Becoming a Freshmoose!

It is now 96 days since I found out that I was to become a member of the Yale Class of 2013, and in those 96 days many things have happened.

In an extremely condensed list: I have obtained my four year Visa to the United States, opened my first American bank account and booked my flights for this coming August. Whilst fun, these are, in my opinion, pretty boring things to have achieved in 96 days, therefore I won't waste time going into depth about how I managed to sort all of these things out.

Instead, I will share some exciting news I received this week: Residential College and Roommate assignments!

Yale has 12 Residential Colleges (RC) that all of it's Freshmen are randomly assigned to before the start of the year. Ten of the twelve Colleges - Berkeley, Branford, Calhoun, Davenport, Jonathan Edwards, Morse, Pierson, Saybrook, Ezra Stiles, and Trumbull - house their Freshmen together on "Old Campus" so that first year students can get to know each other and the Yale community. The two remaining Residential Colleges - Silliman and Timothy Dwight - house their Freshmen within the college itself to allow their first year students to get to know everyone else in their Residential College.

Old Campus

Being in each RC has its own individual advantages. Branford, for example, is regarded by many to be the most beautiful of the residential colleges, whereas Berkeley is considered to have the best food, but each RC is unique in its own way and therefore I knew I would be happy with any Residential College given to me.

Many of my future class mates shudder in horror when they contemplate the possibility of living in my Residential College, but when I tore open my letter to find out I had been placed in Ezra Stiles College, I couldn't have been more pleased.

Ezra Stiles College, or Stiles as it is more simply known, is - along with its twin Morse College - the youngest residential College at Yale. Built in 1961 by the architect Eero Saarinen, Stiles is, visually, very different to Yale's other Residential Colleges. Instead of the Gothic architecture common to much of Yale, Stiles and Morse were built in the style of Pre-Gothic Tuscan Towers and are considered to be out of place by many students at Yale.

Ezra Stiles College

Personally, I couldn't care if I'd been house in a cardboard box; I'm going to Yale, and that's all that matters! Even if Stiles isn't a big winner on the looks front, it's the people that count and my five roommates - Deandra, Vanny, Madeline, Stephanie and Brianna - seem extremely cool on first impressions.

In addition to that, Stiles is getting a makeover! For the first two years of my time at Yale, Ezra Stiles will be closed for a $150 million renovation, meaning that during my Sophomore year I will get to live in the very cool temporary housing known as "Swing Space". Full details of the renovation can be found here but some of the highlights include an underground gym, a recording studio and a sky bridge linking Morse and Stiles together; pretty cool in my opinion!

So while the appearance of Stiles may not be to everyone's liking, it appears that the college makes up for it in other ways. The community spirit among students in the RC seems to be amazing, this paired with the Stiles mascot of the Moose Giamatti and the smoothie bar in their dining hall means that we are by far the coolest Residential College at Yale.

In addition to this, Edward Norton (Fight Club) and Jennifer Connely (He's Just Not That Into You) were both in Ezra Stiles, AND both the Master and the Dean have dogs running around the College, thus proving that Ezra Stiles rocks!

All in all, I am going to have an amazing four years as a Stilesian.

Go Moose!