I'm a freshman at Yale University's Old Campus. Here's what my dorm room life is like.

Fri, 12/29/2023 - 12:49

exterior and interior of Yale campus dorms — Yale freshmen live on Old Campus.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

As a first-year student at Yale, I live on Old Campus with almost all the other freshmen.
My suite has four people, and we share a common room and a bathroom.
Next year, I'll move to the Saybrook residential college on campus.

When picking where I wanted to go to college, each school's housing system was one of the most important factors. Coming from a small high school and living in a quiet Southern suburb, Yale's residential-college housing system stood out.

As a proud member of Saybrook College at Yale, I've finally settled into living on the famous Old Campus in the beautiful Vanderbilt Hall.

Here's what that experience is like and what Saybrook College will be like once I'm promoted to sophomore standing.

Since the summer, I've been a member of Saybrook College.

exterior of Saybrooks Killingworth Courtyard on yale campus — Saybrook's Killingworth courtyard.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

Any explanation of Yale's housing has to start with the residential-college system. There are 14 residential colleges, and all Yale students are affiliated with one before we even get to campus. Each college houses a few hundred undergraduates, as well as some fellows.

If you ask anyone in a different college, such as Trumbull or Morse, they may say their college is the best; let me assure you they're just plain wrong.

Like most other freshmen across the colleges, I live on Old Campus.

exterior walking paths on yale campus — Old Campus.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

Of the 14 colleges, 10 send their freshmen to live together on the historical Old Campus. There are seven dorm buildings on Old Campus, with three split between two colleges and four belonging to individual colleges.

Old Campus consists of a small, rectangular courtyard surrounded by the dorm buildings, Dwight Hall, Linsly-Chittenden Hall, and Battell Chapel. It's a lively hub for socializing under the elms in the warmer months.

As a Saybrugian, I get to live in Vanderbilt Hall.

exterior of Vanderbilt Hall on yale campus — Vanderbilt Hall.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

All freshmen in Saybrook live in the magnificent Vanderbilt Hall. We Saybrugians share the hall with the freshmen from Branford College.

Vanderbilt is the crown jewel of Old Campus housing — with beautiful views of Connecticut Hall and its lovely courtyard.

We Saybrugians like to have fun when we aren’t studying.

a group of yale students sitting around a table in common kitchen on campus — My fellow Saybrugians making treats in the Saybrook kitchen.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

Because it's home to all freshman Saybrugians, Vanderbilt Hall's community is tight-knit. We often hang out in the kitchen and cook together. Occasionally, we venture into Saybrook proper to take advantage of its facilities.

Most first years have some suite-style living arrangement — typically with three or four students.

A yale common room with couches, a coffee table, and a TV — Our common room looking quiet and clean — a rare sight.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

Our suite has a common room with two attached double bedrooms.

Some of the fancier suites on the higher floors tend to have more spacious arrangements, including the princess suites in Welch, but the suite of two doubles is fairly common.

Our common-room fireplace mantle is the perfect place to store my books from home.

books sitting on top of a shelf in a yale dorm — My books and a bulldog poster.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

Yale common rooms used to have functional fireplaces, but for obvious safety reasons, the school did away with that. We still have them, which makes for convenient book storage and a perfect place for this amazing poster of a smoking bulldog my roommate found.

After some rearranging, I got a bed right next to the window.

a bed in a yale dorm next to windows — My side of the room after move-in day.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

My double is a little tight, but with some rearrangement of furniture, my roommate and I have made the best use of the space. For example, we stacked our dressers, with me getting the top drawers.

As I wake up every morning to the sun beaming through the window, my first views are always the businesses across Chapel Street, my "For God, For Country And For Yale" banner, and my favorite poster.

We have a hall bathroom, but it's basically en suite.

bathroom in a yale dorm — Our bathroom.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

My suitemates and I lucked out. Being the only suite on our floor, the bathroom belongs to just the four of us.

Next year, I will leave Old Campus and live in Saybrook College proper.

exterior of the gate into Saybrook and Branford on yale campus — The gate into Saybrook and Branford.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

Once I'm a sophomore, I and all my friends from my side of Vanderbilt Hall will move into Saybrook College.

While students in some of the other colleges may have to relocate a little bit farther, Saybrook College is right across the street from Old Campus.

A big draw of the residential-college system is all the facilities in each college.

a common room with leather couches on yale campus — The Saybrook common room.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

The residential-college system is modeled after the constituent colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. While not fully autonomous, Yale's colleges have their own facilities — with every college having a dining hall, a game room, a buttery (a late-night food spot), a library, a gym, and courtyards.

Our colleges are held up and maintained by their incredibly hardworking staff and student aides.

exterior of the door to the Saybrook College Office — The door to the Saybrook College office.
Courtesy of Miles Kirkpatrick

Saybrook College would not function without its stellar staff of senior advisors, RAs, and others who help plan Saybrook events.

In my humble opinion, Yale is already the best college anywhere on the planet, but I got doubly lucky when I was assigned its best residential college, Saybrook.

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I'm a freshman at Yale University's Old Campus. Here's what my dorm room life i…