Yale University

I

Introduction

Yale University, private, coeducational institution of higher education in New Haven, Connecticut. Yale, the third oldest institution of its kind in the United States, is a member of the Ivy League, a group of eight highly competitive, traditional eastern schools.

II

History and Administration

Yale University was founded in 1701 in Branford, Connecticut; later that year it was chartered as the Collegiate School. In 1702 the school opened in Killingworth, and the first bachelor of arts degree was granted in 1703. After being moved to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook) four years later, the school was relocated in New Haven in 1716. In 1718 it was renamed Yale College in honor of its benefactor, English merchant Elihu Yale.

In the early 19th century, during the presidency of American educator and clergyman Timothy Dwight, Yale established its first professional schools. Additional departments were founded under American educator Timothy Dwight Woolsey, who served as president from 1846 to 1871; during this period Yale conferred, in 1861, the first doctorate to be given in the United States. The name Yale University was officially adopted in 1887.

Yale University is governed by a 19-member corporation consisting of the president, a self-perpetuating board of 10 trustees, six alumni fellows elected by the university’s graduates, and the governor and lieutenant governor of the state of Connecticut, who serve on an ex officio basis.

---

---

Prominent graduates of the school include colonial patriot Nathan Hale; many writers, including Jonathan Edwards, Noah Webster, and James Fenimore Cooper; inventors Eli Whitney and Samuel Finley Breese Morse; and U.S. Presidents William Howard Taft, George Herbert Walker Bush, and George W. Bush. President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Gerald R. Ford, and Supreme Court Justices Benjamin Cardozo, William O. Douglas, and Clarence Thomas are among noted Yale Law School graduates.

III

Undergraduate Activities

The oldest division of the university, Yale College, offers courses leading to bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees. Highly selective, the college accepts only about 19 percent of all applicants, of whom about 56 percent actually enroll.

All first-year students live in dormitories on the Old Campus; later they become affiliated with the residential colleges, where they subsequently live. Established in 1933 by American industrialist Edward Stephen Harkness, the college-residence system was designed to give students, from the sophomore year on, the educational and social benefits of living in relatively small groups within a larger university environment. Each of the 12 colleges accommodates approximately 250 students and has its own library, common rooms, and living and dining facilities. It is headed by a master and dean, who are both university faculty members and live within the college enclave. A group of fellows, also associated with the university’s staff, assists the master in administering the college’s social, athletic, and intellectual activities.

One feature of undergraduate study at Yale is the Scholars of the House Program. Designed for independent study, it allows qualified seniors to enroll in or audit any Yale course and to work on faculty-supervised projects.

IV

Graduate and Professional Divisions

The first professional school established at Yale was the School of Medicine (1813); other graduate divisions are the schools of architecture, art, divinity, drama, engineering, forestry and environmental studies, law, music, and organization and management. Other professional divisions are the Institute of Occupational Medicine and Hygiene, the Labor and Management Center, and the Institute of Far Eastern Languages.

	More from Encarta
	•  7 tips for funding an online degree •  How to succeed in the fashion industry without being a top designer •  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain