Undergraduate Bulletin > Academic Regulations & Policies > Course Selection > Course Drop Policy
Course Drop Policy
Dropping Current Term Courses
Dropping a course or courses within the first eight weeks of the semester shall be without penalty and hours shall not be computed as hours attempted.
Dropping a course or courses after the eight-week deadline but before the end of the semester shall be without penalty when approved for appropriate cause as determined by appropriate documentation of medical, psychological, unanticipated life events, or administrative reasons. A student should initiate a request for course drop without penalty from one or more courses through the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies. Courses of less than one semester’s duration, including summer school courses, shall have shorter deadlines (proportional to the eight-week deadline for the regular semester) for dropping. These deadlines are published on the University Registrar's Web site.
The Dean of Undergraduate Studies shall be responsible for authorizing these drops after consultation with the instructor of every course, and with other departments or agencies as needed.
The grade W on the grade report and transcript indicates that the student either dropped the course within the eight-week, no-penalty period or that the student dropped at a later date for appropriate cause determined by medical, psychological, unanticipated life events, or administrative reasons.
If a student drops all courses, the student is considered officially withdrawn from the University. See section on Withdrawal from the University.
Dropping Courses Retroactively
Students shall be given one year following the semester in which a course was taken to petition to drop the course retroactively. Students who seek to drop a course/courses retroactively must meet the conditions under “Dropping Current Term Courses” and the drop must be approved by the Dean of Undergraduate Studies. In the event that the instructor is, for practical purposes, unavailable, only the Academic Appeals Committee, appointed from the faculty, may act in place of the instructor in the matter of a retroactive course drop.
Courses may not be dropped retroactively for students who have graduated.
