Q 01/05

Yale University is located in which city?

A) New Haven

B) Hartford

C) Stamford

D) Bridgeport

Answer · why

A) New Haven

The town outbid several rivals in 1716 for the right to host the young college, which had started in Killingworth and moved to Saybrook.

Q 02/05

In what year was Yale founded, making it the third-oldest US institution of higher education?

A) 1636

B) 1701

C) 1746

D) 1769

Answer · why

B) 1701

Only Harvard (1636) and William & Mary (1693) are older; it is one of nine colonial colleges chartered before the Revolution.

Q 03/05

Under what name was Yale established in 1701?

A) the Connecticut Academy

B) New Haven College

C) the Collegiate School

D) the Puritan Seminary

Answer · why

C) the Collegiate School

It was founded by Congregationalist clergy to train ministers and lay leaders, and only became Yale College in 1718.

Q 04/05

Elihu Yale, whose donation earned him naming rights, made his fortune in Madras working for which trading concern?

A) the Hudson's Bay Company

B) the Massachusetts Bay Company

C) the Royal African Company

D) the East India Company

Answer · why

D) the East India Company

He was the first president of Fort St George in Madras; his gift of nine bales of goods sold for more than £560.

Q 05/05

Which Boston clergyman suggested the school rename itself 'Yale College' after Elihu Yale's gift?

A) Cotton Mather

B) Jonathan Edwards

C) Increase Mather

D) Ezra Stiles

Answer · why

A) Cotton Mather

The Mathers had championed the Collegiate School in the hope it would stay more Puritan than Harvard.