Students who have previously mastered the material being presented in a required course (not an elective) can request a “course exemption” directly from the course instructor. The request for a course exemption indicates that a student is capable of excelling in all assessments in the selected course. Mastery of course content can be demonstrated by (1) excelling in a graduate-level course with equivalent content within the past five years, or (2) significant life experience related to the course content.

The instructor must sign the course exemption form, available on the myYSPH site at https://ysph.yale.edu/myysph/students/mph/forms-and-systems. Exemption forms must be submitted to the registrar each term by the stated deadline on the academic calendar. Exempted courses will be listed on the transcript with a grade of “Q” only after the term has ended. Credit is not granted for exempted courses.

Please note the following exceptions:

• No exemptions are allowed for the core courses EPH 507, Social Justice and Health Equity; EPH 513, Major Health Threats: Determinants and Solutions; and EPH 608, Frontiers of Public Health. The unique content of these courses provides students with several of the M.P.H. core curriculum competencies and foundational knowledge topics.
• Exemption from EPH 508, Foundations of Epidemiology and Public Health, will require an exemption exam at the start of the academic year.
• In order to maintain full-time status for visa purposes during the summer term, international students on a J-1 Student visa or F-1 visa in the Advanced Professional MPH program cannot waive the summer course requirements. Students who are not on J-1 Student visas nor on an F-1 student visa, who are considering part-time study and, therefore, a part-time course load in the summer may discuss their plans on a case-by-case basis with the Program Director
• In the Executive M.P.H. Program, no exemptions are allowed for EPH 528E, Everyday Leadership; EPH 529E, Executive Communication Skills for Public Health and Healthcare; EPH 530E, Design Thinking in Public Health Systems; EPH 537E, Frontiers of Public Health; EPH 539E, Ethics in Public Health; and EPH 540E and EPH 541E, Executive Online M.P.H. Capstone. In the case that a student requests exemptions from any other core course, the onus will be on the student to demonstrate how their life experience or previous graduate-level course work meets the competencies addressed by the course in question.