Talk:Ezra Stiles College

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The article states that it is "generally agreed" that Stiles has disproportionately more athletes and science majors than other colleges. I'm not sure there's general agreement on this point. Any statistical support? So far as I know, students are distributed largely by social security number, and athletes have no special ability to influence what college they attend. What distinguishes Stiles' student body is the fact is has relatively fewer children of alumni. This is because the college's youth means that it has fewer alumni, and because children of Stiles alumni probably choose not to be in the college more than children of other colleges' alumni (because of its ugliness).

Moreover, it's interesting that Stiles now has a reputation for having more athletes than the norm. In its earliest years, it had a reputation as the nerdy college because it had so few alumni children and because it won the Gimbel Cup many years in a row. (Perhaps that is the genesis of the "science major overrepresentation" rumor.) The college's recent success in the 1990's and 2000's in the Tyng Cup is more a result of high participation encouraged by engaged masters than the presence of more athletes.

I would propose to strike the unsupported reference and replace it with an analysis more along the lines of the above. --Splinters 17:15, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

• Distribution is probably not by Social Security number, because the first three digits correspond to specific geographical locations. CoolGuy 04:19, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

• • As I recall, distribution is by the last four digits of students' social security numbers. In the early 1990's, virtually everyone in Stiles had SSNs with the sixth and seventh digits in the 85-92 range or so. This methodology led to somewhat of a scandal -- reported on in the Rumpus -- relating to Canadian students. Since Canadian students didn't have SSNs, Yale assigned them shadow SSNs, which all ended up with similar sixth and seventh digits. Because of this quirk, almost of the Canadians were placed in two colleges (Berkeley and one other, IIRC). Anyway, my understanding is that Yale first distributes students by SSNs, then adjusts the pools that result marginally to ensure a good mix of students from different backgrounds. The one exception to this rule is alumni children, who can choose either to be in, or not to be in, their parent's college. Unless things have changed dramatically in recent years, there shouldn't be any support for the statement that more athletes and science majors are in Stiles. I believe this is rumor, and nothing more. Anyone have any knowledge to the contrary? --Splinters 01:39, 27 March 2006 (UTC)