Graduate Handbook

VI – Departmental Policies: Academic Performance

Each year, a Graduate Committee conducts an annual review of the progress of each of its graduate students, on the basis of letters from the student’s guidance committee or advisors, a statement from the student, grades earned in the previous two academic semesters, evaluations of the student’s performance as a teaching or researching assistant, and other relevant academic performance measures (i.e., honors, publications, etc.). Policy on Deferred Grades and Incomplete Grades Except in multi-term courses, the department discourages graduate students from incurring deferred grades in their courses. The presence of deferred grades or Incompletes on a student’s transcript can have adverse effects on his or her career in the following ways:

1. With respect to continuation in the program, deferred grades or Incompletes which are not removed within a year of their being incurred, can cause a student to forfeit the right to continue enrollment until those courses have been completed.
2. Students applying for graduate assistantships (or their renewal) must expect the existence of deferred grades or Incompletes to work against their favorable consideration in competition.
3. Students holding graduate assistantships may not incur more than 6 credits of deferred grades or Incompletes without losing the assistantship.
4. No student may take his or her comprehensive examination for the Ph.D. degree until all deferred grades and Incompletes in the field to be examined have been removed.