- Getting Started
- Planning Your Move
- Academic Information
Yale provides a number of academic support programs to supplement class instruction and to strengthen commonly used skills. Students at every level of ability take advantage of these programs, which are described below.
The Yale College Writing Center, located at 35 Broadway, oversees several programs that can help students improve their writing. The Center provides a Bass Writing Tutor in each residential college to help with individual essays. Bass tutors work with students on any type of writing—from course papers to senior essays to fellowship applications—and at any stage of development, from initial notes to a near-finished draft. Each tutor is available for approximately ten hours a week and usually meets with students by appointment on a one-to-one basis.
Another program, called the Writing Partners, offers drop-in help with writing at the Center itself. Writing Partners are graduate students and advanced undergraduates selected both for their writing skills and for their ability to talk about writing. They can give feedback at any point in the writing process, from brainstorming to final revision. Both the Bass tutors and the Writing Partners help with writing in all disciplines, and provide tutoring for students who are writing in English as a second language.
For more information about the Writing Center and its programs, visit the Center's Web site. The Web site also offers information on how to use sources effectively and avoid plagiarism.
The Yale College Science and Quantitative Reasoning Center, located in 20 SSS, oversees programs for the enrichment of education in the sciences and quantitative disciplines. In addition to supporting faculty in the enhancement of teaching, the Center provides tutoring services and programs that enable students to participate in faculty-mentored research and engineering projects.
The Residential College Math and Science Tutoring program offers tutoring at scheduled times in the residential colleges and in the Science and Quantitative Reasoning Center. The tutors are advanced graduate students chosen for their teaching ability and their expertise in science and quantitative disciplines. Tutoring is available to all Yale College students on a walk-in basis, and is provided in all areas of math and science as well as in economics. Because tutors specialize in their own areas, freshmen are encouraged to seek out the help they need most from tutors in any of the colleges or at the Science and Quantitative Reasoning Center. Areas of expertise and office hours for tutors are available at each residential college dean's office and on the Residential College Math and Science Tutoring Web page. For further questions, contact the Math and Science Tutoring program, 203 432-1037.
To assist students who are experiencing difficulties in their course work and who require more personalized or longer-term support than is possible through the Residential College Math and Science Tutoring program, the Science and Quantitative Reasoning Center also administers a Science and Quantitative Reasoning Tutoring program that provides individual tutoring to undergraduates in the full range of scientific and quantitative disciplines, including economics. Tutors are advanced undergraduate, graduate, or professional school students who have been certified by their academic departments or programs as qualified to provide academic support in one or more specific Yale College courses. Any student enrolled in Yale College who is experiencing academic difficulty in a course, as confirmed by the instructor, is eligible for up to ten hours of tutoring per course each term, free of charge. Applications to request a tutor can be obtained from the offices of the residential college deans and at the Science and Quantitative Reasoning Center. For more detailed information, visit the Science & Quantitative Reasoning Web site or contact the program coordinator at 203 432-7128.
The Center for Language Study (CLS), located at 370 Temple Street, provides resources for students of foreign languages, including peer tutoring for undergraduates enrolled in foreign language courses. The Center also offers courses and support for nonnative speakers of English through its English Language program. In addition, CLS makes available specialized language programs such as Directed Independent Language Study (DILS) for the study of languages not offered at Yale, the Fields program for discipline-specific and advanced language study, and the Shared Course Initiative, which uses videoconferencing with Columbia and Cornell to offer languages not otherwise taught at Yale. All Yale students, whether or not they are formally enrolled in language courses, have access to CLS facilities, including its study rooms and multimedia labs. For more information, including hours, a list of resources, and detailed information about the Yale College foreign language requirement and placement testing, see the Center's Web site.
In addition to its collections and study spaces, the Yale University Library offers academic research support to undergraduates at all levels. Every incoming freshman is matched with a Personal Librarian (PL) who serves as a general research adviser for the student's first two years. Freshmen are encouraged to meet with their PL whenever they need assistance finding sources and evidence for assignments and papers, articulating research questions, identifying the best sources, and preparing bibliographies. Personal Librarians also e-mail students throughout the year with information about new research resources, workshops, and programs, as well as with timely reminders about library policies and procedures. After a student formally declares a major, the PL will introduce him or her to the appropriate Subject Specialist, a senior staff member who provides similar assistance for more advanced major research. For further information about the program, visit the Personal Librarian page on the Yale University Library Web site.
The Resource Office on Disabilities coordinates accommodations and services for students with disabilities, and provides general information about campus-wide access for persons with disabilities. Services include, but are not limited to, classroom and special testing accommodations, visual materials in alternative formats, and loans of special equipment. If you are a student with a disability, contacting the Resource Office on Disabilities is a required first step in the process of obtaining disability-related accommodations. Registration with the Resource Office is confidential. Contacting the office during the summer months is encouraged.
Early planning is critical to successful accommodations. New students who need housing accommodations should complete the standard online housing form for incoming freshmen and send or fax supporting medical documentation to the Resource Office by May 17, 2013. The documentation should explain why and what housing arrangements need to be considered. Students requesting accommodations related to academic disabilities should contact the Resource Office by June 28, 2013. Students are required to contact the Resource Office at the beginning of every term for class accommodations.
The Resource Office on Disabilities is located at 35 Broadway (rear entrance), Room 222. The office is open Monday through Friday from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. An appointment is advised.
Mailing address:
Resource Office on Disabilities
Yale University
P.O. Box 208305
New Haven, CT 06520-8305
Phone: 203 432-2324 or 432-2325
Fax: 203 432-8250
E-mail: judith.york@yale.edu
The Yale College Center for International and Professional Experience (CIPE) includes the Study Abroad, Fellowship Programs, Undergraduate Career Services, and Yale Summer Session offices. The Center offers students advice and information about summer and academic-year opportunities for study abroad, international and domestic internships, graduate school, and fellowships, scholarships, and other funding, as well as career and employment counseling. It is never too early to consider summer options, to plan ahead for a term or year abroad, or to think about postgraduation opportunities. Students are encouraged to visit the CIPE Web site. Advisers at the CIPE office, located at 55 Whitney Avenue, offer scheduled appointments and walk-in hours, and the CIPE library features information about a wide variety of programs and resources. For further information, visit the CIPE Web site or call the Center at 203 432-0800.
Undergraduate Career Services (UCS) offers guidance and information about career exploration, internships, postgraduate employment, and graduate programs, including medical school and law school. UCS programs are available to all class years, so students are encouraged to use the office's resources beginning early in freshman year. Freshmen interested in applying to medical school, for example, are encouraged to take advantage of the premedical curricular meetings UCS offers at the beginning of each term. Freshmen are also eligible to apply for many Yale-sponsored summer internships. UCS offers roughly 5,000 individual counseling appointments and more than 100 presentations, panels, career events, and workshops every year, many of them designed especially for freshmen. For further information, visit the UCS Web site or call 203 432-0800 to schedule an appointment.
Some Yale College courses are offered during the summer as well as during the fall and spring terms. Courses in Yale Summer Session are in most cases equivalent to those offered during the regular academic year, but they are presented in a more concentrated and intensive form during the shorter summer period. Yale College students can receive credit in Yale College for work successfully completed in these courses. A number of languages and other subjects offered by Yale Summer Session are taught abroad. For further information, contact the Yale Summer Session office or visit the YSS Web site.
Mailing address:
Yale Summer Session
P.O. Box 208355
New Haven, CT 06520-8355
Phone: 203 432-2430
Fax: 203 432-2434
E-mail: summer.session@yale.edu
