Pass/Fail Grading – Undergraduate Students
About This Policy
- Responsible Office
- Academic Affairs
The following policy applies to Undergraduate students only.
Undergraduate degree-seeking students have the option to take coursework as Pass/Fail. The following guidelines apply:
Eligible Courses: Only those courses that are free electives in the student’s program may be taken as Pass/Fail.
Ineligible Courses: Any course meeting major, minor, collateral, teacher certification, General Education, or World Languages and Cultures requirements are ineligible for Pass/Fail grading. Note that all courses taken in a student’s major department are ineligible for the Pass/Fail option. Additionally, no courses required for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program are eligible for Pass/Fail grading. Grades of P do not satisfy prerequisite requirements when a minimum letter grade (for example C- or higher) is required to advance to the next course. Some exceptions may apply from the spring 2020 semester, due to the policy modified during the COVID-19 health emergency.
Grading: Students will receive either a grade of “P” (pass) or “F” (fail) for coursework completed under the option. A grade of “P” is equal to a grade of D- or higher, but has no impact on the student’s overall grade point average. A grade of “F” will have the same effect on the grade point average as a traditional failure.
Credit and Term Limits: Students may elect to take up to 24 semester hours as Pass/Fail. No more than one course per semester may be taken as Pass/Fail. Courses only offered on a pass/fail basis do not count towards the one-course-per-semester limit.
Deadlines: Students must elect the Pass/Fail option each semester by the Last Day to Withdraw for the term in which the course is being taken (the specific date for each term will be posted on the University’s Important Dates webpage). Students may not elect the Pass/Fail option retroactively. Once the election of Pass/Fail has been made, the student may no longer choose to receive a letter grade other than P/F for the course.
All requests for Pass/Fail are final and cannot be reversed. Additionally, grades of “P” cannot be changed to a letter grade at any time.
To learn about potential impacts to eligibility for Financial Aid, please refer to the Financial Aid Student Handbook.
Undergraduate students enrolled in graduate-level courses must adhere to The Graduate School policies for all graduate-level courses.