Enrollment, Registration, Attendance, and Class Standing

Class Attendance. A primary responsibility of students is class attendance. Learning is an experience which requires active participation, and the University expects participation of students in all their scheduled classes be they lectures, online collaborations, laboratories, seminars, studios, field trips or other types of activities. It is understood that occasional absences are unavoidable, but the student is responsible for his or her decision to miss a particular class meeting. In deciding to miss a class, a student must be aware that he or she is accountable, nonetheless, for any test or quiz and all assignments, material covered, and announcements made in that class. Faculty are entirely at their discretion about whether or not to  allow a student to make up missed assignments. Furthermore, class participation itself is an appropriate criterion for grading and a student’s failure to participate can be expected to affect his or her grade in the course. Failure to drop or withdraw from a course that the student is not attending may result in a final grade of F.

Requests by students whose religious observance precludes class participation on specific days to reschedule graded work will be honored.  Graded work includes final examinations, scheduled tests, graded written assignments, graded laboratory projects, and graded oral assignments.  Alternative dates will be set by consulting with the instructor or instructors and, if necessary, through consultation with a dean from the Office of Academic Services. It is the student’s responsibility to make alternative arrangements as early as possible.

Course Changes. Each student is responsible for his or her course schedule and any changes in it, such as adding, dropping, or withdrawing. Failure to drop or withdraw from a course that the student is not attending may result in a final grade of F. All actions must adhere to the deadlines. Each student should print and inspect a schedule of his or her classes after registration and each time a change (drop, add, etc.) is made. Any discrepancy should be addressed immediately by making the appropriate change and verifying it by printing the correction or by contacting the Office of the Registrar. No credit is allowed for a course in which the student is not officially registered and which is not listed on the student’s printed schedule.

Students may add courses to their schedule by enrolling through Banner.  Banner displays all courses for which a student is enrolled. Credit can be awarded only for those courses in which the student is enrolled. The end of the first week of classes is the last day to add a full-semester course.

Students may drop courses from their schedule. Courses dropped from a student’s schedule will not be displayed on the student’s schedule or transcript, or on the instructor’s course roster. The end of the third week of classes is the last day to drop a course.

After the third week of the semester, a student may withdraw from a course by completing the required course withdrawal form (available from the Office of the Registrar). Courses from which a student has withdrawn will be displayed on the student’s record with a final grade of W. This has no effect on a student’s GPA calculation and does not satisfy any graduation requirements.  The last day to withdraw from a semester-long course is the Friday of the 9th week of the semester. The last day to withdraw from an eight-week session course offered with the fall or spring semester is indicated on the Academic Calendar, included in this Catalog.

NOTE: Discontinuing attendance in a class does not constitute dropping the course. A Drop (or Add) is not official until the student successfully completes and verifies the action in Banner or completes the appropriate form and delivers it, in person, to the Office of the Registrar on either campus. No student should assume that an instructor has dropped him/her from a course. Each student is responsible for seeing that his or her schedule is accurate in Banner.

During the Add/Drop Periods, students may make changes in their course schedules without written permission from their advisors. After the first three weeks of the semester, withdrawal from a course requires written approval of both the advisor and the course instructor (provided on the Course Withdrawal form). Students living in campus housing are expected to maintain a course load of at least 12 credits.

Full-Time Student. To be considered full-time, an undergraduate student must be enrolled in 12 or more credits for the semester. The U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Veterans Affairs classifies a student enrolled in 9 to 11 credits as three-fourths time. Six to eight credits is considered halftime, and five credits or fewer is less than half-time.

If a student intends to graduate in eight semesters, normal progress towards a degree is as follows: A minimum of 28 credits completed in the first two semesters and 15 to 18 credits completed during each of the remaining six semesters, for a total of 120 credits for B.A./B.S./BLS (see Class Standing and Academic Progress). BPS students may consult with the Assistant Dean of Advising Services (Stafford Campus) regarding academic progress toward graduation.

A student who starts with more than 12 credits in a semester may drop below a 12-credit course load; however, a residential student may not live in a residence hall while carrying fewer than 12 credits unless special written permission has been obtained. Students receiving financial aid should consult the Office of Financial Aid before dropping below a full course load. Students participating in NCAA intercollegiate sports must maintain a minimum 12-credit course load unless they have been granted a special written exemption from the Director of Athletics.

Without special permission to overload, a continuing student in good standing may take no more than 18 credits. Permission for an overload is given only on the basis of academic performance, never simply to provide for acceleration toward the degree. Students with a GPA of 3.00 for the most recent semester at UMW are eligible for an overload to 19 credits. Students with a GPA below a 3.00 or who wish to attempt 20 or more hours will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Students may request an overload by completing a request form in the Office of Academic Services in Lee Hall, on the Fredericksburg campus or the Office of Advising Services on the Stafford campus.

Class Standing and Academic Progress. If a B.A./B.S. student intends to graduate in eight semesters, normal progress toward a degree is a minimum of 28 credits completed by the end of the second semester of the freshman year and 15 to 18 credits completed during each of the remaining six semesters for a total of 120 credits. Under this definition of normal progress, students are classified as follows:

Freshmen 1 to 29 credits
Sophomores 30 to 59 credits
Juniors 60 to 89 credits
Seniors 90 or more credits

Students who wish to accelerate their progress and graduate in fewer than 52 eight semesters must consistently take 17 or 18 credits each semester and attend summer sessions. In this way, a student can graduate in three calendar years.

Auditing a Course. A degree-seeking student may audit a class (sit in for no credit), by completing the Auditor’s Registration Form in the Office of the Registrar the day after the end of the Add Period. Auditing is permitted, by written permission of the instructor, in non-restricted courses in which space is available. Non-degree students may also audit a course, provided that the instructor approves, space is available in the class, and the course is nonrestricted.  Full-time students who audit a course that cause their semester load to exceed 18 credits must pay the audit fee.

Repeating a Course. Students may repeat certain courses in which their original grades were C-, D+, D, F or FA. Although both the old grade and the new grade will be shown on the permanent record, the grade in the repeated course is the grade that determines the student’s grade-point average and the amount of credit earned for the course. No additional credits will be earned for repeating courses for which credits have already been earned (courses in which a grade of C-, D+, or D was recorded).

Note: The University of Mary Washington does not guarantee that courses will be available in future semesters. When a course is no longer offered, another course will not replace the repeated course.

Before registering to repeat a course, the student should verify that he or she is eligible to do so according to the restrictions listed below. Registration software may not block students from registering for courses when not eligible, but it is the student’s responsibility to adhere to these guidelines regardless of the technical ability to register. Only courses repeated at UMW can improve the student’s grade-point average. If a student repeats and passes (with a grade of C or better) a pre-approved transfer course at another institution that he or she failed at UMW, he or she will receive transfer credits, but the UMW record will still include the credits attempted (and therefore the grade-point average penalty) for the failed UMW course.

Restrictions on Repeating Courses
1. No course may be repeated more than once.
2. No more than three courses may be repeated in a single semester, with
the entire summer session considered a single semester.
3. No more than seven courses altogether may be repeated.
4. No course may be repeated that is prerequisite