Introduction
Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine Colonial Colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Its history, academic achievements, wealth, and selectivity have made Yale one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Chartered by Connecticut Colony, the “Collegiate School” was established in 1701 by clergy to educate Congregational ministers. It moved to New Haven in 1716 and shortly after was renamed Yale College in recognition of a gift from British East India Company governor Elihu Yale. Originally restricted to theology and sacred languages, the curriculum began to incorporate humanities and sciences by the time of the American Revolution. In the 19th century, the college expanded into graduate and professional instruction, awarding the first PhD in the United States in 1861 and organizing as a university in 1887. Its faculty and student populations grew after 1890 with the rapid expansion of the physical campus and scientific research.
Yale is organized into fourteen constituent schools: the original undergraduate college, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and twelve professional schools. While the university is governed by the Yale Corporation, each school’s faculty oversees its curriculum and degree programs. In addition to a central campus in downtown New Haven, the university owns athletic facilities in western New Haven, a campus in West Haven, Connecticut and forest and nature preserves throughout New England. The university’s assets include an endowment valued at $30.3 billion as of September 2019, the second-largest endowment of any educational institution in North America. The Yale University Library, serving all constituent schools, holds more than 15 million volumes and is the third-largest academic library in the United States.
Campus
Yale’s central campus in downtown New Haven covers 260 acres (1.1 km2) and comprises its main, historic campus and a medical campus adjacent to the Yale-New Haven Hospital. In western New Haven, the university holds 500 acres (2.0 km2) of athletic facilities, including the Yale Golf Course. In 2008, Yale purchased the 136-acre (0.55 km2) former Bayer Pharmaceutical campus in West Haven, Connecticut, the buildings of which are now used as laboratory and research space. Yale also owns seven forests in Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire the largest of which is the 7,840-acre (31.7 km2) Yale-Myers Forest in Connecticut’s Quiet Corner and nature preserves including Horse Island.
Yale is noted for its largely Collegiate Gothic campus as well as several iconic modern buildings commonly discussed in architectural history survey courses: Louis Kahn’s Yale Art Gallery and Center for British Art, Eero Saarinen’s Ingalls Rink and Ezra Stiles and Morse Colleges, and Paul Rudolph’s Art & Architecture Building. Yale also owns and has restored many noteworthy 19th-century mansions along Hillhouse Avenue, which was considered the most beautiful street in America by Charles Dickens when he visited the United States in the 1840s. In 2011, Travel Leisure listed the Yale campus as one of the most beautiful in the United States.
Programs
• African American Studies
• Social Sciences
• African Studies
• Humanities
• American Studies
• Humanities
• Anesthesiology
• Health & Medicine
• Anthropology
• Applied Mathematics
• Physical Sciences
• Applied Physics
• Physical Sciences
• Archaeological Studies
• Architecture
• Humanities
• Astronomy
• Physical Sciences
• Biological & Biomedical Sciences
• Biological Sciences, Health & Medicine
• Biomedical Engineering
• Engineering, Health & Medicine
• Biostatistics
• Health & Medicine,
• Cell Biology
• Biological Sciences
• Cellular & Molecular Physiology
• Biological Sciences, Health & Medicine
• Chemical & Environmental Engineering
• Engineering
• Chemistry
• Physical Sciences
• Child Study Center
• Health & Medicine
• Chronic Disease Epidemiology
• Health & Medicine
• Classics
• Humanities
• Comparative Literature
• Humanities
• Comparative Medicine
• Health & Medicine
• Computational Biology & Bioinformatics
• Biological Sciences
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Dermatology
• Health & Medicine
• East Asian Languages & Literatures
• Humanities
• East Asian Studies
• Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
• Biological Sciences
• Economics
• Electrical Engineering
• Engineering
• Emergency Medicine
• Health & Medicine
• Engineering & Applied Science
• Engineering
• English Language & Literature
• Humanities
• Environmental Health Sciences
• Health & Medicine
• Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases
• Health & Medicine
• European & Russian Studies
• Experimental Pathology
• Health & Medicine
• Film & Media Studies
• Humanities
• Forestry & Environmental Studies
• Biological Sciences
• French
• Humanities
• Genetics
• Health & Medicine
• Geology & Geophysics
• Physical Sciences
• German
• Humanities
• Global Affairs
• Health Care Management
• Health & Medicine
• Health Policy & Management
• Health & Medicine
• History
• Humanities
• History of Art
• Humanities
• History of Medicine
• Health & Medicine, Humanities
• History of Science & Medicine
• Humanities
• Humanities
• Humanities
• Immunobiology
• Health & Medicine
• Internal Medicine
• Health & Medicine
• International & Development Economics
• Investigative Medicine
• Health & Medicine
• Italian Language & Literature
• Humanities
• Judaic Studies
• Humanities
• Laboratory Medicine
• Health & Medicine
• Latin American Studies
• Law
• Linguistics
• Management
• Mathematics
• Physical Sciences
• Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
• Engineering
• Medieval Studies
• Humanities
• Microbial Pathogenesis
• Health & Medicine
• Microbiology
• Biological Sciences
• Modern Middle East Studies
• Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry
• Biological Sciences, Health & Medicine
• Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology
• Biological Sciences
• Music
• Humanities
• Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
• Humanities
• Neurology
• Health & Medicine
• Neuroscience
• Biological Sciences, Health & Medicine
• Neuroscience, Interdepartmental Program
• Biological Sciences, Health & Medicine
• Neurosurgery
• Health & Medicine
• Nursing
• Health & Medicine
• Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences
• Health & Medicine
• Ophthalmology & Visual Science
• Health & Medicine
• Orthopedics & Rehabilitation
• Health & Medicine
• Pathology
• Health & Medicine
• Paediatrics
• Health & Medicine
• Pharmacology
• Health & Medicine
• Philosophy
• Humanities
• Physics
• Physical Sciences
• Political Science
• Psychiatry
• Health & Medicine
• Psychology
• Public Health
• Health & Medicine
• Radiology & Biomedical Imaging
• Health & Medicine
• Religious Studies
• Humanities
• Renaissance Studies
• Humanities
• Slavic Languages & Literatures
• Humanities
• Sociology
• South Asian Studies
• Spanish & Portuguese
• Humanities
• Statistics & Data Science
• Surgery
• Health & Medicine
• Theater Studies
• Humanities
• Therapeutic Radiology/Radiation Oncology
• Health & Medicine
• Urology
• Health & Medicine
• Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Campus life
Yale is a medium-sized research university, most of whose students are in the graduate and professional schools. Undergraduates, or Yale College students, come from a variety of ethnic, national, socioeconomic backgrounds, and personal backgrounds. Of the 2010–2011 freshman class, 10% are non‑U.S. citizens, while 54% went to public high schools.
Residential colleges
Yale’s residential college system was established in 1933 by Edward S. Harkness, who admired the social intimacy of Oxford and Cambridge and donated significant funds to found similar colleges at Yale and Harvard. Though Yale’s colleges resemble their English precursors organizationally and architecturally, they are dependent entities of Yale College and have limited autonomy.
Traditions
Yale seniors at graduation smash clay pipes underfoot to symbolize the passage from their “bright college years,” though in recent history the pipes have been replaced with “bubble pipes”. (“Bright College Years,” the University’s alma mater, was penned in 1881 by Henry Durand, Class of 1881, to the tune of Die Wacht am Rhein.)
