Undergraduate Grade Exclusion Policy
Under the Grade Exclusion Policy, undergraduate students may improve their University of Arkansas (UA) undergraduate cumulative grade-point average (GPA) by requesting that the university exclude up to 9 credit hours in courses taken at the UA in which a grade of “D” or “F” was received. The excluded courses will no longer be used to compute the UA GPA. Students must file a petition with the Office of the Registrar to use grade exclusion indicating which course(s) they choose to grade exclude. The petition must be completed and approved prior to graduation. Undergraduate students who return to the UA for an additional degree(s) may use grade exclusion only for courses taken after their most recent undergraduate UA degree was awarded. Other stipulations are:
- Undergraduate students may select up to 9 hours of any combination of UA courses with posted grades of “D” or “F” to be excluded from their cumulative grade point average calculation.
- Excluded courses cannot be used to satisfy degree requirements. Credit hours earned for a “D” grade in an excluded course will no longer count towards the student’s degree.
- Grade exclusions must be posted before the undergraduate degree has been conferred.
- The course and grade that is being excluded will remain on the student’s transcript with a notation indicating that the UA Grade Exclusion Policy has been applied.
- Grade exclusion cannot be removed or applied to another course once it has been posted.
- Grade exclusion for courses in which academic misconduct has been committed is allowable only in accordance with the university’s academic integrity policy.
- Grade exclusion may result in a recalculation of a student’s academic standing, but it does not retroactively result in a refund of tuition or fees, nor does it change a student’s semester academic honors for previous semesters.
- Excluded courses and hours will continue to be counted in calculations of satisfactory progress for financial aid eligibility.
- Students considering grade exclusion should be aware that many graduate schools, professional schools, employers or other institutions, in considering admission or employment, recalculate the GPA and include all courses attempted. This means that if the cumulative GPA has been raised because of grade exclusion, then the recalculated GPA will be lower.
- The Grade Exclusion Policy begins with the Fall 2020 semester, but may apply to courses taken before this term as long as the student has not earned an undergraduate degree from the UA or as long as the courses subject to exclusion were taken after the last UA undergraduate degree was awarded.
- Grade forgiveness hours will be combined with grade exclusion hours when considering the credit hour limit under this policy. Therefore, any hours previously approved for grade forgiveness prior to fall 2020 will count toward the maximum 9-hour credit limit for grade exclusion. Thus, a student who has used 3 hours of grade forgiveness may use up to 6 hours of grade exclusion.
For more information regarding Academic Grading standards, you may visit: Academic Regulations.
