Grade Replacement Policy
Effective Fall 2022, the specifications of the Course Replacement Policy are as follows:
Courses repeated under this policy may not be eligible for financial aid. Veterans Benefits will not cover the cost of a repeated course in which the student previously received a passing grade. For more information, contact Financial Aid at (970) 351-4UNC (4862).
Graduate Dean’s Scholarship, graduate assistantship tuition waiver funding, and/or other institutional scholarship funds will not be applied to the cost of retaking credits. Contact the Graduate School for more information about scholarship and assistantship funding.
The provisions below are not retroactive. They only apply to those courses taken no earlier than Fall semester 2022.
- The Grade Replacement Policy only applies to UNC graduate courses that are letter-graded (A-F). The courses taken for grade replacement must be the same (prefix and number) and both courses must be taken at UNC. The course must not be designated repeatable for credit in the current graduate catalog. Pass/Fail (S/U) graded courses are excluded from this policy.
- Grade replacement can only be applied once per course for a maximum of three (3) courses and no more than nine (9) credit hours.
- To apply for grade replacement, the student must earn a grade of “B-” or lower in their first attempt. Applications for grade replacement will not be accepted for courses with an incomplete (I) grade.
- To use grade replacement, the student must submit a Grade Replacement Application to the Office of the Registrar no later than the drop deadline of courses being repeated. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted. Once the grade replacement application deadline has passed, a grade replacement application cannot be withdrawn.
- The most recent letter grade (A-F) attained for a course repeated under grade replacement will count toward the cumulative GPA, even if the most recent grade is lower than the grade being replaced.
- If a student applies for grade replacement and receives a “W” or “UW” in the second attempt of a course, that attempt does not count as the grade replacement opportunity and the original grade will stand.
- All occurrences of a course and all grades earned for the course are recorded on the transcript.
- Courses are counted one time only in the total credits towards graduation.
- Grades counted toward a completed degree are excluded from this policy (e.g., course double-counted in a 4+1 BA to MA program).
Students who plan to transfer to another academic institution or plan to apply for another graduate degree should be aware that other institutions may include all grades in the GPA calculation for admission.
Students receiving federal student loans should be aware that the Standards of Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy is separate from the Grade Replacement Policy. Changes in cumulative GPA and/or deficient hours due to grade replacement will not be considered in any financial suspension appeal until the course has been completed. For questions, please contact Financial Aid at (970) 351-4UNC (4862).
If the student has received a notice of academic probation because their graduate GPA is under 3.0, they will remain on academic probation until grades are posted at the end of the semester.