Yale College

Yale College

Coat of arms
Former name	The Collegiate School
Motto	אורים ותמים‎ (Hebrew; ʾÛrîm wə-Tummîm)
Motto in English	Light and truth
Type	Private
Established	1701; 323 years ago (1701)
Parent institution	Yale University
Dean	Pericles Lewis
Undergraduates	6,092 (2020)[1]
Location	New Haven , Connecticut , United States 41°18′42″N 72°55′31″W / 41.31167°N 72.92528°W / 41.31167; -72.92528
Alumni	75,021[b][2]
Website	yalecollege.yale.edu
[b] The number of living alumni as of the year 2012

Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, when its schools were confederated and the institution was renamed Yale University. It is ranked as one of the top colleges in the United States.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Originally established to train Congregationalist ministers, the college began teaching humanities and natural sciences by the late 18th century. At the same time, students began organizing extracurricular organizations: first literary societies, and later publications, sports teams, and singing groups. By the middle of the 19th century, it was the largest college in the United States. In 1847, it was joined by another undergraduate school at Yale, the Sheffield Scientific School, which was absorbed into the college in 1956. These merged curricula became the basis of the modern-day liberal arts curriculum, which requires students to take courses in a broad range of subjects, including foreign language, composition, sciences, and quantitative reasoning, in addition to electing a departmental major in their sophomore year.

The most distinctive feature of undergraduate life is the school's system of residential colleges, established in 1932, and modeled after the constituent colleges of English universities. Undergraduates live in these colleges after their freshman year, when most live on the school's Old Campus.