55 Facts About Yale University

1.

Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut.

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2.

Yale University is organized into fourteen constituent schools: the original undergraduate college, the Yale University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and twelve professional schools.

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3.

In 1718, at the behest of either Rector Samuel Andrew or the colony's Governor Gurdon Saltonstall, Cotton Mather contacted the successful Boston-born businessman Elihu Yale University to ask him for financial help in constructing a new building for the college.

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4.

Yale University was swept up by the great intellectual movements of the period—the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment—due to the religious and scientific interests of presidents Thomas Clap and Ezra Stiles.

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5.

Yale University'storians differ on whether or not he opposed slavery in general.

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6.

Notably, there are no accounts of Yale ever visiting or influencing the university; Yale College was named after him only because of the size of his gift.

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7.

Yale University Report of 1828 was a dogmatic defense of the Latin and Greek curriculum against critics who wanted more courses in modern languages, mathematics, and science.

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8.

Between 1892, when Harvard and Yale University met in one of the first intercollegiate debates, and in 1909 the rhetoric, symbolism, and metaphors used in athletics were used to frame these early debates.

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9.

Yale University established the "Yale System" of teaching, with few lectures and fewer exams, and strengthened the full-time faculty system; he created the graduate-level Yale School of Nursing and the psychiatry department and built numerous new buildings.

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10.

The first seven women to earn PhDs at Yale received their degrees in 1894: Elizabeth Deering Hanscom, Cornelia H B Rogers, Sara Bulkley Rogers, Margaretta Palmer, Mary Augusta Scott, Laura Johnson Wylie, and Charlotte Fitch Roberts.

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11.

In 1966, Yale University began discussions with its sister school Vassar College about merging to foster coeducation at the undergraduate level.

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12.

In 2006, Yale and Peking University established a Joint Undergraduate Program in Beijing, an exchange program allowing Yale students to spend a semester living and studying with PKU honor students.

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13.

President Richard Levin noted that Yale University has hundreds of other partnerships across the world, but "no existing collaboration matches the scale of the new partnership with UCL".

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14.

In 2017, having been suggested for decades, Yale University renamed Calhoun College, named for slave owner, anti-abolitionist, and white supremacist Vice President John C Calhoun.

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15.

Yale University was president of the East India Company, a trading company that traded slaves as well as goods, and his singularly large donation led to Yale University relying on money from the slave-trade for its first scholarships and endowments.

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16.

Richard H Brodhead, former dean of Yale College and now president of Duke University, stated: "We do give very significant attention to orientation to the community in our admissions, and there is a very strong tradition of volunteerism at Yale.

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17.

Yale University changed so much between the class of '68 and the class of '71.

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18.

President and Fellows of Yale College, known as the Yale Corporation, or board of trustees, is the governing body of the university and consists of thirteen standing committees with separate responsibilities outlined in the by-laws.

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19.

Yale University's succeeding president Peter Salovey ranks 40th with a 2020 salary of $1.

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20.

Unlike similar institutions, Yale University has consistently refused to recognize its graduate student union, Local 33, citing claims that the union's elections were undemocratic and how graduate students are not employees; the move to not recognize the union has been criticized by the American Federation of Teachers.

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21.

Yale University has a history of difficult and prolonged labor negotiations, often culminating in strikes.

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22.

Yale University has responded to strikes with claims over mediocre union participation and the benefits of their contracts.

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23.

Yale University 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.

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24.

These tower forms at Yale University act in counterpoint to the college's many Gothic spires and Georgian cupolas.

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25.

Yale University was listed as a Campus Sustainability Leader on the Sustainable Endowments Institute's College Sustainability Report Card 2008, and received a "B+" grade overall.

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26.

Yale University is the largest taxpayer and employer in the City of New Haven, and has often buoyed the city's economy and communities.

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27.

Yale University, however has consistently opposed paying a tax on its academic property.

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28.

Under President Levin, Yale University has financially supported many of New Haven's efforts to reinvigorate the city.

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29.

Between 1990 and 2006, New Haven's crime rate fell by half, helped by a community policing strategy by the New Haven Police and Yale University's campus became the safest among the Ivy League and other peer schools.

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30.

In 2022, Yale University accepted 2, 234 students to the Class of 2026 out of 50, 015 applicants, for an acceptance rate of 4.

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31.

For 2019, Yale University ranked second in enrollment of recipients of the National Merit $2, 500 Scholarship.

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32.

Every year, Yale University College admits a small group of non-traditional students through the Eli Whitney Students Program.

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33.

Yale University is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.

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34.

Yale University is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".

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35.

Since the late 1960s, Yale University produces social sciences and policy research through its Institution for Social and Policy Studies.

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36.

Yale University described Calhoun as "a notable political theorist, a vice president to two different U S presidents, a secretary of war and of state, and a congressman and senator representing South Carolina".

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37.

Yale University acknowledged that Calhoun "believed that the highest forms of civilization depend on involuntary servitude.

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38.

Yale University claimed that if they removed Calhoun's name, it would "obscure" his "legacy of slavery rather than addressing it".

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39.

In 2014, Yale University had 385 registered student organizations, plus an additional one hundred groups in the process of registration.

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40.

Dwight Hall, an independent, non-profit community service organization, oversees more than 2, 000 Yale University undergraduates working on more than 70 community service initiatives in New Haven.

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41.

WYBC Yale University Radio is the campus's radio station, owned and operated by students.

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42.

Yale University Political Union is a debate society founded in 1934 to host student discussions on a wide variety of topics.

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43.

Yale University has numerous athletic facilities, including the Yale University Bowl, located at The Walter Camp Field athletic complex, and the Payne Whitney Gymnasium, the second-largest indoor athletic complex in the world.

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44.

Yale University maintains the Gales Ferry site where the heavyweight men's team trains for the Yale University-Harvard Boat Race.

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45.

Yale University crew is the oldest collegiate athletic team in America, and won Olympic Games Gold Medal for men's eights in 1924 and 1956.

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46.

The official Yale University fight song, "Bulldog" was written by Cole Porter during his undergraduate days and is sung after touchdowns during a football game.

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47.

Yale University has had many financial supporters, but some stand out by the magnitude or timeliness of their contributions.

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48.

Over its history, Yale University has produced many distinguished alumni in a variety of fields, ranging from the public to private sector.

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49.

Yale University graduates have been recipients of 252 Rhodes Scholarships, 123 Marshall Scholarships, 67 Truman Scholarships, 21 Churchill Scholarships, and 9 Mitchell Scholarships.

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50.

Yale University has produced numerous award-winning authors and influential writers, like Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Sinclair Lewis and Pulitzer Prize winners Stephen Vincent Benet, Thornton Wilder, Doug Wright, and David McCullough.

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51.

Alumni from Yale University have made notable contributions to both music and the arts.

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52.

In business, Yale has had numerous alumni and former students go on to become founders of influential business, like William Boeing, Briton Hadden and Henry Luce (Time Magazine), Stephen A Schwarzman (Blackstone Group), Frederick W Smith (FedEx), Juan Trippe (Pan Am), Harold Stanley (Morgan Stanley), Bing Gordon (Electronic Arts), and Ben Silbermann (Pinterest).

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53.

Yale University is a cultural referent as an institution that produces some of the most elite members of society and its grounds, alumni, and students have been prominently portrayed in fiction and U S popular culture.

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54.

For example, Owen Johnson's novel Stover at Yale University follows the college career of Dink Stover, and Frank Merriwell, the model for all later juvenile sports fiction, plays football, baseball, crew, and track at Yale University while solving mysteries and righting wrongs.

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55.

Yale University is mentioned in F Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.

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