Challenge yourself with a balanced academic program that includes demanding courses in a wide range of subjects.

Students in biology lab

A whole-person approach with no prerequisites

The high school transcript is almost always the most important document in a student’s application. But Yale’s admissions committee considers each application as a comprehensive picture of an individual, not a piecemeal review of disparate components. 

Yale does not prescribe a set of secondary school courses that are required for admission. When the admissions committee looks at your transcript, it will not focus on whether you have taken any specific course. It will be far more interested to see that you have consistently challenged yourself with difficult coursework across a range of subjects, and have done well.

Context matters.

Yale’s admissions committee evaluates applications from thousands of secondary schools with an enormous variety of curricular philosophies, course offerings, and grading policies. We know you did not design your school’s curriculum, and we only expect you to take advantage of such courses if your high school provides them. We also know that personal circumstances and decisions made long before ninth grade can affect the classes available to any student. 

We seek to understand every applicant’s transcript within its unique context, incorporating insights from secondary school reports, school profiles, public data, and letters of recommendation. If significant personal or contextual factors have affected your course selection, be sure those details are in your application.  

Ask yourself these questions:

When selecting your courses, ask yourself:

  • Am I taking a well-balanced academic program that will provide me with a good foundation for college?
  • Am I prepared to take rigorous college-level math, writing, and science courses?
  • Do I feel challenged by the courses that I am taking?
  • Am I seeking challenge or avoiding it?
  • Overall, is my four-year high school program among the most challenging programs available at my school?
Cherokee language class

Trajectories & Trends

An applicant’s most recent courses and grades are the most predictive of their academic performance in college. As such, although every year of high school matters, trends are important. Increase your rigor throughout high school and ensure that your senior year program is especially challenging. We review mid-year and final transcripts carefully and expect that a student’s senior year program will be at least as challenging as their junior year program. 

Yale seeks students who will make the most of their talents and Yale’s vast academic resources. Your choices in your given high school context give us an idea of how you might engage at Yale. If you push yourself to excel through your senior year, while maximizing the academic opportunities available to you, we take that to be a good sign that you will do the same at Yale. 

Balance

Yale does not have any specific entrance requirements (for example, there is no foreign language requirement for admission). Instead, we look for students who have taken a balanced set of the rigorous classes available to them. Generally speaking, you should try to take courses each year in English, science, math, the social sciences, and foreign language.

We encourage you to pursue your intellectual interests, so long as it is not at the expense of your program’s overall rigor or your preparedness for college. Be honest with yourself when you are deciding between different courses. Are you choosing a particular course because you are truly excited about it and the challenge it presents, or are you motivated by a desire to avoid a more challenging course?

Inside the Yale Admissions Office Podcast

Podcast transcripts