Yale Alumni College FAQs

Yale Alumni College courses are open to anyone. Whether Yale Alum, friend, family member, or other you may register for YACOL courses.

Yes, each course has a registration fee.

Yale Alumni College was founded by Marv Berenblum ’56 as a way to promote social interaction among Yale Alumni that would also provide the rigor of a Yale classroom. YACOL is operated by Yale Lifelong Learning and Travel under the Yale Alumni Association and advised by a volunteer alumni board.

No. Yale Alumni College courses are learning for the love of learning. There are no tests or grades or papers.

Yale Alumni College runs courses over 4 semesters each year. Spring (late Mar-May) and Fall (mid Oct– Nov) are the most robust offering over 20 courses each. Winter (Jan-Feb) and Summer (late Jun-July) are smaller semesters that will only offer 5-8 courses. Registration usually begins about 2 months before the courses run. 

Semester                     Registration opens

Winter                         mid Nov. 

Spring                         mid Jan.

Summer                      early May

Fall                             early Aug.

Yale Alumni College also has multiple educational outings each year led by Yale-affiliated faculty leaders. YACOL also offers destination learning with an annual trip to Glimmerglass opera festival in upstate NY in August. We hope to continue expanding our offerings for alumni.

To keep up to date with YACOL courses and events please join our mailing list.

While both programs offer lifelong learning opportunities, Yale Alumni College programming is steered by alumni input. Yale Alumni College utilizes fellow alumni educators to provide countless opportunities to learn in any subject.

Yale Alumni Academy connects alumni to the University’s faculty, scholarship and centers of study in three ways: online programming and courses, on-campus immersion learning, and through travel.

If a faculty leader is unable to hold class the course will plan to reschedule the missed class on the week immediately following the original end date on the same day and time when possible.

On occasion there have been circumstances where we have had to cancel a course all together. This could be due to low enrollment or a change of availability of the faculty leader. When this happens we will notify all registrants as early as we can. Registrants will be offered the ability to transfer their registration to another YACOL course, take a credit for a future course, or receive a refund of the fees paid.

Our YACOL faculty must be either; a current or former faculty member at Yale; a Yale Alum (YC or G&P schools) who holds a Ph.D. and teaches or has taught at the University level; or a Yale Alum who is a prominent contributor to their field of expertise and has teaching experience.

If you know of a Yale alum or are a Yale alum who would be a good fit for our program you can send information to yacol@yale.edu to be submitted to the board.

Educators interested in getting involved with YACOL can send an email of interest to yacol@yale.edu with the subject line: Interest in teaching- YACOL. Program administrators will send interested faculty more info on the program and a form to submit a proposal.

New faculty and courses are analyzed by the program administrators at the YAA as well as Yale Alumni College’s board of alumni volunteers. 

Yes. Our courses are structured to have at least 30% designated to discussion and many offer a much higher amount of class interaction. 

Our online courses use the zoom platform. A participant must have internet access. Courses are best enjoyed on computers/laptops that have good audio and video capabilities. Online courses may also be attended by using ipads, smartphones, or even landlines if needed.

If you have never used the zoom platform and would like to start using it regularly you can sign up for a free account. If you do not want to create an account it is not required and you can attend zoom courses and meetings just by clicking on the link that is shared with you. 

Our courses are intended to be seminar style with open discussion between the participants and the professors. We limit the number of participants in the course so that all participants have an opportunity to engage with the group.

We aim to offer courses at convenient times for many alumni. The majority of our courses start between 4 and 7:30 p.m. ET, however we have a handful of offerings that start at 10-11 a.m. ET. If there is a time you would like to see courses offered, please write to us and let us know what would be a better fit.

We market our courses with the intention of having an active group of participants attend the course in full. Although we recommend that all participants register and attend the sessions we also understand that the timing of some courses does not work for some schedules and do allow asynchronous participants to register.

You will initially receive your course access information about 2 weeks before the course starts. In addition, you will receive an email before the first class which will give you a quick snapshot of the important information for your course. The subject will be “Course Info at a Glance” followed by the course name. This email will be sent each week either the morning of the class or the day before. Please also add the course dates and access information to your computer/phone calendar.

If you are having trouble connecting to the live course session, please check the following:

• Is it the proper time and date of the course (all of our courses are marketed with Eastern Time unless specifically noted otherwise)
• Was there a scheduled gap in the schedule?
• Are you using the proper link for the course?

For further assistance, please call (203) 871-1284 to notify YACOL staff of the issue. Calling is the best way to get a more immediate response as emails are not checked after business hours.

Generally, the zoom meeting should admit students 5-10 minutes before the course start time. On the first session, we aim for at least 10 minutes prior to the start time, to account for any troubleshooting.

Currently (2024) we are holding in-person courses in New Haven, New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

If there is an active Yale alumni population in your area and you would like to see if Yale Alumni College can hold courses there: 1- Reach out and let us know. 2- We would need to have a dedicated champion for the area (who lives in the area) to source local faculty, a location to hold the courses, and promote the program locally 3- We will analyze the population and send a survey out to all alumni in the surrounding areas gauging specific interests. If the results show strong interest and the administration has the bandwidth to expand, we could consider starting a new “campus”.

Not always. There are many courses that do not require any course materials or that supply all of the course materials to the students. Other courses may require participants to purchase or rent books, scripts, or movies, or to subscribe to a service that provides access to the materials. In general, we aim to keep the extra costs to the participants at a minimum.

Once your registration is submitted with payment you will receive an automated confirmation from Yale Alumni College. Your confirmation email will detail the course times and dates as well as specify if the course you are taking requires you to purchase any course materials. It will also state the cancellation date. The next email you receive from Yale Alumni College will be a welcome letter 2-2 ½ weeks before the start of the course. This letter will provide you with course details, a course website containing the syllabus, and access to the online sessions or if in-person, the address and location details of the course.

Some of our courses require participants to purchase or rent materials for the course, including books, videos, music subscriptions, other supplies, etc. These should be listed on the registration page under the course description. Your confirmation email will also specify if the course you are taking requires you to purchase any course materials. And then this info will also be detailed on the course website which you will receive access to when you receive the welcome email (2-2 ½ weeks before the course starts).

A course can be canceled, and a full refund received, at any time up until the stated cancellation date. The cancellation date can be found on the registration page, as well as the confirmation email. After the cancellation date, no refunds are guaranteed. 

A registrant can transfer their registration to another course as long as it is before the original course’s cancellation deadline and as long as there is space in the new course. If the registration fees differ the difference will be charged or refunded as needed. For some cancellations, we also offer an option to keep a credit to use on another YACOL course instead of a refund.

You are on the waitlist: 
• If you did not put in a credit card during the registration process.
• If you chose WAITLISTED under the course title in the registration process.
• If you look at your confirmation email and in the Transaction Summary the amount is $0.00 and the course title includes “WAITLISTED”

Registering for the waitlist is free. The waitlist is used when a course is at capacity. If you are on the waitlist, you are not in the course. If a spot becomes available in the course, waitlisted registrants will be contacted via email in the order that they registered with an opportunity to join the course. A YACOL representative will finalize the registration by taking payment from the waitlisted person by phone and sending them a confirmation email.

When we have popular courses, occasionally we have large waitlists for the courses. If we re-run the course we will notify all people on the waitlist and give them first priority to register. We will then release the courses to our mailing list and a few days later will release the registration to the general population. If a course is released with only 1 or 2 spots available they can get filled up quickly.

When a registrant receives this message, it usually means that the course has reached its capacity and the waitlist has not been turned on as of yet. If you receive this message, you can email yacol@yale.edu to let us know you are interested in joining the waitlist. We try to activate the waitlist option in a timely manner however occasionally there is a delay.

Our course registration does not require any username or password. Unfortunately, due to some email security improvements, there are occasionally errors in the link re-directs that land users on the parent website instead of the specific registration site. To get to the proper page users will need to clear their history/cache on their internet browser and instead of clicking the link from your email, copy the link (right click on it and copy) and paste into the browser address bar directly.

Generally, when the course is held virtually, the courses are recorded. These weekly recordings will be added to a private link 24-48 hours after the class ends. Registrants of the course can view the recordings at their convenience throughout the course. The recordings will remain available to view for 30-45 days after the course is completed. 

* Some online courses or sections of online courses are not recorded at the professor’s request. These will be noted on the registration page and in the follow-up course information. 

**Our in-person courses are not recorded at this time.

No. Recordings of our past courses are only available to registrants of the specific course and only for a limited amount of time. 

Registered participants may view the recordings for a limited time. We do not allow the downloading of the recording files.

YACOL aims to make this lifelong learning opportunity accessible to as many people as possible. YACOL is able to provide some financial assistance to participants. Any alum who is experiencing financial hardship and would like to take a course can email yacol@yale.edu to request financial assistance. Currently, YACOL offers a BOLD alumni discount of 50%. For more info visit our scholarships and discounts page.

The board of Yale Alumni College is delighted to announce that our founder and emeritus chairman, Marv Berenblum ’56, has established a scholarship fund in memory of his daughter, Eve Berenblum Goldberg. Through alumni donations and a generous gift from our founder, alumni can apply for a scholarship that would cover the full cost of a course for approved recipients. Scholarship offerings are dependent on the available funds.

Visit our scholarships and discounts page for more info on:
• How to apply for a scholarship.
• Donating to the scholarship.

Each participant in the course must pay the registration fee. This includes persons in the same household that share the same screen during online courses.

No. It is not necessary to register for someone that is not an alum(na). The non-alumni participant can register for themselves on the registration site.