Only courses in which a student earns a grade of C or better may be included in the program of work for a graduate degree at The University of Texas at Austin.
GPA Requirement
To graduate, all students must have a graduate grade-point average (GPA) of at least 3.00.
An individual Graduate Studies Committee may set GPA requirements of 3.00 or higher for all or a portion of their students’ coursework.
Included in GPA:
All graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses in which the student earns a letter grade while enrolled in school.
Excluded from GPA:
Undergraduate courses taken through the university’s Extended Campus;
Courses for which the symbol Q, W, X, I, CR or NC is recorded;
Graduate or undergraduate courses the student took at the university before enrolling in the Graduate School;
Credit earned by examination;
Courses taken at other institutions; and
Grades in any undergraduate courses the student took from fall 1999 through summer 2008.
Upper-division undergraduate courses the student took as a graduate student before fall 1999 and after summer 2008 are included.
Credit/No Credit
A student who wishes to take a course or courses for Credit/No Credit may elect this option at the time of registration.
Courses taken on a Credit/No Credit basis are not computed in the GPA.
20 percent of the hours on the master’s Program of Work may have been taken on the Credit/No Credit basis, at most.
No more than a comparable portion of the Program of Work for a doctoral degree can be Credit/No Credit. The 20 percent limitation does not include dissertation, treatise, thesis, report or master’s recital courses.
Coursework requirements and evaluation methods must be the same as for students registered on the letter-grade basis.
Performance at the level of C or above for both undergraduate and graduate courses taken on the Credit/No Credit basis is required to earn credit.
The asterisk, which denotes “in progress” is no longer valid for thesis, report, recital, treatise, and dissertation courses.
These courses are evaluated and graded each term by the student’s supervisor and assigned a grade of “CR” or “NC”. A “CR” is appropriate if the student made satisfactory progress during the term, and an “NC” is appropriate if the student did not make satisfactory progress during the term.
Students may change the grade status of a course online.
For a fall or spring term, they may do so between the first and fourth class day and for a summer term, they may do so between the first and second class day.
Students may change the grade status of a course in the department offering the course.
For a long term, they may do so between the fifth and 12th class day or between the third and fourth class day in a summer term.
A completed Graduate Add/Drop form is required to change a grade status during certain time frames.
For a long term, it is between the 13th class day and the published deadline and for the summer term, it is between the fifth class day and the published deadline. The form must be signed by the graduate adviser and can be submitted to GradStudentSvcs@austin.utexas.edu.
Changes in grade status after the published deadline in fall, spring and summer require a completed Graduate Add/Drop form.
A petition letter from the graduate adviser is also required.
Incomplete Grades
If a student does not complete all the assignments in a course before it ends, the instructor may report an incomplete (X).
The student must then complete the course requirements by the last class day in their next fall or spring term of enrollment. The instructor must report a final grade by the end of the grade-reporting period in that term. If these deadlines are not met, the X is converted to an I—permanent incomplete. If the student is not enrolled during a fall or spring term for 24 months following the end of the term in which the X is reported and the instructor does not report a final grade, then the symbol X is converted to the symbol I.
The symbol I cannot be converted to a grade.
When the symbol I is recorded, the symbol X also remains on the student’s record.
The period for completion of course requirements may be extended only under unusual circumstances beyond the student’s control.
The extension is available only upon the recommendation of the instructor and the approval of the Dean of Graduate Studies. Requests for an extension of X must be made to the Dean of Graduate Studies through submission by the instructor of record of a completed Update to Student Academic Record form. This request must provide reasons the student was unable to complete the coursework by the last class day in their next fall or spring term of enrollment after receiving the X.
Grade Reports
Timely submission of grade reports to the registrar each term is the responsibility of individual faculty members.
Faculty must meet grade report deadlines and should avoid assigning incomplete grades unnecessarily.
Grade Changes
After a grade is reported to the registrar, it may not be changed unless an error was made by the instructor.
All requests for change of grade should be submitted to the Graduate School on the Update of Student Academic Record form accompanied by an explanation of the nature of the error. Approval by the graduate dean is required before the change can be sent to the registrar to be recorded. The student’s scholastic status is not changed until the next official grade-reporting period in which the student is enrolled at the university.