We admit it – we visited New Haven in the United States to see the famous Yale University. And not just to visit the main university buildings and Yale’s famous library. It was mainly the system of 14 college campuses that fascinated us.
The organization of campuses at Yale University
When a student is accepted to Yale University, he or she is randomly assigned to one of fourteen houses (there were only four at Hogwarts!). The purpose of this randomness and the existence of so many student houses is that these students are immediately integrated into the community. And as we all know, the smaller the groups, the easier it is to make connections. The purpose of this mixing of students is also to exchange experience – in one house, you can find equally talented young people with different experiences and studying different majors. During the academic year, various events are organized to integrate the students further. In addition, each of these student houses has its own kitchen and dining hall, to which a chef is assigned (how cool is that?).
Each house has a Head of the College and Dean of the College – usually professors who live with the students in the same house. They go to the canteens together with them and spend their free time. They are supposed to be responsible for the intellectual development and academic progress of the students assigned to them.
New Haven – is the city dominated by students?
It took us over half a day to go around Yale University and its adjacent campuses. We were even under the impression that New Haven is mainly a University! According to the oh-so-reliable Wikipedia, Yale University is the city’s major employer and taxpayer. Before we knew it, the day began to end, and in the last rays of the sun, Nico managed to capture this building.
Honestly, we don’t know which of the fourteen campus houses this photo is of. As we walked by, however, we thought it might be a good capture of the character of the place. We couldn’t help but think how inspiring it must be to study and live here. This student house radiated cosiness in the evening – and we could even imagine students gathering in the living room, reading books or discussing the contemporary challenges of this world.
