Title and Data Lines
Course Numbers
Term and Year Courses
Undergraduate/Graduate Courses
Graduate Courses
Multiple-Titled Courses
Cross-Listed Courses
Time Patterns
Equalizing Meeting Times
Format of Courses
Sections of Multisection Courses and Discussion Sections
Distributional Designations
Credit/D/Fail Option
Final Examination Number
Classes during Reading Period
Permission and Course Limitation
Prerequisites
Bracketed Courses
The basic information about a course, other than the description, is concentrated in the title and data lines preceding the description. An explanation of the items making up these lines follows.
Course Numbers. Each course in the YCPS is identified by the course number (e.g., ENGL 114a or b), which is assigned by the department and represents the place in the department's scheme, whether by topic or by level, into which the course fits.
It should be noted that each course is assigned its own separate number whatever the term in which it is given. If the same course moves from one term to another, it keeps the same number, though there will be a change in the letter affixed to the number. The letter indicates term: "a" for fall, "b" for spring. Further, if a course is no longer offered and its number seems to fall open, the department should not use it for another course for a period of four years. The purpose of this delay is to avoid the duplication of the same course number on student transcripts.
Freshman seminars carry numbers from 001 to 099. Other courses in Yale College are numbered 100 to 499.
Term and Year Courses. The letters "a" and "b" denote fall-term and spring-term courses; the absence of a letter denotes a year course. Unless marked otherwise in the YCPS, year courses yield credit for the successful completion of a single term. If a department feels strongly that credit should not be granted for one term only of a year course, the phrase "Cr/Year only" is used in the data line of the course description. Instructors may not make exceptions for individual students. Introductory language courses are typically listed in the YCPS as two single-term courses, both of which must be completed for credit to be awarded. The yearlong specification for introductory Spanish, for example, is indicated at SPAN 110a by the phrase "Credit only on completion of SPAN 120b." Such a stipulation may not be changed, by either the instructor or the department. It is Yale College policy that beginning courses in a modern foreign language must be taken for a full year for any credit to be given.
Undergraduate/Graduate Courses. When a course is given on both an undergraduate and a graduate level, its graduate status is indicated by a superscript "G" added to its course number. The Course of Study Committee has been concerned that the nature of such courses be clarified. As a report to the committee on these courses concludes (available in PDF format in the online appendixes to this Handbook), "the traditional and salutary distinction between the two levels of work is beginning to be blurred." According to the committee's definition, an undergraduate/graduate course is one having a subject matter and requirements suitable for an undergraduate curriculum along with other requirements suitable for graduate students. Further, an undergraduate/graduate course typically enrolls a significant number of undergraduates; one with only one or two undergraduates should be conceived of as a graduate course to which undergraduates are admitted with special permission (see "Graduate Courses" below). Finally, courses must conform to the standard time patterns of Yale College. When a new undergraduate/graduate course is submitted on a Course Proposal Form, the Course of Study Committee requires that supplementary information be included showing how the work of the undergraduates will differ, if at all, from that of the graduate students in the course. Because undergraduates are free to enroll in regular graduate courses even if such courses are not also listed in the undergraduate offerings, the Course Proposal Form also requires a justification for the joint listing of a course.
When a course is an undergraduate/graduate course as defined above, its joint designation informs students of its nature. Undergraduates enrolled in a B.A./M.A. or B.S./M.S. program usually expect to do the graduate work of the course so that it will count toward their advanced degree as a graduate course, and a graduate number for the course will appear on their transcript. For other undergraduates enrolled in an undergraduate/graduate course, however, the course's undergraduate number alone is listed on transcripts, even if they claim to have done graduate-level work in the course.
Graduate Courses. Graduate courses per se are always open with permission to undergraduate students. Properly qualified undergraduates may enroll in an unlimited number of courses in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences with permission of the instructor and the director of graduate studies. Undergraduates in these courses are obviously expected to do graduate-level work, and the courses are listed by their graduate numbers on their transcripts. In the YCPS, graduate courses available to undergraduates may be referred to in a general statement at the end of the department's course listings, "Graduate Courses." Please note that there is a limit to the number of professional school courses that an undergraduate may take. See "Special Academic Problems" under the heading "The Committee on Honors and Academic Standing."
Multiple-Titled Courses. Sometimes courses are sponsored by two or more departments and carry the names of each department—i.e., are multiple-titled (for example, AFAM 162b/AMST 162b/HIST 187b). The YCPS includes such titles in the course listings of each department, but the description appears only under the listings of the originating department, i.e., the department that submitted the Course Proposal Form for the course. Adding a multiple title to a course requires permission from the DUS of the course's originating department.
Cross-Listed Courses. A course may be suitable for credit toward the major in a department other than the one sponsoring it without its being eligible for multiple-titling. Such courses from other departments may be included in a department's listings, i.e., be cross-listed. For example, MENG 285a is included in the listings under Physics. It appears simply as a Mechanical Engineering course, not one double-titled Physics/Mechanical Engineering. When a course from another department is listed at the end of a program under a separate heading, that course may or may not count toward the major of the listing program. But if a course from another department is interspersed among the program's offerings, it counts toward the major of the listing program.
Time Patterns. Setting the times at which courses meet is the department's responsibility, but meeting times must fall within the standard patterns established by Yale College. Time patterns have been regularized in order to utilize the limited number of classrooms to the greatest extent while balancing the pressure for rooms of varying sizes at various hours. Exceptions to the standard time patterns are rare and must be approved by the Course of Study Committee. If nonstandard times are submitted with YCPS copy, those falling outside the standard pattern only slightly will automatically be adjusted by the editor to fit the closest standard time slot. Those that are radically different will be submitted to the typesetter as "hours to be arranged."
Equalizing Meeting Times. The standard time patterns were created to help use limited classroom space efficiently, to encourage departments to coordinate their offerings with one another, and to give students the broadest possible choice of courses as they try to fill out their schedules each term. Unfortunately, among both faculty and students some teaching hours are more popular than others, with the result that more courses are offered on certain days and hours than others, and faculty and students continue to be frustrated by their classroom assignments and scheduling difficulties. Please make every effort to spread your department's course offerings across all of the standard times available to you, both early and late in the day, and as many on Mondays and Fridays as in the middle of the week.
Format of Courses. Lecture courses typically meet three hours a week, either in three 50-minute periods or in two 75-minute periods; blocks of two- or three-hour periods do not constitute an acceptable lecture pattern.
Seminars usually meet at least two continuous hours a week, though they may also meet in two 75-minute periods. By definition, seminars are restricted in size, and are starred to allow the instructor control of the enrollment.
If a course that had originally been submitted to the Course of Study Committee as a lecture course shifts to a seminar format, it must be resubmitted on a Course Proposal Form. Conversely, a seminar course with an uncharacteristically large enrollment should be recast as a lecture course and resubmitted to the Course of Study Committee with a three-hour-a-week time pattern.
Sections of Multisection Courses and Discussion Sections. Some courses are divided into sections meeting at different times with different instructors (e.g., ENGL 125a, 126b). For such courses, only the total number of weekly class meetings is indicated in the YCPS, with a reference to Online Course Information. Information about the number of sections planned and their times of meeting and their instructors should be sent to the Senior Deputy Registrar, 246 Church Street, in early June and in early October.
The times at which various discussion sections of lecture courses meet are also not given in the YCPS, but their existence should be indicated within a course's time pattern (e.g., MW 9.25-10.15, 1 HTBA). Arrangements for discussion sections should be e-mailed to the designated person in the department, as arranged with the Graduate Teaching Fellow Program. Because of the limited availability of classrooms, instructors should be advised to schedule discussion sections in the early mornings, late afternoons, and evenings. Since it is particularly difficult to find small rooms for discussion sections that meet on Friday mornings from 9.25 to 12.25, instructors should be discouraged from choosing those hours.
Distributional Designations. The distributional designations (L1–L5, QR, WR, Hu, Sc, and So) are described in detail under the heading "The Distributional Requirements."
Credit/D/Fail Option. All courses offered in Yale College during the fall and spring terms are available for election under the Credit/D/Fail option. Program descriptions in chapter III of the YCPS specify whether or not courses taken on the Credit/D/Fail basis count toward the requirements of particular majors. A student may not apply any course credit earned on the Credit/D/Fail basis toward satisfaction of the distributional requirements for the bachelor's degree.
Final Examination Number. The number of the appropriate final examination group is assigned on the basis of the meeting times of a course. An overall pattern of final examination dates is worked out each year to ensure that there will be no conflicts in students' final examinations. A table, "Final Examination Schedules," may be found at the beginning of the YCPS. For a translation of examination group numbers into specific examination times, see the explanation on that page. Instructors' decisions about examinations should be recorded in the CIMP system. See section G, "Reading Period and Final Examination Period," in chapter II of the YCPS.
Although it is not binding, the specific designation of a final examination, or of its equivalent indicated by (0), gives students important information about what to expect.
Classes during Reading Period. Instructors' decisions about holding classes during reading period should be recorded in the CIMP system. See section G, "Reading Period and Final Examination Period," in chapter II of the YCPS.
Permission and Course Limitation. Limitation of enrollment in a course may be indicated in two different ways: a course may be starred, which means that the student must secure permission of the instructor, or a concluding sentence may be added to the course description indicating a blanket limitation, e.g., "Enrollment limited" or "Enrollment limited to 25." In neither case does the Registrar's Office enforce the limitation indicated in the YCPS. In a starred course, the instructor is expected to control the enrollment. In "enrollment limited" courses, the statement in the YCPS is intended as a condition that the instructor enforces in whatever way he or she chooses. All seminars, which by definition are courses with limited enrollment, must be starred.
Prerequisites. Prerequisites can be informative or prescriptive or both. If instructors expect them to be prescriptive, they must enforce them themselves. The best way of doing so is to require permission for the course (i.e., to star the course) so that the instructor or course director can check students' qualifications as they apply for permission.
Bracketed Courses. Brackets around a course not currently being offered are intended to indicate its appearance in the curriculum during the following year. In order to ensure that this use of brackets retains its credibility for students attempting to plan ahead over a two-year period, it is important that brackets be used uniformly, with the same degree of reliability, by all departments, and that courses return to the curriculum as announced. Therefore, courses should be bracketed only if you are quite certain (90 percent certain is the rule of thumb) that they will be given in the next year. If it is not possible to predict with relative confidence the reappearance of a course, it should not be bracketed. Bracketed courses are usually listed only in the originating department. Courses absent from the YCPS for a time do not have to be submitted to the Course of Study Committee when they return if they have not materially changed in the interim, unless seven years have elapsed since the course was last offered.
Angle brackets around a course number appearing in the YCPS (in a program's front matter or as a prerequisite for another course) indicate that the course is not listed in the current bulletin but has been offered within the past three years.
