Yale College Academic Resources
Academic Resources
Advising
Incoming first-year students are automatically assigned a college adviser. The residential college dean makes these assignments based on a variety of shared interests, including academics, extracurriculars, hometown, etc. College advisers are Yale faculty members, staff members, or administrators affiliated with a student’s residential college who have volunteered to help their advisees think through their academic interests and aspirations. College advisers help their advisees think through constructive ways of getting the most out of their first year at Yale. They can also help with constructing a sensible and well-balanced course schedule.
Yale College allows students to remain with their college adviser throughout their first four terms of enrollment (i.e., through the end of the sophomore year). Beginning in their second term of enrollment, students may also select a new college adviser. Students switching from one college adviser to another may choose any member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences faculty.
Incoming transfer students are assigned a transfer adviser by the director of the Transfer Student Program. Transfer advisers are generally deans and directors in the Yale College Dean’s Office who are skilled at helping transfer students navigate the transition from their former institution to Yale. Like college advisers, transfer advisers help their advisees think through constructive ways of getting the most out of their first year at Yale, and can also help with constructing a sensible and well-balanced course schedule.
Declaring a major prompts a change from pre-major adviser (college adviser or transfer advisor) to major adviser (director of undergraduate studies, or “DUS,” in the major). In fact, once a student declares a major, the DUS or the DUS’s designee becomes the student’s adviser, replacing the student’s college adviser or transfer advisor. This is because an undergraduate student may have only one adviser at a time. (The DUS is the faculty member in a department responsible for undergraduate instruction and the contents and structure of the major.)
Students interested in majoring in a STEM field are encouraged to declare their major by the end of their first year to get advice on course sequences and other matters; students interested in majoring in engineering are strongly advised to declare their major by the end of their first year. Students majoring in subjects other than the STEM fields generally declare their major by the end of the sophomore year.
Additional information on advising may be found on the
Advising Resources website, especially in the
Your Adviser and Advising section (including
Your Primary Advisers,
Your College Adviser, and
Selecting an Adviser).
Tutoring
Any student enrolled in Yale College and experiencing academic difficulty is eligible for free
tutoring. The Center for Language Study (CLS) provides tutoring for the languages taught at Yale, while the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning provides tutoring in the humanities, social sciences, STEM, and writing. The Residential College Math and Science Tutors, course-based tutors, and Residential College Writing Tutors are all administered by the Poorvu Center.
Language tutoring from the CLS is available for up to ten hours per term. If more than ten hours are needed, the student may request additional time from the program coordinator. A typical extension is five additional hours.
Students apply for a language tutor through the CLS’s
Language Tutoring page. Students seeking other kinds of tutoring will find links in the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning’s
Undergraduates section. Students balancing co-curricular responsibilities, such as athletics, with their academic obligations have found the Poorvu Center’s Academic Strategies Program workshops to be especially helpful.
After applying for a tutor, you will receive an email confirmation of your tutoring assignment; it is important that you contact the tutor as soon as you receive that message. Sessions are scheduled by the tutor and student at a mutually convenient time.
Tutors are advanced undergraduate, graduate, or professional school students with demonstrated expertise in the subject area they teach and experience in communicating relevant material.
Missed Class Time
It is the student’s responsibility to notify instructors in advance when they must miss their classes.
At the beginning of each term, student athletes should review their competition schedule and inform their instructors which class sessions they will need to miss. If there are conflicts between your class schedule and your competitions, then, notify the instructor(s) as soon as possible and explain the need to be absent in those instances. We recommend that you secure such permission from instructors in writing (since a conversation in early September may be forgotten by early November); your dean can assist you in drafting that request.
Class absences are the sole responsibility of the student-athlete. The residential college deans are authorized to extend deadlines but cannot issue Dean’s Extensions for absences; only instructors have the authority to excuse attendance and participation. While many faculty members may be willing to allow flexibility for class absences due to varsity competition, they are not obliged to do so.
Obtaining a Dean’s Extension
Requesting a Dean’s Extension from a residential college dean is the responsibility of the student-athlete. Deans are authorized by the faculty to issue a Dean’s Extension to postpone exams, quizzes, and other in-class assignments if that work conflicts with varsity athletic competitions or travel. But such decanal authority is limited. For instance, college deans are unable to issue Dean’s Extensions for class attendance or class participation, since such work cannot be postponed. And decanal authority to extend deadlines for co-curricular obligations is largely confined to exams, quizzes, and other work that requires a student-athlete’s presence on campus. Deans normally are not permitted to postpone papers, problem sets, and other assignments on the grounds of either a heavy work schedule or varsity competition, unless material critical to the completion of an assignment is missed because of absence from class because of travel or a competition. While mindful of the considerable time that student-athletes devote to their sport, the expectation of Yale College is that varsity athletes manage their time and submit such work by the deadline. That means that in some cases, you may have to complete papers, problem sets, and other assignments ahead of schedule. Deans can, however, connect you with resources, such as the
Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, to help you get organized and plan ahead. As always, instructors can excuse any assignment and any component of a course prior to the last day of classes on their own authority and without needing a Dean’s Extension.
Once classes end, however, faculty authority to postpone work is limited. As one important example, instructors are not empowered to postpone final exams; only the residential college dean may postpone a final exam. Be sure to review the Yale College Programs of Study,
Section H., “Work Complete at the End of Term” and “Postponement of Final Examinations.”
Again, for essays, problem sets, and other assignments where a Dean’s Extension is unavailable, student-athletes must work ahead or work out alternative arrangements directly with their instructors. It is the expectation of Yale College that students anticipate possible conflicts with problem sets, papers, and other assignments and contact their instructor directly, well in advance of those conflicts, to request accommodations. For class absences, student-athletes should identify, at the beginning of the term, which classes may be missed and discuss any conflicts with their instructors as soon as possible.
In cases where a team is scheduled or forced to arrive back on campus after midnight, and a student-athlete has an in-class assignment (e.g., a midterm or quiz) that day, they may request a Dean’s Extension to postpone that assignment. In all other cases, the in-class assignment must conflict with athletic competition or travel to qualify for a Dean’s Extension.
Only residential college deans may grant a Dean’s Extension, and it is the responsibility of the student to request such accommodations. Student-athletes should make such requests well in advance of an anticipated conflict, or as soon as they are aware of a problem (e.g., an unanticipated late return from a competition). The residential college dean will then determine whether the student-athlete qualifies and confirm that the student-athlete is on the Athletics Department’s Notification of Class Absence list. If they qualify, the dean will complete the Dean’s Extension form, which states when the work will be completed. Upon the dean’s approval, the instructor of record will automatically be notified.
For more information regarding Dean’s Extensions and other policies concerning missed coursework, student-athletes should consult the Yale College Programs of Study, Section H., “
Completion of Course Work.” The residential college websites also contain pertinent information, including a link to the online form that students must use to request the Dean’s Extension.
Additional Academic Policies
Student-athletes may not miss class or any other academic obligation to attend practice. If you have an academic obligation that conflicts with practice, be sure to discuss the conflict with your coaches. They understand that your academics must come first.
All students at Yale must take at least one, and up to three language courses. Most language courses at the beginning and intermediate level meet five days per week.
Yale College expects all students to complete their degree requirements within eight terms of enrollment. In exceptional circumstances, a student may petition the Yale College Committee on Honors and Academic Standing for permission to enroll for an additional term. Approval for this exception is rare and can be granted only for a narrow range of academic or medical reasons.
Financial Aid – 246 Church Street, (203) 432-2700
The Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid administers need-based financial aid for all Yale College students. Student-athletes with questions regarding their financial aid package, including federal and institutional grants, low-interest student loans, and other outside or need based resources should contact the Undergraduate Financial Aid for assistance. Students may call (203) 432-2700 or stop by the office at 246 Church Street (1st floor).
