</p>