It's overwhelming how many groups on campus. All the freshmen go to the activities bazaar and come back with a heavy bag of brochures from different organizations. It's hard for some of us to choose which groups to join at the beginning, but it also means that there are always causes to support or more groups to join if you want to switch. A lot of people are involved in political, community service or singing groups, but there are also random groups, like the "Anti-Gravity Society" or the Pundits, who play tricks and run around naked right before exams. Every weekend, there is something going on (a cappella concerts, Dramat shows, international dance parties, college-sponsored parties, guest speakers, debates, movies, etc.) Everyone goes all of these activities at some point- it's often hard to decide to go what to go to in a given week because there are so many cool or interesting things going on. Football is definitely the most attended sport. A lot of people play intramurals for their colleges (the college with the most points at the end of the year gets the Tyng Cup). On weekdays, people study or have meetings for various organizations. Some people go to Toad's (the most popular dance club) on Wednesdays, but Thursday, Friday and Saturday are when most people go out. There is definitely a big party scene, but the frats have a pretty small presence on campus and there are plenty of other options for people who don't like partying. Once or twice a semester, the undergraduate funding committee pays for a $5000 all-campus themed party, which can be awesome, and can be a big flop. The dating scene is a little disappointing since such a large proportion of the guys are either gay or only interested in hook-ups. My closest friends are from my residential college and my Christian fellowship. Yale has a lot of traditions. A cappella and secret society "tap nights" are tons of fun because people in crazy costumes are running around all over campus doing silly things. Silliman throws the annual "Safety Dance" (80's dance) in Commons, which is tons of fun. A newer tradition is the Branford "Crushes and Chaperones" 90's dance. At the end of first semester, every college has a holiday dinner and the freshmen have a huge, extravagant dinner, complete with a parade of lobster and gingerbread houses. During reading week of spring semester, we have "Spring Fling" when some musicians come to perform and we all hang out on Old Campus (this year we had Jimmy Eat World, Sean Kingston and The Roots). Also during reading week, every college celebrates their special day, which is different for each college. Every week, there are 6 or so master's teas, where the master of a residential college invites a distinguished speaker to come and you can go have tea, eat cookies, hear the speaker and ask questions. There are also some fun preorientation programs to do the week before coming to school as a freshman and meet other freshmen. I did Harvest, where you live on a farm for five days. I loved it and am still friends with most of my group. The Yale Farm is pretty awesome in general- every Friday, they cook homemade, fresh, brick oven pizza. 40{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of our food is organic and sustainable, which is pretty awesome (and very rare for college dining).