October 31 Deadline for Expanded Course Descriptions

October 12, 2022

[Summary: If you are teaching in Yale College in Spring 2023, please make sure that your Expanded Course Description is posted in Canvas no later than October 31, 2022 so that students can register for their Spring 2023 courses. The registration timeline for Spring 2023 courses can be found below.]

To: Instructors of Spring 2023 courses
cc: FAS Dean’s Office, Yale College Dean’s Office, GSAS Dean’s Office, SEAS Dean’s Office, Provost’s Office, President’s Office, Registrar’s Office, Poorvu Center

Dear colleagues,

We are writing today to call your attention to important registration deadlines for faculty members who are teaching in Spring 2023. We recognize that these add additional responsibilities at an already busy period, and we are grateful for your cooperation as we continue to implement our new registration process and timeline. 

If you are teaching undergraduate courses in Yale College in Spring 2023, the deadline to post your expanded course description in Canvas is October 31. The expanded course description is intended to provide students with information that they need to make informed decisions about their classes during the registration period. Making this information available before the registration period opens allows students to browse courses and reduces the amount of enrollment fluctuation that might otherwise take place during the add/drop period, easing uncertainty for students and faculty alike.

As the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning announced earlier today, Canvas sites for Spring 2023 are now open. You can find a template and additional resources and guidelines for preparing an expanded course description on the Canvas @ Yale website.

The registration timeline for Spring 2023 courses appears below, as well as on the University Registrar’s Office website. This timeline follows recommendations from the Yale College Committee on Teaching, Learning, and Advising.

While the general timeline resembles that from last year, we have made two significant changes on the basis of student and faculty feedback. First, the opening of registration will be staggered, with graduate student registration opening first, then registration for seniors, then for juniors, and so forth. Second, add/drop period will open a week before classes start, allowing students to make changes to their schedule before the beginning of the semester. Add/drop period will end one week after classes begin.

We are grateful to all those who provided feedback on last year’s process, and we welcome your suggestions about how to improve the registration process in future years. You can expect to receive further information about registration from the University Registrar’s office in the coming days.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Best wishes,

Tamar, Pericles, Lynn, and Jeff

Spring 2023 Registration Timeline

• By October 31: Deadline to post expanded course descriptions in Canvas.
• November 1: Preference Selection sites open for Yale College students to rank their choice of first-year seminars, multi-section courses, and discussion/lab sections
• November 4: Preference Selection closes for students
• November 11: Registration opens for Graduate School of Arts and Science students
• November 14: Registration opens for seniors
• November 15: Registration opens for juniors
• November 16: Registration opens for sophomores, visiting students, and Eli Whitney students (without a class year)
• November 17: Registration opens for first year students
• November 19 – 27: November recess
• December 2: Registration closes for all Yale College and Graduate School of Arts and Science students
• December 9: Last day of Fall 2022 classes
• December 15: Fall 2022 final exams begin at 7:00 p.m.
• December 21: Fall 2022 final exams end
• January 9: Add/Drop period opens for all Yale College and Graduate School of Arts and Science students
• January 17: First day of classes
• January 23: Add/Drop period closes