Course Information

Full-time students at Elmira College normally complete 30 to 35 credit hours per academic year by registering for 12 to 14 credit hours in each of Term I and Term II and six to seven credit hours in Term III.

Full-Time Student Course Load Minimums and Maximums

Transfer students coming in with more than 20 accepted credit hours will be considered students beyond the first year; transfer students with 20 or fewer accepted credit hours will be considered first-year students.

Students may seek to take more than the prescribed course load limits with the approval of either the Registrar or the Office of the Academic Dean. Each overload credit is subject to an additional charge based on the part-time student rate.

Auditing a Course

A student may audit a course with the consent of the instructor upon notification of the Office of the Registrar. An auditor is expected to attend classes, complete the assignments, and participate in class discussions but is not required to take examinations. A grade of F may be assigned if a student fails to meet minimal requirements. Under no circumstances is credit given for an audited course. An audited course is included in a student's course load at one-half of the amount of credits of the course.

A student's status is determined by the cohort year, the year in which one enters the College as a full-time student. Transfer students' class years will be determined by the Office of the Registrar at the time transcript evaluations have been completed.

For purposes of Financial Aid, however, the following standard is used:

• First-year students who have completed between zero and less than 21 credits.
• Sophomores are students who have completed between 21-54 credits.
• Juniors are students who have completed between 54-87 credits.
• Seniors are students who have completed 87 or more credits.

Full-time students are those persons who register for nine or more credits during Term I or Term II or who enroll for four or more credits during Term III. Students receiving financial aid and student-athletes, however, may be required to register for 12 credits in Term I and Term II and six in Term III to maintain eligibility.

Part-time students are those persons who register for fewer than nine credits during Term I or Term II, or who enroll for fewer than four credits during Term III. Part-time students who are registered for a full-time credit load will be asked to modify their enrollment or be switched to full-time status. This will change the billing status to full-time. Part-time students who wish to live in a college residence should contact the Office of Residence Life at reslife@elmira.edu. To qualify, students must be matriculated and registered for coursework on at least a half-time basis.

Exceptions: The following are exceptions to the part-time credit limit:

• Part-time education students may register for student teaching for 18 credit hours for one term only to complete their student teaching.
• Part-time nursing students may register to finish the nursing program for one term of 9 credits and one term of 12 credits.
• The final six-credit Internship experience will not be considered an overload for part-time nursing students.
• Term III(a): a part-time student may enroll in full-time course load during Term III provided three of the six credits are taken in Term III(a).

Repeating Courses

Students may improve their overall grade point average, and possibly their grade point average in the major, by retaking courses in which they have received a grade of C- or lower. Please note that retaking courses or taking a reduced load of courses, although often warranted, may slow a student's progress toward earning a degree.

For required courses, students may retake a given course once in which the original grade was C-, D+, D, or D-. Students must retake a given course if the original grade was F until they achieve a passing grade. However, students will not be eligible to receive Title IV funds for any course that they have previously taken and passed more than two times. For elective courses, students may retake a given course once in which the original grade was C- or lower.

All attempts at courses that are repeated will be labeled to that effect on the student's transcript and will count as part of the student's academic load. However, only the higher grade will be used in the computation of the grade point average for all students not yet graduated from Elmira College. Should any course be repeated at an institution other than Elmira College, and a higher grade achieved, the original Elmira College grade would not be used in computation of the grade point average, nor would the grade from the other institution in accordance with the Transfer of Credit policy. Students normally receive credit toward the minimum 120 credit hours required for graduation only once for the same course.