I’m taking Moral Foundations of Politics on coursera, and it’s from Yale. Is that gonna help me out with getting into Yale, or will they not really care? I know it won’t hurt me, and I enjoy the course so I’m gonna keep going, but I just wanna know if this might make a difference for me.
Also, how am I supposed to put it down on the common app? In activities, or?
Not at all
You can list in under activities if you so desire.
Not directly, and probably not significantly, but one could argue that anything you learn affects who you are and what you can bring to a campus.
FWIW: This from Vanderbilt about Coursera and their grading policies. If Vanderbilt feels this way, I imagine other colleges, maybe even Yale, feels the same way, even though the course is coming from them: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/2013/01/getting-to-know-coursera-statements-of-accomplishment/
If its inclusion fits naturally into an essay about your character/interests/discipline then I actually think it could help. Otherwise, it is probably not going to help and pales in comparison to the sorts of things one typically lists under activities/accomplishments.
Can’t you put this under university/college courses in the education section?
Isn’t that just for college credit courses? (Not sure about current Common App, but that used to be the case). My kid listed Coursera courses in additional information a couple of years ago. And no, it won’t help you get into Yale.
They do have an option which says ‘course taught online’ so I would have thought that’s where these types of things went.
Also lol because MoFoPo is literally the most joke of a class at Yale. Honestly, don’t put it on your application