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 it should 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 offers both disciplines-based and skills-based certificates. A certificate is not a smaller version of a major; instead, it offers opportunities for students to deepen a skill or to bring disparate elements into focus. There are three types of certificates offered in Yale College: Advanced Language Certificates, Skills-Based Certificates, and Interdisciplinary Certificates. See Certificates in Yale College. Only students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program are eligible to earn a certificate.  

Declaration of Candidacy

Students should submit a Declaration of Candidacy for a Certificate form, found on the University Registrar’s Office website. The form should be submitted early, but at the latest, before the start of the student’s last semester at Yale. Once submitted, the form goes to both the Certificate Director and the Registrar's Office. Submission of the form, and approval from the Certificate Director, is necessary to ensure that the earned Certificate appears on student transcripts.