Graduate Programs
Academic Policies
Full-Time Student Status
All students must register for a full 30 credits per 12-month period beginning with the start of the fall semester. This can be accomplished by taking research course credits (C8X0) if necessary. It is important that students enroll in additional credits of C8X0 or other courses when withdrawing from a course, since to be a full-time student one must take at least nine graduate credits each semester and the fees paid will otherwise be forfeited. Students will normally receive a deferred R grade for thesis research credits (C8X0) for which they enroll during the first year. In subsequent years either a letter grade (A-F) may be awarded for a deferred grade (R) at the research advisor’s discretion.
It is especially important that Ph.D. students continue to be enrolled until they obtain their Ph.D. degree. Failure to do this necessitates formal readmission to the Graduate School and is only granted upon a satisfactory explanation and payment of past fees. M.S. candidates, however, do not have to enroll continuously upon completion of their course and research requirements.
Students who have already earned 90 or more hours of graduate credit and who hold appointments as Associate Instructors, Graduate Assistants or Research Assistants amounting to at least 0.375 FTE (15 hours per week work load) will be required to enroll for at least six hours credit in G901 or other courses during each semester they hold an appointment, such hours to be charged at the allocated fee rate.
Transfer of Credits
Graduate School regulations currently permit students to transfer up to 30 hours of graduate credit for approved courses towards the 90 credits required for the Ph.D. Such transfers require the approval of the graduate standards committee and do not automatically fulfill the departmental major and minor requirements unless approved by the student’s advisory committee. In general, the credits transferred must be lecture courses for which a grade of A or B was obtained, taken in a U.S. graduate institution and not previously used for credit towards a Bachelor's degree. However, courses taken as an undergraduate in excess of minimum graduation requirements or as a graduate student towards completion of a M.S. are accepted. The Department will not approve courses which we believe are not substantially equivalent to courses offered here or which are equivalent to courses the student has taken here.
Credit transfers are usually made at the time of advancement to candidacy but can be made at any time prior to this. To count towards the 90 credits for the Ph.D., the courses must have been taken within 7 calendar years of advancement to candidacy.
Scholastic Standards
When one's grade-point average falls below 3.0, the student is placed on probation. The student may be on probation for one semester before being subject to dismissal. To regain normal standing, the grade-point average during the following semester must be high enough to give an overall average of 3.0 or higher. In certain cases in which student’s cumulative average is raised, but not to the 3.0 minimum, he or she may be granted an additional semester to attain an overall 3.0 average.
For purposes of computing grade-point averages, a plus (+) grade is considered 0.3 higher than the grade point unit, and a minus grade (-) 0.3 less. Grades below 2.0 are not counted toward the completion of degree requirements but will be counted in determining a student's grade point average.
Research grades in C500 and C8X0 research courses are not used by the Department in computing averages, although they may be considered in making probation or termination decisions by the Graduate School. Grades in courses outside of the major and minor are also not used in calculating grade-point averages by the Department.
The Grade of "Incomplete"
It is the responsibility of a student who has incurred the grade of "incomplete" in any course to fulfill the requirements of that course within one calendar year from the date on which the "incomplete" is recorded. The student is expected to complete all work in time for the instructor to assign a grade before the expiration of this time period. Students unable to meet this requirement must notify the Dean of the Graduate School if they wish to petition for an extension of the deadline.
Deferred Grade of “R”
The rule, regarding the grade of "incomplete," does not apply to research and reading courses designated by a star in the Bulletin of the University Graduate School. In these courses a deferred grade of R may be awarded at the end of the semester to indicate that the appropriate grade will be given later. Since students accumulate most of their R grades after advancement to candidacy it is customary to request a removal of all the R grades just prior to the final oral; however, this may be done at any time. All such changes must be processed through the Graduate Office. Some faculty members assign letter grades for research either to indicate satisfactory progress or the contrary. Since the University Graduate School considers both research and lecture course grades in judging probation cases it is possible for good grades in research to offset poor grades in lecture courses. This means, however, that students may be on probation in the department who have not been formally placed on probation by the University Graduate School.
All students, including those on probation, are expected to carry normal workloads. Students on probation during the first or second year of graduate study must enroll in at least 6 hours of graduate course work counting toward an advanced degree.
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