Course Requirements

When planning the nature and amount of work required for a course, please keep in mind the following guidelines established by the Yale College Course of Study Committee. New course proposals are created and submitted for review through CourseLeaf CIM.

  • During the academic year, classes meet for 13 weeks per term. Course syllabi should include all 13 weeks and no more. Courses that meet during reading period are the exception. Their syllabi should contain 14 weeks and should clearly state that class meetings are held during reading period.
  • The Committee requires instructors to provide students with feedback on their academic progress in advance of midterm, preferably before the end of week seven. See Midterm Feedback in Courses for more information on this policy.
  • No more than 25 pages of formal academic writing should be required in any term course. If the course requires students to submit more than one paper during the term, the combined number of pages, excluding drafts, should not exceed 25. Reading responses and other informal writing assignments need not be included in this total.
  • Each course proposal must also provide a breakdown of the component value of the different assignments of the course in determining the term grade.
  • No final examination or final paper or project should count for more than 50% of the student’s course grade. Final papers and projects benefit from a preliminary, related, and graded assignment such as a prospectus or rough draft to count toward that 50% of the grade.
  • The Course of Study Committee uses as a guideline the expectation that class participation should count for no more than 20% of the course grade. Instructors may exceed this limit only if they clearly delineate in the syllabus the evaluative basis for the participation grade and provide students with individual, graded feedback on performance in this area by midterm. The Committee understands “class participation” to refer only to the engagement and interaction of students during class time. Written responses of any kind, whether online or on paper, are not included and should be listed as separate elements of the course grade, both on the syllabus and in new course proposals.