Repeating Courses

Beginning with courses taken in the Fall of 2008, students who want to repeat a course for a grade need to secure the approval of the Dean by meeting with a professional adviser in Academic Support.   Many complex issues are often involved, and students need to be sure that they have considered all of their options before making their decision.

The faculty policy states that the second grade (not the better grade) will be factored into the grade point average.   Credit can be earned only once.   Credit for courses initially passed will be removed from the record when the “repeat” course is completed, even if the second grade is a failure.   An “R” appears next to both listings of the course on the transcript.   The earlier grade remains.

Students receiving any kind of institutional or federal aid must be full-time, i.e., must be carrying at least 12 new credit hours.   By implication, then, a student may not repeat two four-credit courses that were previously passed along with two new four-credit courses as Financial Aid would consider that student to be part-time (taking only eight credit hours).

Students who have submitted signed “Incomplete” contracts requiring them to do the work again should make arrangements to audit the course, and not register again for credit as a “repeated” course.

When departments offer courses that are similar in content at different levels (e.g., PHY 122 and 142, MTH 141 and 161, MTH 143 and 162), students may not use the lower-level course as a “repeat” of the upper-level course.   However, CHM 203/204 may be used as a “repeat” of CHM 171Q/172Q.

Students may opt to use MTH 142 as a “repeat” of MTH 161, in which case only the 142 grade will be in the GPA, and any credit for 161 will be forfeited.   However, students who are satisfied with their 161 grade may take 142 without losing credit for 161.   The Department of Mathematics permits this because no more than one-third of the material in the two courses represents an overlap.

Students who pass WRT/CAS 105 but with a grade below the “C” that is the minimum required may choose to take the course a second time for four additional credit hours, and with both grades in the GPA as long as they submit the special form by the end of the fourth week of the semester.     Alternatively, a student may apply the standard “repeat” policy described in the first paragraph. (See Primary Writing Requirement.)

Students who choose to repeat a course they have failed, and who select the S/F option, must pass the course the second time in order that the first failing grade will be removed from the GPA.

            Keep in mind that some courses may be taken more than once with credit and grade earned each time.   The most common such course is Applied Music: lessons at Eastman with 130 or 160 as the course number.   Students also may take 2-credit foreign language conversation courses such as FR 114 more than once.   Students may take RUS 126 no more than twice.
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