Organic Chemistry Placement

Organic Placement for First-Years

First-years must take the placement exam to gain admission to either the first year or sophomore courses. Please refer to the placement advice found by class year on the Chemistry placement website. Transfer students should consult the website for the class with which they entered for placement information.

Organic Placement for Upper-Year Students

The prerequisites for sophomore-level organic chemistry lecture or laboratory classes are a year of the corresponding general-chemistry lecture or laboratory. Admission to these courses will only  be permitted if such requirements or their equivalents have been satisfied.

Each member of every incoming class should have been pre-placed in a level of introductory chemistry that was deemed appropriate (based on provided academic metrics and past Chemistry experience) for them. This is where you are expected to begin your college-level studies of Chemistry. Students wishing to enter higher-level courses must take a placement exam to demonstrate competency in the prerequisites.

General Advice

Be advised that a student completing organic chemistry will not be permitted to take any general chemistry courses at a later date since passing organic demonstrates competency in the prerequisites. This can cause problems with medical school applications, thus causing you to  take more advanced courses (e.g., physical chemistry or inorganic chemistry) to complete health-profession requirements after taking organic chemistry. Students who take organic as first years receive an acceleration credit that satisfies most medical schools.

Placing Out of Organic Chemistry

You may have already taken organic chemistry and want to place out. Unfortunately, there is no way to “place out” of any course at Yale. However, you can take a placement test to demonstrate you have completed the first semester of organic chemistry as a prerequisite to CHEM 221, CHEM 230, or any biochemistry courses.

Contact the DUS assistant to arrange for the placement exam.