# Family Dinner is the Best Dinner

**Source**: https://admissions.yale.edu/bulldogs-blogs/owen/2024/11/22/family-dinner-best-dinner
**Parent**: https://admissions.yale.edu/bulldogs-blogs/category/residential-colleges

by [Owen](https://admissions.yale.edu/bulldogs-blogs/1637 "Owen") in

[#At Home, At Yale](https://admissions.yale.edu/bulldogs-blogs/category/at-home-at-yale "#At Home, At Yale"), [#Campus Life](https://admissions.yale.edu/bulldogs-blogs/category/campus-life "#Campus Life"), [#Residential Colleges](https://admissions.yale.edu/bulldogs-blogs/category/residential-colleges "#Residential Colleges")
on 11.22.2024

Every college is going to tell you that they are like Hogwarts to some degree. This assertion, I discovered during my college admissions process, has become almost boilerplate. But I always understood the allusion to be architecturally motivated: cavernous dining halls with chandeliers, gothic stone ornamentation, long oak tables. And, to be fair, Yale has all of the above (Commons, anyone?). But Yale’s most cogent and concentrated Hogwarts feel is derived not from the structure of campus buildings or occasional cobwebs perched in the arches of residential college libraries, but the residential college system itself. Think fewer wands, more unique seminars, intramural showdowns, and late-night debates that stretch the mind. With 14 “houses” instead of four, Yale’s residential college system weaves the intimacy of a small school into the vast fabric of a world-class university, creating microcosms of community, intellectual vibrancy, and creative energy.

Each college is its own bustling hub, complete with heads of college and deans who double as live-in advisors, mentors, and community builders. First-years might start their journey on the historic Old Campus, but by sophomore year (or earlier for a lucky few), students move into their college’s heart – spaces designed for camaraderie and connection. It’s a system that not only mirrors the diversity of Yale itself but also fuels the kind of free-flowing, cross-disciplinary interaction that makes innovation thrive. In Yale’s residential colleges, you’ll find a seamless blend of tradition and modernity: from Senior Mellon Forums and College Teas to casual game nights and late-night library study sessions (yes, each residential college has its own library).

But my favorite part of the residential college system is the social network it offers you, a sort of default family. Your residential college peers will be the first people you meet during move-in, the friends with whom you can complain about your tiny Old Campus dorm bedroom and broken radiator, the community with whom you’ll dance the night away at College Formals and waste the hours away over brunch. Speaking of meals, my favorite feature of the residential college system is Family Dinner on Sunday nights: each college dining hall is open only to residents of that college.  It’s the weekly occasion for your first friends at Yale—your family—to come together and share a meal, free from the chaos of the weekday schedule. You have an opportunity to gather around the same table each week, catch up on everything from classes to personal victories, and be reminded that in the whirlwind of college life, you always have a home base. That’s true magic. And all thanks to the residential college system. Or, in other words, Hogwarts, reimagined.