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Yale Is Opening Two New Residential Colleges - And Its Crowdsourcing Name Ideas

Yale Is Opening Two New Residential Colleges - And Its Crowdsourcing Name Ideas
Education1 min read

Yale University Quad Campus Student

Via Wikimedia Commons

Branford Court is the Collegiate Gothic courtyard of Yale's Branford College.

For the first time in more than 80 years, Yale University will open two new residential colleges for its undergraduate students - and it's crowdsourcing name suggestions.

Yale's residential college system has been a staple of the university since the 1930s, when colleges were introduced to house and support undergraduate students. Incoming students are randomly sorted into one of the colleges before arriving on campus their freshman year.

The colleges bear the names of prominent Yale alumni, past university presidents, and important Connecticut figures. It's likely that the school will continue this tradition, rather than name the colleges after donors.

The two new residential colleges coincide with Yale's plan to increase their undergraduate body by 800 students - about 15% - to more than 6,000 students overall.

While Yale has opened up naming suggestions to anyone - feel free to check "other" under the affiliation tab - it's important to note that these are still just suggestions. No matter how many people submit "Slytherin" and "Gryffindor," it's supremely unlikely that the Ivy League school will adopt these names for its newest residential colleges.

Here are two suggestions that seem more likely, from Yale senior Marissa Medansky:

Edward Bouchet was a physicist who was one of the first African-Americans to graduate from Yale College in 1874, and become the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from any American university when he completed his doctorate in 1878.

Grace Hopper was a computer science pioneer and rear admiral in the US Navy who completed her Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale in 1934. She was instrumental in developing one of the first modern programing languages.

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