This policy offers details concerning university grading principles for students taking courses, whether those students are undergraduates, non-degree students or graduate students. This policy covers the specifics of Assigning and Changing Grades (including Final and Mid-Semester grades, Incompletes and Conditional Failures), Grading Options (Audit and Pass/Fail), Drop/Withdrawals, Course Repeats, and defines the undergraduate and graduate Grading Standards.
Questions about grading for a specific course should be addressed to the instructor of the course in question. Graduate students with questions about Pass/Fail and Drop/Withdrawal should contact their individual programs.
Appeals for an exception to any grading policy may be made by the dean’s office of the student’s home college.
Certain terms are used in this document with specific meanings, as defined in this section.
Student means any full-time or part-time degree-seeking undergraduate or graduate student, or full-time or part-time non-degree student.
Non-degree student means a student who is not in a university degree program.
Faculty means members of the university’s Faculty Organization as defined in the Faculty Handbook, plus instructors and special faculty appointments (even in the first year), and part-time faculty.
Instructor means a faculty member, teaching assistant, and /or lecturer who is the instructor of record, as recorded in the Student Information System (SIS).
Final grades are awarded to each student, in each course scheduled, at the end of the semester, mini-semester or summer session. All students taking a course at Carnegie Mellon must be assigned grades. Enrollment Services will query instructors who do not assign a grade to a student. Copies of the query regarding the lack of grade will be sent to the student, to the dean and to the department head. If the instructor does not assign a letter grade or an incomplete grade within one month of Enrollment Services query, the department head will be responsible for insuring that a grade is assigned.
A student who believes that an assigned grade is incorrect, may request that a final grade be changed. Final grades will be changed only in exceptional circumstances and only with the approval of the instructor and, for undergraduates, with the approval of the dean’s office of the college/school offering the course; for graduate students, department approval is required. The intention of this policy is to insure that, under normal circumstances, all students in a class are treated equally and no student is unduly advantaged.
Mid-semester grades provide valuable feedback to students as they assess their performance in courses. Furthermore, mid-semester grades and the QPA’s they generate are used by Deans and advisors in identifying and dealing in a timely way with students in academic trouble. Therefore it is imperative that mid-semester grades accurately reflect student performance and are turned in on time. Mid-semester grades are not permanent and are kept only until final grades are recorded. Because mid-semester grades are not permanent, changes of mid-semester grades as a rule will not be accepted.
Carnegie Mellon students are expected to complete a course during the academic semester in which the course was taken. However, if the instructor agrees, a grade of I (incomplete) may be given when a student, for reasons beyond his or her control, has been unable to complete the work of a course, but the work completed to date is of passing quality and the grade of incomplete provides no undue advantage to that student over other students. In awarding an I grade, an instructor must specify the requirements for completing the work and designate a default letter grade where no further work is submitted. Students must complete the required course work no later than the end of the following academic semester, or sooner if required by prior agreement. The instructor must record the permanent grade by the last day of the examination period of that following semester, or Enrollment Services will administratively assign the default grade.
X grades are conditional failures. They are factored in the student grade point average as a failure in the semester they are awarded and can be replaced by nothing higher than a D. When awarding an X grade, the instructor specifies to the student the requirements necessary to achieve a grade of D. Requirements may be the completion of a prescribed course with a performance of C or better or may be specified work related to the course in which the student received the X. Students must complete the required course work no later than the end of the following academic semester, or sooner if required by prior agreement. The instructor must record the permanent grade of D by the last day of the examination period of that following semester, or Enrollment Services will administratively assign the default grade of R.
Undergraduate students may elect to take a free-elective course pass/fail unless precluded by the course, the course’s department or the student’s home department/college. Policies for graduate students vary and students should be advised to check with their individual colleges/departments/programs for details.
A student must submit a Pass/Fail Form to Enrollment Services indicating the course they are electing as pass/fail before the end of the university’s drop period. This decision is irreversible thereafter. No information regarding the student’s decision will be passed on to the instructor. Instructors will submit letter grades, which will automatically be converted to pass/fail.
A through D work will receive credit for units passed and be recorded as P on the student’s academic record; below D work will receive no credit and will be recorded as N on the student’s academic record. No quality points will be assigned to P or N units; P or N units will not be factored into the student’s QPA.
In exceptional circumstances, departments may ask to designate a course pass/fail or request that the course be evaluated only with letter grades. The College Council must approve designating a course as pass/fail only or as graded only. If such a decision will have an adverse effect on the requirements of any other college, Academic Council must review the decision. The decision to designate a course as graded or pass/fail must be made before the add period for the course and is irreversible thereafter.
Auditing is presence in the classroom without receiving academic credit, a pass/fail or a letter grade. The extent of a student’s participation must be arranged and approved by the course instructor. A student wishing to audit a course is required to register for the course, complete the Course Audit Approval Form, obtain permission of the course instructor and their advisor, and return the form to The HUB prior to the last day to add a course.
Any student enrolled full-time (36 units) may audit a course without additional charges. Part-time or non-degree students who choose to audit a course will be assessed tuition at the regular per unit tuition rate.
Students at Carnegie Mellon may drop a course by accessing on-line registration on or before the drop deadline as published in the official university calendar. This applies to all courses with the exception of mini-semester courses. Policies for graduate students vary and students should be advised to check with their individual colleges/ departments/programs for details. The deadline to drop a mini-semester course is the last day of the fourth week of the mini-semester course. When a course is dropped by these deadlines, the course is removed and does not appear on the academic record.
After the deadline to drop, students may withdraw from a course by accessing on-line registration on or before the last class day, prior to the beginning of final examinations. After the deadline to drop, a W (withdrawal) grade is assigned and appears on the student’s academic record. W grades do not apply to graduate students except in TSB and MCS.
Undergraduates who are registered as full-time students as of the 10th day of classes are expected to remain full-time for the duration of the semester. Full-time is defined as registered for a minimum of 36 units. Permission to drop below the 36-unit minimum can only be granted in extraordinary circumstances by the student’s home Associate Dean. Undergraduates who are registered as part-time are also subject to the above deadlines to drop or withdraw from a course.
When a course is repeated, all grades will be recorded on the official academic transcript and will be calculated in the student’s QPA. This is the case regardless if the first grade for the course is a passing or failing grade, including Pass/Fail.
Undergraduate students who wish to repeat a course already passed must obtain approval from the student’s Dean or Department Head. When a student takes a course s/he has already passed, only one set of units will count towards graduation requirements.
Carnegie Mellon has adopted the method of stating in “units” the quantity of work required of students. In each subject of study, the college catalog tells how much time per week is expected of the average student for each kind of work (e.g., recitations, laboratory, studio, study). For the average student, one unit represents one work-hour of time per week throughout the semester. The number of units in each subject is fixed by the faculty of the college offering the subject. Three units are the equivalent of one traditional semester credit hour.
A subject requiring 9 hours of the average student’s time per week for a semester is known as a 9-unit subject. For example, Chemistry might require 3 hours in the laboratory, 3 hours of lecture/recitation and 3 hours of preparation, a total of 9 work hours. Mathematics might require 3 hours of recitation plus 3 hours of preparation for each recitation, a total of 12 work hours. Final grades are given “Quality Point Values” as follows:
A | (excellent) | = 4 |
B | (good) | = 3 |
C | (satisfactory) | = 2 |
D | (passing) | = 1 |
E | (failure) | = 0 |
Units earned for a course multiplied by the Quality Point Value of the grade given for that course equals the Quality Points for that course. For example, a 9-unit course assigned a “C” grade is awarded 18 quality points (9 units x 2 quality points = 18 quality points). Total Quality Points divided by Total Units Factorable equals the Quality Point Average.
For example, a student’s record in one semester might be:
11 units in Mathematics “A” | |
11 units x 4 quality points | = 44 quality points |
10 units in Physics “R” | |
10 units x 0 quality points | = 0 quality points |
9 units in Chemistry “B” | |
9 units x 3 quality points | = 27 quality points |
9 units in History “C” | |
9 units x 2 quality points | = 18 quality points |
9 units in English “D” | |
9 units x 1 quality point | = 9 quality points |
Total Units = 48 | |
Total Quality Points | = 98 |
Quality Point Average (98 divided by 48) | = 2.04 |
“I” (incomplete), “P” (pass), and “W” (withdrawal) grades are not awarded quality points and are not considered as “factorable” units when calculating the QPA. The same procedure is applied to all grades earned at the university to establish the Cumulative Quality Point Average.