Only the residential college dean may authorize postponement of a final examination. The residential college dean may give such confidential permission because of an incapacitating physical or mental health condition, the death of a family member, or a comparable emergency. The residential college dean also has authority to give such permission because of the observance of religious holy days and because of participation in intercollegiate varsity athletic competition. Students participating in events of intramural or club sports, as differentiated from varsity events sponsored by the Department of Athletics, are not eligible for a postponement of final examinations on account of those events. Finally, the college dean may authorize postponement of a final examination if a student has three examinations scheduled during the first two full days of the final examination period, or three examinations scheduled consecutively in the final examination schedules. (See Final Examination Schedules in the YCPS.) The postponement of a final examination for any other reason requires the permission of the Committee on Honors and Academic Standing. A student’s end-of-term travel plans are not a basis for the postponement of a final examination.

If the postponement of a final examination is occasioned by a conflict or by a crowded examination schedule, and if one of the examinations involved carries the published examination group number 0, the residential college dean must postpone that examination rather than an examination governed by a regular examination group number. See Final Examination Schedules and Restrictions under Reading Period and Final Examination Period. Permission to postpone a final examination does not authorize a student to submit other work late in the course. See Work Incomplete at the End of Term.

When a makeup examination has been authorized, the instructor is informed as promptly as possible. The authorization form serves both to notify the instructor and to request the instructor to prepare a makeup examination.

Instructors generally administer makeup final exams. At the beginning of each term, the University Registrar's Office sends an email to instructors who have students scheduled for makeup examinations from the previous term. Makeup examinations for the fall term should be administered by the end of the second week of classes in the spring term. Makeup examinations for the spring term should be administered for first years, sophomores, and juniors by the end of the second week of classes in the following fall term. For seniors, makeup examinations for the spring term should be administered immediately after final examination period in the spring term.

Instructors have some latitude in how they accommodate such students. Some instructors, in lieu of offering a written make-up final exam, instead assign a comparable written assignment or an oral exam. The expectation, however, is that all students who received a postponement of the final exam in a given course will be tested in the same format or assigned the same type of final assignment.