Program Description and Table of Requirements
The introductory description of a department or a program is intended both for the uninitiated student and for the student majoring in the subject. For the former, it is among the first descriptions he or she encounters at Yale of a discipline—its scope, nature, and significance. Thus the program description, if it is well written, can provide an informative short orientation to the department's field of study. The introductory material must be brief, and it will coexist with 80-odd other introductions cast in YCPS prose. For the major or potential major, the front matter has a different use. The student reads it to learn what will be required, including the number of courses, the prescribed courses or prerequisites, the courses in other departments that may be substituted for the ones needed for the major, and the method of fulfilling the senior requirement. The codified table of requirements at the end of the program description is intended not to replace the prose but to serve as a quick summary of it.
The program description is in a sense contractual. If the requirements of a major should change (with the approval of the Course of Study Committee), it is ordinarily expected that students will be held to the requirements in effect no later than the year in which they elected their major. Since many students plan ahead carefully, a department that changes its major requirements should consider making the changes effective only for the freshman class and subsequent classes.
