The Eli Whitney Students Program offers non-traditional-age students of high academic potential the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree at Yale College. Students in this program may take up to seven years to complete a bachelor’s degree and may also study part-time. Eli Whitney students must complete a minimum of eighteen course credits at Yale.

The Non-Degree Students Program allows non-matriculated and non-resident students to take Yale College courses to achieve specific academic goals that would best be fulfilled at Yale in particular. The program enrolls three to eight students each term.

The Transfer Student Program allows a small number of students of high academic achievement the opportunity to transfer to Yale College. Students may enroll during either the sophomore or junior year and must remain at Yale for a minimum of four terms and complete a minimum eighteen course credits at Yale to qualify for a bachelor’s degree. Students may transfer from fully accredited two- or four-year institutions.

Employees, spouses of current employees, faculty members (both current and emeritus), students, postdoctoral fellows, and postdoctoral associates may audit Yale undergraduate courses at no cost.

Yale alumni and their spouses may audit Yale undergraduate courses for a fee.

Central to the mission of Yale College is ensuring a broad education rooted in the liberal arts. That education should provide both breadth and depth across a wide array of disciplines, and it should be responsive to the shifting landscape of those disciplines and their interrelationships. To encourage students to engage within and across departmental and disciplinary boundaries, Yale College offers both disciplines-based and skills-based certificates. A certificate is not a smaller version of a major; instead, it offers opportunities for students to deepen a skill or to bring disparate elements into focus. There are three types of certificates offered in Yale College: Advanced Language Certificates, Skills-Based Certificates, and Interdisciplinary Certificates.

Yale is host to Air Force and Naval ROTC units through which Yale undergraduates may pursue their liberal arts degrees while preparing for leadership in the military services. (Students interested in Army ROTC may participate in a cross-town arrangement at the University of New Haven.) Regardless of financial need, participating students receive significant help in meeting the costs of a Yale education. While most students receive an ROTC scholarship before coming to Yale, currently enrolled students are also eligible to join these programs and apply for a scholarship.

The Science, Technology and Research Scholars (STARS) Program supports historically underrepresented students in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics. To improve student performance and retention rates in STEM disciplines, STARS offers peer-mentor groups, one-on-one advising, professional development, seminars, and research support.

For Yale students who wish to study abroad, Yale’s Study Abroad Office, part of the Center for International and Professional Experience (CIPE), offers individual student advising, a broad range of information, and a searchable database of international programs through which students may earn Yale course credits.

On the farm, in the classroom, and around the world, the Yale Sustainable Food Program (YSFP) grows food-literate leaders. The YSFP serves as a hub for critical and creative work that engages with contemporary and historical food and agricultural concepts and controversies spanning all academic disciplines and levels of study. The YSFP is home to the Yale Farm, a one-acre, intensive, mixed farm located on Science Hill that offers a unique experiential learning environment and research space. In addition to hosting a continually changing lineup of courses, paid and volunteer work opportunities, and local and international fellowships and internships, the YSFP also collaborates with, and supports, a range of community-based food and farming initiatives in New Haven.