COVID Updates

Yes. Students must be up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you are offered admission to YYGS 2024 and you accept, then you will be required to demonstrate proof of vaccination for COVID-19 by March 4 (Early Action) or May 5 (Regular Decision) in order to enroll in YYGS.

If you would like to request an exemption to our COVID-19 vaccination policy, please contact us at global.scholars@yale.edu. YYGS understands that there are unique situations that may prevent students from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, and while we cannot guarantee an exemption, we will do our best to work with families on a case-by-case basis.

Please review all of our YYGS Residential webpages, including Visa & ESTA and Arrival & Departure information. As noted on our Financial Aid webpage, while YYGS is proud to be one of the only pre-college programs that provides need-blind financial aid to domestic and international students to offset the cost of tuition for over 600 students, there are limited travel Scholarships available due to the legal and logistical limitations of working with globally diverse families. Over 95% of all YYGS participants fundraise for, pay for, and coordinate their own travel to and from the program.

Thus, all students are responsible for researching and following the requirements for travel between their country and YYGS in the United States (both to access the United States to begin the program, and in order to return to their country after the program ends). We recommend asking an adult to help you with researching this information.

No, our program will not require testing for COVID-19, but you will need to follow all requirements for travel between your home community and YYGS in New Haven, CT, USA. For example, if travel requirements state that you will need to provide proof of a negative COVID test in order to board a plane to travel from your country to the USA, then you will need to follow this requirement, and you are solely responsible for arranging this testing. YYGS is unable to assist with any travel-related plans other than providing a letter in support of application for a B-2 visitor visa.

If you test positive for COVID-19 in six or more (6+) days prior to departure to the program, we ask that you please isolate and follow the advice of your physician in order to regain your health to be able to travel to and participate in the program. If you are then healthy enough to be able to travel to the program please wear a mask both during your travel and once you arrive on campus, notify and continue wearing a mask (can be provided by our staff). Please don’t come to campus if you have a fever or are not feeling well as you will not be able to attend components.

Given our short, two-week program length, YYGS has a very strict attendance policy (whereby students cannot arrive late, leave early, nor miss time during the program) because the heart and soul of the program lies in the interactions among students, faculty, and staff across a range of cultures, backgrounds, and experiences.

Thus, every member of our YYGS community (students, families, faculty, and staff) is responsible for their own actions leading up to and during the program, and returning to an in-person program on Yale’s campus means that we each need to try to do all that we can to stay safe and healthy in order for this globally diverse community to flourish. Our globally diverse nature assumes a basic level of exposure risk simply by bringing together this many people from a range of communities all over the world.

Where possible, we strongly encourage everyone to limit possible COVID-19 exposure prior to and during the program through a combination of isolation, wearing a mask, and making healthy choices.