There are three types of certificates offered at Yale College: Advanced Language Certificates, Skills-Based Certificates, and Interdisciplinary Certificates. See Certificates in Yale College. At this time, the Yale College Committee on Majors is no longer reviewing new skills-based and interdisciplinary certificates.

Central to the mission of Yale College is ensuring a broad education rooted in the liberal arts and sciences. That education should provide both breadth and depth across a wide array of disciplines and be responsive to the shifting landscape of those disciplines and their interrelationships. To encourage students to engage within and across departmental and disciplinary boundaries, Yale College continues to offer a variety of discipline-based and skills-based certificates. A certificate is not a typical "minor" or a smaller version of a major; instead, it offers opportunities for students to deepen a skill or to bring disparate elements into focus. Only students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program are eligible to earn a certificate. 

Students must declare their intent to earn a certificate by January 15 or September 15 in their final term of enrollment. This is done on the Declare Major, Concentration within the Major, Certificate page on Yale Hub. Once declared, Degree Audit will track students' progress toward completion of the certificate.