Credit/D/Fail Option

The Credit/D/Fail option

  • Any course in Yale College may be taken Credit/D/Fail rather than for a letter grade. If you take a course Credit/D/Fail, a grade of C– or above will be converted on your transcript to “CR.” Grades of D+, D, D–, or F will appear on the transcript as reported by the instructor.
  • You may count up to four courses taken Credit/D/Fail toward the bachelor’s degree, and you may take as many as two courses Credit/D/Fail in a single term.

Further restrictions on the use of the Credit/D/Fail option

  • You may not apply any Credit/D/Fail course toward fulfillment of the distributional requirements.
  • Some departments will not accept courses taken Credit/D/Fail toward the requirements of the major.
  • If you want to take a course Credit/D/Fail, you must declare your intention by the date your course schedule is due. You may change your mind and convert from Credit/D/Fail to a letter grade, but you may not change from a letter grade to the Credit/D/Fail option.
  • Deadlines to change from Credit/D/Fail to a letter grade are early November for the fall term, and early April for the spring term.
  • Course Change Notices, used to change from the Credit/D/Fail option to a letter grade, are available in hard copy only from the offices of the residential college deans.
  • If you want to earn acceleration credits through work in advanced courses, you cannot use the Credit/D/Fail option in those courses, because acceleration credit is awarded only for grades of B, B+, A–, or A.

How a Student Converts a Course from Credit/D/Fail to a Letter Grade

The process to convert a course from Credit/D/Fail to a letter grade is managed through the Student Information System (SIS).

While this procedure moved in fall 2013 from a paper form submitted to the residential college dean to an online process, no policies have changed: the deadlinse for conversion remain early November for the fall term and early April for the spring term, and conversion is allowed only from Credit/D/Fail to a letter grade and not vice versa. Any paper forms that have been submitted converting Credit/D/Fail to a letter grade will still be processed.

Students take the following steps to convert a Credit/D/Fail course to a letter grade:

•  Log into the main SIS Web site, select the Course Enrollment tab, and click “Yale College Change Course from Cr/D/F to Letter Grade” (see attached screen shot “SIS Course Enrollment Page”).

•  Change the drop-down selection from “Credit/D/Fail” to “YC – Letter Grade.” Click “Submit Changes” to save the conversion.

If the student is not enrolled in any courses Credit/D/Fail, the system will display the message, “You are not enrolled in any courses on the Credit/D/Fail basis.”

Further information about the Credit/D/Fail option appears in chapter II, section B, of the YCPS