Each college is headed by a faculty member who serves as college master. In addition, every spring each college invites a number of faculty, staff members, and visiting scholars to take voluntary appointments as residential fellows. Fellows become mentors in the academic and cultural life of the college, supporting its activites and regularly taking meals with students. A graduate student serves as assistant master. Residential colleges sponsor a broad range of informal cultural and intellectual activities.
Most colleges offer credit-bearing tutorials for residents.
Five residential colleges opened in the fall of 1972, and since then, the program has continued to grow and thrive.