To register each term, students must enroll either in coursework or the relevant research course credit(s) appropriate to the corresponding degree milestone. Students enroll in course credits during registration period in the term immediately preceding or during add/drop period at the start of the term using Yale Hub (https://yub.yale.edu; see Registration, above, for additional resources). Registration deadlines are listed in the Schedule of Academic Dates and Deadlines. Students who register after the close of add/drop period will be assessed a fee.

The standard course in the graduate school is one credit, which is defined as 13.5 hours of effort per week over the fifteen-week term. The graduate school does not observe the Yale College reading period; instructors of graduate school courses are expected to provide in-class instruction during the week that overlaps with Yale College reading period. Courses that do not meet this definition are considered nonstandard. Departments must submit nonstandard courses to the Graduate School Curricular Review Committee for review and approval. Proposals should be submitted via GSAS webform at https://gsas.yale.edu/proposal-non-standard-course-format.

Full-time enrollment in the graduate school requires a minimum of three course credits per term. Students must ensure that they are enrolled in this minimum number of credits. Ph.D. students in the coursework stage of the program who are engaged both in research and in coursework constituting fewer than three course credits must also enroll in PCAN 9999 and/or another appropriate research credit in their program to maintain the minimum three-credit requirement. For students who have completed coursework and are engaged in full-time research, enrollment in QUAL 9999, CAND 9999, DISR 9999, DISA 9999, EXCH 9999, or VAIR 9999 confers 3 course credits. 

Only courses offered by the graduate school, officially numbered at the graduate level (i.e., 5000 or higher), and receiving a qualitative grade of Honors, High Pass, or Pass, can fulfill requirements for graduate degrees, except where specified in individual program listings.

No student may attend any class unless officially enrolled in the course, including courses that a student has been approved to audit. No credit will be given for work done in any course for which a student is not officially enrolled, even if the student participated in the course with the approval of the instructor and the director of graduate studies. 

Students who wish to audit a course must receive permission from the instructor (as not all faculty permit auditors in their classes) and register for the course as auditors. The general requirement for auditing is attendance in two-thirds of class sessions, although instructors may set additional requirements. Audited courses appear on the student’s transcript.

Graduate students who wish to enroll in courses that are offered at both the graduate and undergraduate levels must register in the graduate-level course number (i.e., 5000 or higher) in order to receive credit toward their degree requirements. In rare instances, a graduate student may be approved to enroll in an undergraduate course that will count toward the fulfillment of course requirements for the degree, contingent on the completion of additional work evaluated at the graduate level. In such cases, the student must submit a Graduate Credit Request Form (https://registrar.yale.edu/university-registrars-office-forms) to be approved by the course instructor, the director of graduate studies, and the appropriate academic dean by no later than the end of the term in which they are enrolled in the course. Such courses will be graded on the graduate school’s grading scale (see Course Grades below). Retroactive changes to student records cannot be accommodated. Undergraduate courses that are listed in individual program listings as fulfilling graduate-degree requirements do not require submission of a Graduate Credit Request form. 
Students enrolling in courses offered by a Yale professional school are subject to all policies and deadlines of both the professional school and the graduate school. Students enrolling in courses at the School of Management register through the SOM registration site. Students registering for courses through the Law School must submit a Law School Permission Form. Permission must be obtained within two weeks of the close of the add/drop period at the graduate school.

Course Changes

After the add/drop period for a given term has ended, all subsequent changes to a student’s course enrollment must be made using the Course Schedule Change Notification Form, approved by the student’s director of graduate studies, and filed with the University registrar. Registration deadlines are published in the Schedule of Academic Dates and Deadlines. If a student is enrolled in a professional school course, all changes in enrollment status must be reported to the registrar of that school as well as to the graduate school. Forms for reporting changes to the graduate school are available online at https://registrar.yale.edu/university-registrars-office-forms.

The dates for changing enrollment in a course from Credit to Audit or Audit to Credit and for withdrawing from a course are listed in the Schedule of Academic Dates and Deadlines. If a student drops a course before the end of the term in which they are enrolled, the course will be removed from the student’s transcript. If a student ceases to participate in a course without officially withdrawing from that course by the stated deadline, it is at the instructor’s discretion to assign an appropriate qualitative grade or a grade of “Incomplete.” Retroactive changes to course registration submitted after the relevant deadlines, including course withdrawals, cannot be accommodated. No course changes will be accepted for a course for which a grade has already been submitted.

Course Grades

The grades assigned in the graduate school are:

Graduate College Grades

Code	Description
H	Honors
HP	High Pass
P	Pass
F	Fail
TI	Temporary Incomplete
I	Incomplete

A mark of “Y” is assigned as the grade for the first term of a full-year course and will be converted to a standard grade once both terms are completed, depending on the number of credits the course fulfills.

Marks of Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory may be assigned only when the department sponsoring the course has designated such marks. In such cases, the grading mode is the same for all students enrolled in the course. The graduate school does not calculate grade-point averages, nor does it assign numerical or letter equivalents to graduate school grades. Grades assigned according to grading scales other than those described above will be returned to the instructor for conversion. Students do not receive credit for courses in which they receive a grade of Fail (F).

All students are required to maintain the grade quality requirements of their degree program (see Course, HP-Average, and Honors Requirements under Degree Requirements).

Graduate students who enroll in undergraduate courses may not utilize the “Credit/D/Fail” option in the Yale College grading scale.

The Schedule of Academic Dates and Deadlines indicates the dates on which grades are due for the current term. Instructors are responsible for establishing coursework deadlines that will allow them to meet the grade submission deadline. 

If a student and instructor have agreed that an extension is appropriate, the student must submit to the Registrar’s Office a request for the Temporary Incomplete (TI) (See https://registrar.yale.edu/university-registrars-office-forms) with the intended completion date, signed by the instructor and the director of graduate studies. Only one TI in a single term is permitted. In rare circumstances, the appropriate academic dean may approve an additional TI request if the course instructor and director of graduate studies also approve. Temporary Incompletes received in an academic year must be converted to final grades normally by October 1 of the following academic year. If a grade is not received by the registrar by this date, the TI will be converted to a permanent Incomplete (I) or Fail (F) on the student’s record, as indicated in advance by the instructor on the TI form. Students must submit TI requests before the end of the term in which they are enrolled in the course. Retroactive requests cannot be accommodated.

“Provisional” or “temporary” grades (as opposed to Incompletes) are not permitted. Once submitted to the Registrar’s Office, a grade may be changed only in cases of arithmetical or clerical error on the part of the instructor and only with the approval of the designated associate dean. If the registrar has not received a given grade from an instructor within two weeks of the stated deadline for the submission of grades, the student will be assigned a mark of “NM” (“No Mark”) for that course. Students cannot earn credit for courses for which no grade is submitted.

When students are charged with academic integrity violations, grades in any relevant courses will be withheld until a formal finding has been made or the case is otherwise resolved.

Students are reminded that the policies stated above are the graduate school minimum general requirements. Departments or individual instructors may have more stringent policies, and students should consult their departmental handbooks and directors of graduate studies about such requirements.