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Grades

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

 

Letter Grades

The letter grades in Yale College are as follows:

A Excellent
A–  
B+  
B Good
B–  
C+  
C Satisfactory
C–  
D+  
D Passing
D–  
F Fail

 

Credit/D/Fail Option

In order to encourage academic exploration and to promote diversity in students' programs, the Yale College Faculty has provided that students may elect a certain number of courses on a Credit/D/Fail basis.

  1. Reporting of grades   In all courses (except for a few professional school courses), instructors report letter grades for all students. If the student has chosen the Credit/D/Fail option in a course, the registrar converts grades of A, A–, B+, B, B–, C+, C, and C– into the notation CR, which is entered on the student's transcript. Grades of D+, D, D–, and F are entered on the transcript as reported. A student may not be required to disclose to the instructor of a course whether the student has enrolled in the course for a letter grade or under the Credit/D/Fail option.
  2. Eligibility   All courses offered in Yale College during the fall and spring terms are available for election under the Credit/D/Fail option. Courses in Yale Summer Session may not be taken under the Credit/D/Fail option.
  3. Total number of courses   A student may offer as many as four course credits earned on the Credit/D/Fail basis toward the bachelor's degree.
  4. Number of courses in a term   As many as two credits may be elected under the Credit/D/Fail option in a term; thus in an academic year a student may earn as many as four credits on the Credit/D/Fail option. In each term, a student must elect at least two courses, representing at least two course credits, for letter grades.
  5. Distributional requirements   A student may not apply any course credit earned on the Credit/D/Fail basis toward satisfaction of the distributional requirements for the junior year nor toward satisfaction of the distributional requirements for the bachelor's degree.
  6. Requirements of the major   Program descriptions under Subjects of Instruction specify whether or not courses taken on the Credit/D/Fail basis count toward the requirements of particular majors.
  7. Credit/year only course sequences   A Cr/year only course sequence may be taken under the Credit/D/Fail option for one term while the other term of the yearlong sequence is taken for a letter grade. For Cr/year only course sequences in which a student receives a separate letter grade for each of the two terms, each term will be governed by the enrollment option the student elected for that term. For Cr/year only course sequences in which a student receives the mark of SAT or NSAT for the first term and a letter grade for the second, the enrollment option that the student elects for the second term governs both terms of the course sequence; that is, students will receive either the mark of CR for both terms or a letter grade for both terms, depending on the option elected for the second term.
  8. Course schedules   Students must indicate on their course schedules at the beginning of a term the use they wish to make during that term of the Credit/D/Fail option. As indicated above, in a given term a student may elect as many as (but no more than) two course credits on the Credit/D/Fail basis; and a student must elect at least two courses, representing at least two course credits, for letter grades. If a student indicates on the course schedule more than two course credits being taken on the Credit/D/Fail option, the registrar will record only the first two of them, in the order in which they are listed, as being taken on that basis, and the student will not be permitted to take the others on the Credit/D/Fail option.
  9. Late course schedules    Because a decision to employ the Credit/D/Fail option in a course must be declared at the beginning of the term on the student's course schedule, and because conversion from a letter grade to the Credit/D/Fail option is not possible for students who submit their schedules on time, a student who submits the schedule after the date on which it is due may not employ the Credit/D/Fail option in any course during that term. See Enrollment in Courses. The only exception to this rule may be in the case of a student who for some valid and extraordinary reason cannot submit the course schedule on time and who has the permission of the residential college dean and the registrar to submit it late. If the college dean approves, such a student may employ the Credit/D/Fail option only by submitting to the college dean by the date on which the course schedule is due (as published in the YCPS calendar) a written statement specifying the course (or courses) that the student wishes to take on the Credit/D/Fail basis.
  10. Registration withheld   In order to employ the Credit/D/Fail option, students whose registration is being withheld by the Office of Student Financial Services or any other administrative office of the University must submit their schedules on time, before the deadline indicated on the student's course schedule and listed in the YCPS calendar.
  11. Conversion to a letter grade   Until November 9, 2012, in the fall term (two weeks after midterm), and until April 5, 2013, in the spring term (a week after the date of the resumption of classes following spring recess), a student who has elected a course on the Credit/D/Fail basis may choose to receive a letter grade in that course by filing the appropriate form in the office of the residential college dean. After these dates such conversion is not possible. If a student converts from the Credit/D/Fail option to a letter grade before the deadline, the option may not again be resumed even if the student desires to do so before the deadline.
  12. Conversion from a letter grade to Credit/D/Fail   A course once elected for a letter grade may not subsequently be converted to a course taken on the Credit/D/Fail basis.
  13. Courses selected after the deadline   A student who for any reason has been granted extraordinary permission by the Committee on Honors and Academic Standing to elect a new course after the deadline for submitting a course schedule may not employ the Credit/D/Fail option in that course. A change of level in courses in which the subject is taught in an ordered progression is not considered the election of a new course.
  14. Acceleration credit   Work completed under the Credit/D/Fail option cannot yield acceleration credit (see the Freshman Web site or appendix A of the Freshman Handbook).
  15. Prizes and honors   Marks of CR are included in the calculations for some prizes, for Distinction in the Major, and for election to Phi Beta Kappa as non-A grades, but marks of CR are not included in the calculation for General Honors (see under Honors in the Undergraduate Curriculum section).
  16. Courses in the graduate and professional schools   Courses in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and in the professional schools of the University are not available on the Yale College Credit/D/Fail option. Some courses in certain professional schools of the University are, however, graded on a Pass/Fail basis only, and grades for undergraduates in these courses are recorded as CR or F. Such credits are counted in the total earned on the Credit/D/Fail basis that a student is permitted to offer in a term as well as the total offered toward the requirements of a bachelor's degree. Marks of CR in professional school courses are included in the calculations for Distinction in the Major as non-A grades. Marks of CR in professional school courses are not included in the calculation for General Honors (see General Honors and Distinction in the Major in the Undergraduate Curriculum section).
  17. Independent study   It is expected that course credit earned in independent study, directed reading or research, tutorial courses, or the like, will not be taken on the Credit/D/Fail basis. With the support of the course instructor and the director of undergraduate studies of the department in which the course is offered, a student may petition the Committee on Honors and Academic Standing to enroll in such a course on the Credit/D/Fail basis; such a petition should be filed no later than the date on which the student's schedule is due in the term in which the student is enrolling in the course and should provide sound academic reasons for the exception.

General Regulations concerning Grades and Transcripts

  1. Record of courses   A transcript is the record of courses in which a student has enrolled during the student's progress in completing the requirements of the bachelor's degree. All grades, passing and failing, thus appear on the transcript and are counted in the calculation of grade point average (GPA). These include passing grades earned in the first term of a Cr/year only course sequence in which the second term is not completed, even though such grades do not count toward the 36-course-credit requirement for graduation. If a student remains in a course after the date of midterm, the student is considered to have been enrolled in that course; therefore, if a student withdraws from the course after midterm and before the first day of the reading period, the mark W (for Withdrew) appears on the transcript in association with the course. See paragraph 5 below.
  2. Equal value of courses   Passing grades contribute equally, to the extent to which they carry course credit, toward the 36-course-credit requirement for graduation. A grade of D in a course, for example, does not need to be balanced with a higher grade in some other course.
  3. Change of a grade   A grade, once submitted by the instructor of a course to the registrar, may not be changed except by vote of the Yale College Committee on Honors and Academic Standing on petition of the instructor, unless it is the result of a clerical error made in the instructor's computation or in transcription of a grade.
  4. Withdrawal from courses before midterm   If a student has elected a course on the course schedule but formally withdraws from it before midterm (October 19, 2012, in the fall term; March 8, 2013, in the spring term), the student's transcript will contain no indication of that course after the withdrawal has been recorded by the registrar. See Withdrawal from Courses.
  5. Withdrawal from courses after midterm   If a student enrolled in a course formally withdraws from it after midterm but before the first day of the reading period, the student’s transcript will record the designation W (Withdrew) for the course. The mark of W is a neutral designation indicating simply that the student has been enrolled in, but has withdrawn from, a course; while the course obviously carries no credit toward the degree, the W implies no evaluation of a student’s work and carries no implication whatsoever of failure. Withdrawal from a course after the deadline (December 7, 2012, in the fall term, and April 26, 2013, in the spring term) is not possible. See Withdrawal from Courses.
  6. Incomplete work and postponed final examinations   A student who has received permission for a mark of Temporary Incomplete in a course, or who has been authorized to take a makeup final examination in a course, is allowed the specified period of time to repair the deficiency in the course. If the deficiency is not repaired by a satisfactory performance within the stipulated time, then the designation TI (Authorized Temporary Incomplete) or ABX (Authorized Absence from Final Examination) is automatically converted by the registrar to the grade of F. See Postponement of Final Examinations and Work Incomplete at the End of Term under Completion of Course Work.
  7. Withdrawal from Yale College   Whether a student withdraws from Yale College for personal, medical, academic, or disciplinary reasons, the entry placed in each case on the student's transcript is the word "Withdrew" together with the date of the withdrawal.
  8. Tracks and programs within majors   A transcript may show as a student’s major subject only a designation approved for that purpose by the Yale College Faculty; "tracks" or programs within majors may not appear on transcripts. The majors approved by the faculty are listed under Majors in Yale College.
  9. Distribution of grade reports   The Registrar's Office sends grade reports to students each term from six to eight weeks after the close of the term. At registration each year, a student is given the opportunity to declare whether his or her grades may be released to certain other parties. If the student gives permission for grades to be released to a guardian or to parents, after the fall term of that year the Registrar's Office will send a grade report to them. After the spring term, the Registrar's Office sends a grade report to each student at the student's home address, and this report may be shared with parents if the student wishes. If a student gives permission for grades to be released to a secondary school or Alumni Schools Committee, grade reports will be furnished to them only upon specific request of the school or the committee. Upon written request of the student, the Registrar's Office will also send a copy of the grade report to any additional person or agency designated by the student.
  10. Early access to grade reports   Early access to recorded grades is available on line to students in any Yale College course for which they have completed or actively declined to complete the online course evaluation form through the Yale University Student Information Systems.
  11. Transcript orders   Transcripts may be ordered either at the Registrar's Office, 246 Church Street, or on the Registrar's Office Web site. The charge is $7 per transcript. Each fall the registrar provides in each student's registration packet, free of charge, an unofficial copy of the student's academic record to date. This record may serve as a convenient aid in discussions with the student's adviser of the student's academic plans during the coming year.