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Welcome to Yale! My name is Ashtan, and I'm a junior from Tennessee. Before we begin, let me explain how to explore Yale using this virtual tour. To start walking along the tour route, click the forward-facing arrow. To move to the next stop, click the next stop button. To jump to a particular location, use the menu to select the stop of your choice. To explore a location in more detail, use the icons for 360 panoramas, photos and videos. As we explore some of Yale's signature spaces, I hope you'll get a sense of what makes the Yale experience unique.
Memorial Hall
Tour stop audio transcript
This is Memorial Hall, part of the Steven A. Schwarzman Center. To your left is Woolsey Hall: a 2,700-seat auditorium that is home to the Yale Symphony Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia Orchestra, and the magnificent Newberry Memorial Organ, with more than 12,000 pipes. To your right is Commons, which is being transformed into a state-of-the-art campus center. It also serves as the largest of Yale's seventeen dining halls, and hosts several Yale traditions, including the freshman holiday dinner and Final Cut, a popular student culinary competition. The rotunda itself is lined with etchings of names of Yale alumni who lost their lives serving in the United States military. In 1981, those etchings served as inspiration for Maya Lin who designed the Vietnam War Memorial while she was a student at Yale.
Hewitt Quadrangle
Tour stop audio transcript
Welcome to Hewitt Quadrangle, more commonly called Beinecke Plaza, because of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library behind me. The Library houses more than one million volumes, contained in a six-story central glass column and extensive underground stacks. The collections span from ancient Egyptian papyrus, to an original Gutenberg Bible, to manuscripts by Langston Hughes. The library's walls are made of one-and-a- quarter inch thick slabs of Vermont marble, which filter incoming sunlight to protect the collection.
Cross Campus trail
Cross Campus
Tour stop audio transcript
Welcome to Cross Campus. My name is Jorge and I'm a junior from New York. Cross Campus is one of my favorite spots at Yale, because it connects many different aspects of student life. From here you can see academic buildings, libraries, and residential colleges. On sunny days, you'll see students scattered across the lawn, throwing a Frisbee or reading on blankets. Beneath the lawn is Bass Library and the Thain Family café, which serves coffee, smoothies, and snacks that are perfect for group study sessions.
Grace Hopper College
Tour stop audio transcript
We are now standing in one of Yale's 14 residential colleges. Before arriving at Yale each student is randomly assigned to a residential college community, where they will belong for all four years. Despite the name "college", the communities have nothing to do with majors or academic subjects. Each residential college has its own dining hall, gym, library, common areas, and basement facilities. To find out more I encourage you to take the residential college virtual tour.
School of Management trail
School of Management
Tour stop audio transcript
We are standing at the Yale School of Management, one of thirteen graduate and professional schools that complement the undergraduate liberal arts program in Yale College. Hundreds of Yale undergraduates take courses in the graduate and professional schools each year. Courses at the School of Management, which range from Marketing to Global Social Entrepreneurship, are among the most popular.
Center for Engineering, Innovation, and Design trail
Center for Engineering innovation and Design
Tour stop audio transcript
This is the Center for Engineering, Innovation and Design, a 24/7 maker space open to students in all majors. The center includes a studio with 3D printers and other rapid prototyping equipment, a metal machine shop, a wood shop, a wet lab, and meeting rooms. It's not uncommon to see teams of students building robots, race cars, and rockets side by side in the center. Next door is a café that features a 450 square foot programmable LED display with 24,000 individual lights. For more information about engineering, I encourage you to take the Engineering Virtual Tour.
Broadway District trail
Broadway District
Tour stop audio transcript
On social media, posts about New Haven are hashtagged with "GSCIA" -for Greatest Small City in America. After living here, it's easy to see why. New Haven is an amazing walking city. Within a 1 mile radius of campus, you'll find two Tony-Award winning regional theaters, six museums, three major concert venues, and more than 100 restaurants. New Haven is one of America's top cities for biotech research, and was the fastest growing major city in the northeast at the last census.
St. Thomas More Chapel trail
St. Thomas More Chapel and Center
Tour stop audio transcript
We're currently at St. Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale. This is one of many campus spaces devoted to Yale's thriving religious communities. You can view some of the others by clicking the icons above. The Chaplain's Office serves more than twenty different religious communities and hosts the InterFaith Forum, a group of students that meet weekly to build community across a variety of religious and spiritual identities.
Afro-American Cultural Center
Tour stop audio transcript
This is the Afro American Cultural Center, or simply "The House." The House hosts campus events, art exhibits, and concerts; and it sponsors more than a dozen student-run organizations. It's also a great place to just hang out or do homework. Along with the Asian American Cultural Center, Native American Cultural Center, and La Casa Cultural, Yale's four cultural centers foster a sense of cultural identity and share the diverse cultures represented at each center with the larger Yale community. Students of all backgrounds and identities engage with the centers.
Sterling Memorial Library trail
Sterling Memorial Library
Tour stop audio transcript
There are more than 15 million volumes in Yale's libraries, and over four million of them are housed in Sterling Memorial Library, throughout 16 floors of stacks. Sterling is also home to the Yale Center for Teaching and Learning, which provides free academic support services to undergraduates through workshops, drop-in sessions, and one-on-one tutoring.
Old Campus
Tour stop audio transcript
Welcome to Old Campus. As the name implies, this is where you will find some of Yale's oldest buildings, including Connecticut Hall, which was built in 1750. The 2 acre quad includes dormitories, classrooms, religious spaces, and a snack shop that's open late. Old Campus is also home to Dwight Hall, Yale's student-run public service and social action organization. Founded in 1886, it is the largest campus-based student-run service organization in the country. From here you can see Harkness Tower, a 216 ft tall campus landmark that can be seen and heard from nearly any spot on campus. Twice a day a group of students play songs on the 54 bell Carillon that range from classical to classic rock to top 40 hits.
Yale Art Museums trail
Yale Art Museums
Tour stop audio transcript
The Yale University Art Gallery and Yale Center for British Art are among the world's most complete university art collections. The galleries serve as an academic resource center for hundreds of courses each year. The collections include works by Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, and Turner, and thousands of pieces of African, Asian, and Indo-Pacific Art. Both galleries were recently renovated and expanded, and they are always free and open to the public.
New Haven Green trail
New Haven Green
Tour stop audio transcript
We are now standing on the New Haven Green, directly adjacent to the Yale Campus. The Green has been the center of New Haven since its founding in 1638. In the summer the green hosts the International Festival of Arts and Ideas and a popular free summer concert series. In the fall it serves as the start and finish line of the well-known New Haven Road Race. In winter it is home to the New Haven Winter Festival and tree lighting. And in Spring the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade draws tens of thousands of visitors from across New England.
