Yale College
Publications Office
246 Church Street
New Haven, CT
06510   USA

General Rules Relating to the Use of Acceleration Credits

1. Notification. The chief responsibility for ascertaining eligibility and for meeting the deadline to apply for acceleration rests with the students themselves. However, the Registrar's Office will make reasonable efforts to inform students, at the beginning of the third term of enrollment, of their eligibility to accelerate by one or two terms.

It is not the responsibility of the Registrar's Office or Yale College to remind students who have declared an intention to accelerate of the rules on the pattern of attendance stipulated for the use of acceleration credits. Students who are accelerating are themselves responsible for planning to meet these rules, and if a student's pattern of attendance does not conform to them, it will be concluded that the student has decided to relinquish the use of acceleration credits and not to accelerate. Such a student will be automatically decelerated.

2. Interruption of studies by leave or withdrawal. Terms of enrollment need not be consecutive. A student accelerating by one or two terms has the same privileges of leave of absence or withdrawal that a nonaccelerating student has.

3. A third term of leave of absence. A student taking an accelerated degree by use of acceleration credits who has had two terms of leave of absence may receive a third term of leave if it is needed to bring the student's pattern of attendance into conformity with the pattern of attendance stipulated for an accelerated degree. See "Leave of Absence" under the heading "Leave of Absence, Withdrawal, and Readmission" in this chapter; a student who has received long-term loans through Yale or who is receiving financial aid from Yale should particularly note paragraph 8 under "Leave of Absence."

4. Withdrawal. If a student withdraws from a term after the date on which course schedules for that term are due, the uncompleted term counts as a term of enrollment, both in the determination of the student's eligibility to accelerate and in the calculation of the number of terms in which the student has been in attendance at Yale. However, if an accelerating student withdraws from Yale College on the recommendation of the University Health Services without having successfully completed a term, the student has the option of not counting the uncompleted term as one of the six or seven terms of enrollment.

5. Enrollment in Yale Summer Session or the Yale-in-London Summer Program. Attendance at the Yale Summer Session or the Summer Program at the Paul Mellon Centre in London does not constitute a term of enrollment. For example, a student accelerating by one term may not offer attendance at the Yale Summer Session or the Summer Program at the Paul Mellon Centre in London as one of the required seven terms of enrollment in Yale College. Course credits earned by attendance at these summer programs, however, may be applied toward the requirements for the bachelor's degree by accelerating students, provided that such students meet the conditions specified for acceleration by one or two terms. See also "Courses in the Yale Summer Session" and "Yale-in-London Summer Program" under the heading "Special Arrangements" in this chapter.

6. Course credit from outside Yale. A student accelerating by two terms must earn at least twenty-seven course credits at Yale, and a student accelerating by one term must earn at least thirty-two course credits at Yale. Therefore, an accelerating student may not apply any credit earned at another university toward the 36-course-credit requirement for the bachelor's degree. A student, whether accelerating or not, may be permitted to apply course credits earned at another university toward the requirements of the student's major program or toward any of the distributional requirements other than those for the freshman year. See "Credit from Other Universities" in this chapter.

(Please note that attendance at the Yale Program at the Paul Mellon Centre in London during the spring term counts just as if it were a term of enrollment at Yale College in New Haven, as does attendance at the Peking University–Yale University Joint Undergraduate Program in Beijing. Attendance at the Paul Mellon Centre during the summer, however, does not count as a term of enrollment. See "Yale-in-London Summer Program" under the heading "Special Arrangements" in this chapter.)

7. Year or Term Abroad. A Year Abroad counts as two terms and a Term Abroad counts as one term of enrollment in Yale College. Credits earned on a Year or Term Abroad count as the equivalent of Yale course credits.

Note that after a Year or Term Abroad all students must attend two subsequent terms in Yale College; see "Year or Term Abroad" under the heading "Special Arrangements" in this chapter. In many cases a student must relinquish the use of acceleration credits and decelerate in order to take a Year or Term Abroad. Note also that a student accelerating by one or two terms who wishes to complete a term of study abroad as early as during the third term of enrollment would, as a special exception, have to petition to accelerate before the third term of enrollment. A student who wishes to accelerate and to take a Year or Term Abroad should consult with the residential college dean and the Office of International Education and Fellowship Programs at the earliest opportunity.

An accelerating student who wishes also to complete a Year or Term Abroad must conform to one of the following schemes:

Terms of Acceleration Total Terms at Yale Terms on YA/TA Acceleration Credits Minimum Course Credits Earned at Yale Maximum Course Credits Earned on YA/TA
1 6 1 4 28 4
1 5 2 4 23 9
2 5 1 9 23 4
2 4 2 9 18 9

8. Distributional requirements. For the Class of 2008. Acceleration credits may not be employed to meet the distributional requirements for the freshman year or the distributional requirements for the bachelor's degree, except for the foreign language requirement. Acceleration credits may be employed to meet the distributional requirement for the first two years, whether or not the student uses those credits in order to accelerate. With the permission of the residential college dean, an accelerating student may apply course credit earned at another university toward the distributional requirements for the bachelor's degree and the distributional requirement for the first two years.

For the Class of 2009 and subsequent classes. Acceleration credits may not be employed to meet the distributional requirements for the freshman, sophomore, or junior years, or the distributional requirements for the bachelor's degree, including the foreign language requirement. With permission, an accelerating student may apply course credit earned at another university toward the distributional requirements for the bachelor's degree and to those for the sophomore and junior years; students should consult with the residential college dean to be directed to the appropriate authority for such approval.

9. Major requirements. With the permission of the director of undergraduate studies, an accelerating student may apply credit earned at another university toward the requirements of the student's major program.

10. Makeup of course credit deficiency. If an accelerating student's record at the end of a term of enrollment shows a deficiency for promotion, academic good standing, or graduation, the student will be allowed to repair the deficiency without forfeiting the use of acceleration credits only through enrollment in Yale Summer Session if the credit earned is to be applied toward the 36-course-credit requirement for the bachelor's degree. See "Promotion and Good Standing" in this chapter.

11. Enrollment after graduation as a nondegree student. Accelerating students who have qualified for the award of the bachelor's degree are eligible, as are all Yale College graduates, for full-time enrollment in Yale College as nondegree students. Because such students will have graduated, they will not be eligible for financial aid. See "Nondegree Students Program" in this chapter.

12. Transfer students. Students admitted by transfer from other colleges and universities are not eligible for acceleration by the use of acceleration credits.