Academic Policies for Instructors

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The academic regulations in the Yale Summer Session Student Handbook govern Yale Summer Session. To the extent possible, they are based on and consistent with Yale College’s academic regulations during the fall and spring terms, but because summer learning and courses are unique, there are some key differences. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with the regulations.

Below are some of the academic regulations and policies most relevant to instructors, with additional content and notes, as appropriate. Instructors should direct students with questions to the Yale Summer Session Student Handbook. Instructors and students may also contact the Yale Summer Session Office at summer.session@yale.edu.

Course Loads

See here for the full section in the Student Handbook.

In New Haven and online, Yale Summer Session offers courses in two five-week sessions, Session A and Session B; see here for exact dates. The maximum load in Yale Summer Session is two credits per five-week session, or 2.5 credits if enrolled in a 1.5-credit course and a one-credit course. A student who seeks to exceed this limit in a five-week session must petition the Dean of International and Summer Programs for Yale College for exceptional permission; see here. Yale Summer Session courses operate on a condensed schedule, with the expectation that students devote at least 15-20 hours per week to each course, so it is preferable for students to enroll in summer courses across the two five-week sessions rather than seek an overload in one. If permission for an overload is given, the maximum number of credits is three.

Students may not be simultaneously enrolled in a Yale Summer Session course, even if online, and a Yale or non-Yale study abroad program. Students may do both only in cases where the start and end dates do not overlap.

As a rule, Yale Summer Session courses are not for graduate credit. Yale graduate and professional school students wishing to apply for graduate credit must make written arrangements in advance with the instructor, the Dean of International and Summer Programs for Yale College, and an appropriate dean within the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences or their respective professional school.

Course Changes

See here for the full section in the Student Handbook.

Because of the brevity of Yale Summer Session's five-week sessions, students are urged to select their courses with care. There is no "shopping" period in Yale Summer Session.

Students select their courses in their application to Yale Summer Session, and students admitted to Yale Summer Session are admitted into specific courses.

Post-admission changes in course selection require the approval of Yale Summer Session and, in the case of course additions or substitutions, are contingent on remaining spaces and the qualifications of the applicant. All requests for post-admission course changes (course additions, substitutions, or withdrawals) must be made via the Change Form on the Yale Summer Session website in accordance with the relevant deadlines. The deadline to request course additions or substitutions is typically ten days prior to the start of the relevant five-week session at 5:00pm EDT; see here for the exact deadlines. No course additions or substitutions may be requested after the deadline.

Course Withdrawals

Students may withdraw from a course via the Change Form on the Yale Summer Session website up until the final day of the relevant five-week session at 5:00pm EDT. Based on the exact timing of the request, see here, the course withdrawal may be with or without the neutral mark of W on the academic record. The mark of W indicates simply that a student was enrolled in, but withdrew from, a course; while the course carries no credit, the mark of W implies no evaluation of a student's work and carries no implication of failure.

• If a student withdraws from a course on or before the third Wednesday of the relevant five-week session at 5:00pm EDT, the registrar will remove from the student's transcript any record of that course.
• If a student withdraws from a course after the third Wednesday of the relevant five-week session at 5:00pm EDT, but on or before the final day of the relevant five-week session at 5:00pm EDT, the student's transcript will show the neutral mark of W.
• After the final day of the relevant five-week session at 5:00pm EDT, withdrawal from a course is not permitted.

Course withdrawals must be requested via the Change Form in order to be official. Failure to attend or submit work in a course, or requests via phone or e-mail, do not constitute a withdrawal. Once submitted, a student may not rescind a Change Form to withdraw from a course, even if before the deadline or before Yale Summer Session has processed the request.

Course Attendance

See here for the full section in the Student Handbook.

Attendance is required in all Yale Summer Session courses, and instructors should be stringent and clear in their attendance policies, which should be included in the course syllabus.

Students who miss class sessions may be penalized by, for instance, the lowering of their course grade in accordance with instructor and departmental policy, Cut Restriction, or Exclusion, as below. If a student cannot attend a particular class session due to an emergency or serious illness, they should let the instructor know in advance, if at all possible, or as soon as possible thereafter. Absences may be excused only by instructors. It is the student's responsibility to communicate promptly with their instructors about any and all absences, and instructors are encouraged to be as transparent as possible with students when their lack of attendance makes withdrawal from the course advisable. If you have concerns about a student’s attendance, please contact the Dean of International and Summer Programs for Yale College.

Under no circumstances may a student elect courses with meeting times that overlap.

Students in online course are required to attend class sessions on a computer with their video on and in a setting conducive to academic work and class participation. Using a smartphone to attend online classes or logging in without video will count as an absence. Watching asynchronous recordings, if available, does not fulfill the attendance requirement.

Students may not begin a course late or leave a course early by, for example, making arrangements to finish an in-person course remotely or take a final examination in advance.

Holidays

Yale Summer Session operates on a compressed schedule, so courses meet as scheduled even on designated summer holidays, including Memorial Day, Juneteenth, and the Fourth of July.

Academic Restrictions and Penalties

A student may be involuntarily withdrawn from a course by the Dean of International and Summer Programs for Yale College based on excessive absences, unsatisfactory work, serious and persistent disruptive behavior, or other serious violations of Yale Summer Session, Yale College, or University regulations.

1. Cut Restriction. Class attendance is required of all students in Yale Summer Session, as above. A student who, in the opinion of the instructor and the Dean of International and Summer Programs for Yale College, has been absent from a course to an excessive degree may at any time be placed on Cut Restriction in that course or in all courses. Once a student is placed on Cut Restriction in a course, an additional absence may result in the student's exclusion from that course without credit, as below.

2. Exclusion. Any student may, because of excessive absences or unsatisfactory work, be excluded from a course without credit upon the recommendation of the instructor or department concerned to the Dean of International and Summer Programs for Yale College. The instructor or department must request an Exclusion on or before the final day of the relevant five-week session at 5:00pm EDT. If an Exclusion is requested after the third Wednesday of the relevant five-week session at 5:00pm EDT, the student’s transcript will show the neutral mark of W for the course. The date and time of the Exclusion will also determine whether the student will receive any tuition refund.

Auditors

Auditors are not permitted in any Yale Summer Session courses, with no exceptions. Yale College's affiliate and alumni auditing programs, and other auditing programs at the University, do not extend to Yale Summer Session. Please do not allow unenrolled students or other visitors to sit in on your class.

Grades

See here for the full section in the Student Handbook.

Students enrolled in Yale Summer Session courses for credit, other than independent study courses evaluated on a Pass/Fail basis, will receive course grades at the end of the relevant five-week session. As in Yale College, the grades used are:

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

All students, college and pre-college students alike, should be graded on the same scale, using the same standards.

Credit/D/Fail Option

Please see here for the relevant regulations and deadlines. To be eligible for the Credit/D/Fail option in Yale Summer Session courses in New Haven and online, a student must be enrolled in at least two courses in a single five-week session, Session A or Session B, at least one credit of which must remain at all times for a letter grade or the mark of Pass.

Students are not required to disclose to the course instructor whether they have enrolled in the course for a letter grade or under the Credit/D/Fail option.

Grade Submission

Grades for Yale Summer Session courses are due from the instructor to Yale Summer Session one week after the end of the relevant five-week session. Yale Summer Session uses Faculty Grade Submission, the online grade submission system utilized during the academic year. All grades, once reported, are final and may not be changed under Yale College policy, except in the rare case of a calculation or transcription error and only then by petition of the instructor to the Dean of International and Summer Programs for Yale College. Instructors should be duly diligent in ensuring the accuracy of their grade report.

All instructors are expected to be available by e-mail after their course concludes should students have questions about their final work or grades. As in the Handbook for Instructors of Undergraduates in Yale College,

Students may from time to time approach you to question or even dispute a score or grade they received in your course. It has long been the norm at Yale for instructors to be responsive to such questions, provided, of course, that the student’s request is civil and reasonable. Your goal in such a conversation should be fundamentally pedagogical—an extension of your goals in the course. With good will on all sides, most student complaints about grades on particular assignments or examination questions will result in a frank and nonantagonistic conversation between the student and the instructor. These discussions may be opened up usefully into fuller explorations not just of the standards for grading the particular assignment, but also of substantive matters covered by the course.

For Yale College students, courses in Yale Summer Session will be automatically entered on a student's Yale College record and included in, among other things, the calculation of the student's eligibility for General Honors and Distinction in the Major. This includes courses taken by admitted Yale College students after their admission to, and prior to their first term of enrollment in, Yale College. See here.

Completion of Coursework

See here for the full section in the Student Handbook.

Because of the compressed summer calendar, Yale Summer Session courses are rigorous and intense, and students must be most diligent about managing their course attendance and coursework. Students in Yale Summer Session are expected to take personal responsibility for the timely delivery to their instructors of all coursework, including examinations, in the manner and format prescribed by the instructors. Particularly when submitting work electronically, students should confirm as soon as possible after submission that their work has been properly received. When submitting work via e-mail, students are advised to attach the actual document, when possible, rather than sending links.

Problems that may arise from the use of computers, tablets, phones, software, and printers are not normally considered legitimate reasons for late or missing work. It is expected that students will exercise reasonable prudence to safeguard materials, including backing up data in multiple locations and at frequent intervals and making duplicate copies of work files. Any computer work should be completed well in advance of the relevant deadline to avoid last-minute technical problems or delays.

Work Missed During the Course

Students are expected to consult promptly with their instructors if their circumstances do not allow them to submit work on time. During the five-week session, permission to submit late work or to otherwise make up work must be secured directly from the instructor, since they are the only person who can decide, in the context of the nature and requirements of the course, whether such permission is appropriate. There are no Dean's Extensions in Yale Summer Session.

Work Incomplete at the End of the Course

Students are expected to complete the work for their courses before the end of the relevant five-week session. There is no Reading Period or Final Examination Period, and there are no TI or ABX accommodations, in Yale Summer Session. Rarely, an instructor will set a deadline for final coursework shortly after the end of their course; while discouraged and unlike during the academic year, such a deadline is permissible, so long as it does not affect the instructor's ability to submit their grades for all students before the grade submission deadline, one week after the end of the five-week session.

A missed examination or other coursework that remains incomplete after the final day of the five-week session can be made up or submitted only under exceptional and extenuating circumstances and only with the written permission of the instructor and the Dean of International and Summer Programs for Yale College. This permission must be requested of the Dean promptly and in advance, prior to 5:00pm EDT on the final day of the five-week session. When such permission is granted, the Dean and the instructor together will assign a new deadline, which the Dean will specify to the student via e-mail, for some or all of the outstanding work. So that the extended work can be completed by the student and graded by the instructor within no more than 30 days, an extension will only rarely exceed 23 days after the five-week session. In most cases, however, extensions will be significantly shorter for reasons of equity and consistency across all Yale Summer Session courses and to reflect the fact that summer courses are only five weeks in duration. If a student fails to meet the newly assigned deadline, they will receive a grade calculated without the benefit of the missing work. If an extension has not been authorized, the instructor shall record a grade for the student, which reflects the absence of any missing work.

A student will not be permitted to withdraw from a course after the final day of the relevant five-week session at 5:00pm EDT, even if that student has been assigned a new deadline for outstanding work.

Academic Integrity

Please refer any disciplinary cases, including any allegations of academic dishonesty and other inappropriate behavior, immediately to the Dean of International and Summer Programs for Yale College.

Committee on Academic Affairs

To maintain consistency and fairness across all Yale Summer Session courses and students, Yale Summer Session deadlines and regulations are enforced accordingly, and it is expected that students and instructors take them seriously. The Yale Summer Session Committee on Academic Affairs interprets, applies, and enforces Yale Summer Session's academic regulations. If students have questions or concerns about their individual circumstances, they should consult promptly with the Dean of International and Summer Programs for Yale College as Chair of the Committee.

Amendments

Yale Summer Session, Yale College, and the University reserve the right to amend or supplement these regulations at any time upon such notice to students as they deem appropriate.