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Grading Policies Letter Grades • Freshman First-Semester Policy • Satisfactory/Unsatisfactoy • Incomplete Grades • Changing a Grade • Retaking a Course • Dean's List Grades are submitted to the Registrar at the end of the semester. Grades can be viewed online by students using their JHED account and password. Parents may be authorized to view grades is ISIS with permission from the student. Parents are informed when students are in serious academic difficulty so that they may work with the university to help the student to improve academic performance. Parents are notified when a student is placed on academic probation or is dismissed for academic reasons. Undergraduates who are financially independent may file a notarized statement of financial independence with the Registrar. This action assures that grades and notification will not be released to parents without the student’s consent.
Letter Grades and Grade Point Average
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*S and U grades have no grade point equivalents and do not affect the grade point average. For first-semester freshmen
For all other undergraduates
Other marks are used in special circumstances as follows:
Grade
Points and Grade Point Average [Top]
A Sample Calculation of a Grade Point Average
Freshman
First-Semester Grading Policy [Top]
Transcript of First Semester Grades No first-semester grades are included in a student’s cumulative grade-point average. However, an internal GPA is used by the advising offices and faculty advisors to determine that a student has made satisfactory academic progress during the first semester. A transcript of first semester grades is not released outside the university. Faculty members may not release a student’s first semester grades. If a first-year student applies to transfer from the university in the spring term, before spring grades have been recorded, the student’s advising office can approve release of the actual first semester grades directly to the transfer institution. Once grades from the spring term or additional semesters have been added to the record, the covered grades will not be released. Students who are applying for or renewing a scholarship may request a letter from their academic advising office stating whether the first semester grades meet the requirements for the scholarship. Students who can demonstrate that failure to release covered grades will prevent them from applying for scholarships or verifying eligibility for scholarships may request that their advising office approve release of the grades. A letter from the scholarship granting institution must state that the application cannot be considered without the actual grades. Student’s Access to First
Semester Grades Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory Grades Students must decide whether to take a course on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis by the end of the eighth week of the semester. This deadline applies to all courses, even those which may not have any graded work assigned or returned before the end of the eighth week. S/U grades have no effect on a student’s grade point average. On the academic transcript, students who earn a grade of C- or above in an S/U course receive Satisfactory credit and a mark of S is entered on the academic record. Students who earn a grade below C- in an S/U course receive no credit and a mark of Unsatisfactory is recorded on the academic record. Restrictions on Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory Grading Changing to/from Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory Credit Incomplete Grades If the instructor agrees to grant an Incomplete grade, the instructor and student must establish a timetable for submitting the unfinished work. When entering an Incomplete grade in ISIS, the instructor must also enter a reversion grade. This is the grade that the student will receive if the missing work is not completed. For example, if the student—based on the coursework completed by the end of the semester—would receive a C+ grade without the missing work, then the grade of I/C+ is entered on the transcript. If the incomplete grade is not resolved within the allowed period (the end of the third week of the subsequent semester), the incomplete grade is automatically converted to the reversion grade (a C+ in this example). Students who are in good academic standing have until the end of the third week of the next semester to finish Incomplete work. Exceptions to this deadline require a petition from the instructor and appeal to the appropriate advising office before the end of the third week of the following semester. When appealing to change the deadline, faculty members must specify a new date for completion of the work which must be before the end of the current semester. Incomplete grades cannot be held over to another semester in order to complete the missing work by repeating the course. Students and instructors do not have an option in this situation. Graduating seniors are expected to resolve incompletes by the close of their undergraduate record. If the work is not finished by the deadline, the reversion grade will be recorded. Incomplete grades do not affect a student’s grade point average, which is based upon the grades that are available for the term. However, students with three or more Incompletes on their record at the start of a semester may be prevented from making changes to their registration for the semester without the approval of the student’s advising office. Students who are on academic probation are not allowed to take Incompletes in courses without the approval of the student’s advising office. Unauthorized Incompletes will be treated as failures when evaluating the work of students who are on academic probation. Authorized Incompletes must be resolved no later than the deadline established by the Advising Office if the student is on academic probation. Policy on Changing a Grade Repeating a Course A course originally taken for a letter grade must be repeated for a letter grade. A course taken under the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading option, if repeated, must also be taken under the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading option. First-semester courses whose grades are covered by S/U notation are considered to have been taken for a grade. If a student wants to repeat a course from the first semester, the second attempt must also be for a letter grade. Withdrawn courses cannot be covered with an R if it is the course retaken. To absolve a grade, the same course must be taken at Hopkins, not another college or university. In situations where the same course is no longer offered, and with the approval of the department and/or instructor responsible for the course and the student’s academic advising office, students may be able to absolve a grade in one of two ways: 1. by repeating
a course of comparable content and level, or Both of these options require approval of the department and/or instructor responsible for the course and the student’s academic advising office. Other Restrictions on Absolving a Grade Grades assigned by the Ethics Board due to an academic ethics violation may not be removed from the academic record by repeating the course. Both the new grade and the assigned grade will be shown (no R will cover the original attempt). Important Note About Credit and Grades for Language
Elements Courses Students must take the language elements (or beginning) courses for a letter grade, with the exception of the Russian elements course. The letter grade for first-semester freshmen will be covered on the transcript. Students in the School of Arts and Sciences do not receive an area designation for these elements courses. For students in the School of Engineering, language elements courses can be substituted for humanities courses in meeting the distribution requirement. Dean’s
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