The auditing of Yale College courses is only open to certain categories of persons; full details are available in the Auditing section of the Yale College Programs of Study. Some categories (e.g, full-time students in Yale College or in one of the professional or graduate schools of the University; current members of the Yale faculty and emeritus faculty) need only to secure the permission of the instructor to audit the course; no other paperwork or permission is necessary. Other prospective auditors, including Yale affiliates and alumni, may additionally need to complete an application or get permission from the Office of Academic Affairs or from others. 

Yale NetIDs cannot be assigned to auditors. Alumni auditors pay a fee, which allows access to classroom sessions and to the Canvas class website, but only to course materials that are published to Canvas and available without Yale NetID access. Accordingly, many course resources (e.g., streaming video, library databases, "Zoo" computer labs, etc.) may not be available to some auditors. Before paying their auditing fee, and in order to make an informed decision about auditing a course, alumni auditors are encouraged to ask instructors whether such NetID-based resources will be used. More information is available at the Yale Alumni Auditing Program website.

All auditors are responsible for any additional course-based fees; those fees are paid directly to the sponsoring school, and not to the Yale College Auditing Program Office. Course fees can be found in the course description via Yale Course Search.

It is the usual expectation that an auditor does not take tests or examinations or write papers for a course for evaluation by the instructor. Occasionally, however, an auditor may wish to do such work and may request the instructor to evaluate it. If the instructor wishes to cooperate with the auditor in this way, the instructor does so on a voluntary basis and not as an obligation.

The University Registrar’s Office does not keep a record of courses audited. It is not possible, therefore, for a student’s transcript to show that a course has been audited, or for a transcript to be issued that records the auditing of a course.

Persons interested in auditing an undergraduate course should review the Yale Alumni Auditing Program website or the Yale Affiliate Auditing Program website. The Yale College Auditing Program Office oversees only the auditing of undergraduate courses; persons interested in auditing Yale graduate or professional school courses should contact those schools' registrars directly.