Features of Yale Course Search

Yale Course Search (YCS) is your source for course information and the site for course registration. Encourage your faculty and your majors to become familiar with its features. Faculty will be particularly interested in course demand statistics during the first few days of registration and students will be interested in some of the search features.

Registration

Course registration is done on Yale Course Search. When registration and add/drop periods open, students will have access to their worksheets. See Registration & Add/Drop Periods.

Search Features

  • In the box labeled 'Keyword' you can search by instructor name, subject code, or part of the course title.
  • You can also search by term. The system defaults to the current term, however, you can search by the entire academic year or past terms. Use the drop-down arrow to choose from a list of terms other than the current term. The Past terms option is useful when trying to determine the specific term a course was last offered. 
  • Under "Advanced Search" there are many ways to filter to find a particular course. You can search by subject code (HIST, MENG, etc.), school, department, schedule type (seminar, lecture, etc.), meeting time, number of credits (.5, 1, 1.5), whether there is a final exam scheduled during final exam week, and course attributes. Course attributes are unique to different majors and are indicators of courses that fulfill degree requirements. See Using Course Attributes.
    • Examples of departmental course attributes include: YC FREN: Taught in English; YC HIST: War & Society; YC S&DS: Methods Data Science.
  • Search for courses that fulfill distributional designations, first-year seminars, and sophomore seminars under Yale College Attributes.
  • Under "Links" you will find helpful resources.

course listings

Once courses are offered in WEN, they will appear on Yale Course Search (YCS). Once a course appears on YCS, the Canvas site will open–as long as the instructor's name is included in the offering.

  • If you have a late hire, list the DUS's name so the Canvas site will open. Once the new hire has a NetID, contact courseleaf@yale.edu to request the creation of an instructor record (see Instructor Appointments). Once you are able to add the new instructor in WEN, remove the DUS's name.

Yale Course Search is the source for students to review course offerings. It is important that you review your offerings, and that you ask your faculty to review their offerings. If information is missing or incorrect, the course offerings must be corrected before registration opens.

  • Faculty should upload their course syllabus to Canvas. This automatically adds a SYLLABUS link in Yale Course Search.
  • YCS indicates whether Instructor Permission is required for student enrollment.
  • Distributional designations are indicated; make sure they are correct.
  • Departmental attributes are indicated under Course Information; make sure they are correct.
  • If a course has multiple offerings or sections, you'll need to open the Information panel and scroll down to see instructors/meeting times.

course demand statistics

The Course Demand Statistics Report on Yale Course Search shows enrollment numbers for all courses. The data is updated regularly. Use the filter options to narrow down the data.

  1. Navigate to the Yale Course Search site.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the left column to find the Links section.
  3. Click the Course Demand Statistics link to open the landing page (you will need to CAS in).
  4. Select the term and subject that you wish to search. A list of offered courses will open.

NOTE: you can search enrollment numbers by such options as: Registered, Waitlisted, and Visiting by using the dropdown arrow under 'Type.' Remember students who are listed as Visiting, are only looking at the course in Canvas and may, or may not, decide to register for the course.

Section demand statistics

The Discussion/Lab Sections Report on Yale Course Search shows enrollment numbers for all discussion and laboratory sections. The data is updated regularly. Use the filter options to narrow down the data.

  1. Navigate to the Yale Course Search site.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the left column to find the Links section.
  3. Click the Discussion Section Statistics link to open the landing page (you will need to CAS in).
  4. Select the term and subject that you wish to search. A list of offered courses will open.
To Search for a Single Course
  1. Enter the subject code and course number in the search field. 
  2. Click on the course to select it.
  3. Click the Apply button to see the list of discussion or lab sections. Scroll down the page to find the button.
To Search for Multiple Courses
  1. Enter the subject code in the search field to pull up all courses with sections offered by a particular department.
  2. Click on all courses of interest.
  3. Click the Apply button to see the list of discussion or lab sections. You may need to scroll down the page to find the button.

TIP: Notice the scroll bars at the bottom of the screen. Scroll as needed to see all of the data.