October 29 Deadline for Expanded Course Descriptions

To: Instructors of Spring 2025 courses
Cc: Department and Program Registrars, 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 2025. If you are teaching undergraduate courses in Yale College in Spring 2025, the deadline to post your expanded course description to Canvas is October 29. 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, Canvas sites for Spring 2025 are open as of October 15. 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 2025 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.

The opening of registration is staggered, with graduate student registration opening first, then registration for Yale College seniors, then for juniors, and so forth. 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 have provided feedback on the 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,

Jeff, Lynn, Tamar, and Pericles

Jeffrey Brock
Dean, School of Engineering & Applied Science

Lynn Cooley
Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Tamar Szabó Gendler
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Pericles Lewis
Dean, Yale College

Spring 2025 Registration Timeline

• By October 29: Deadline to post expanded course descriptions to Canvas
• October 30: Preference Selection sites open for Yale College students to rank their choice of multi-section courses and some senior seminars
• November 1: Preference Selection closes for students
• November 7: Deadline for departments to push Preference Selection worksheets
• November 15: Registration opens for Graduate School of Arts and Sciences students
• November 18: Registration opens for Yale College seniors
• November 19: Registration opens for Yale College juniors, visiting undergraduate students, and Eli Whitney students (without a class year)
• November 20: Registration opens for Yale College sophomores
• November 21: Registration opens for Yale College first year students
• November 23 – December 1: November recess
• December 6: Last day of Fall 2024 undergraduate classes
• December 12: Last day of Fall 2024 graduate classes
• December 12: Fall 2024 final exams begin at 7:00 p.m.
• December 18: Fall 2024 final exams end at 5:30 p.m.
• December 19: Registration closes for all Yale College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences students
• January 6: Add/Drop period opens for all Yale College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences students
• January 13: First day of classes
• January 22: Add/Drop period closes at 5:00 p.m.