Course Forgiveness
Undergraduate students may have the opportunity to improve their GPA by retaking a course to replace a grade or excluding the course from their GPA calculation.
Undergraduate Course Forgiveness for Low Grades
Didn't do well in a course? With the Forgiveness Policy, an undergraduate can raise their GPA by replacing up to four low grades (C-, D, or F), not to exceed 14 credit hours, in their GPA calculation. If a student repeated the class to improve the grade and wants to invoke course forgiveness, it has to be the same class taken again at the University of Mississippi after Fall 1992.
Students can also choose to exclude two of these four classes (up to 7 credit hours) from their GPA calculation without having to retake those classes.
Exceptions
Federal Aid: Please be aware that forgiveness cannot be recognized for federal financial aid eligibility. Per Title IV regulations, the Office of Financial Aid must include all grades in the calculation of the GPA for federal aid purposes.
School of Pharmacy: The forgiveness policy does not apply to students enrolled in the professional program in the School of Pharmacy for grades received in required professional courses as designated in the curricula for the B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Doctor of Pharmacy degree.
Should I Use Forgiveness or Exclusion?
Frequently Asked Questions
A student must file a Petition to Invoke Grade Forgiveness form with the registrar, stating which course is to be forgiven or excluded.
When should I fill out the form?
- Forgiveness can be invoked at any time following the completion of a pair of eligible courses (prior to graduation). Once the student has declared a course to be forgiven, a different course cannot be substituted for it at a later date.
- Exclusion can be invoked at any time following the completion of an eligible course (prior to graduation). Excluded grades are removed from total earned hours and cannot be used to satisfy degree requirements.
A small number of courses are designated as being repeatable for credit. These tend to be special topics courses, where the content will vary from one offering to the next. The following rules do not apply to these “repeatable for credit” courses.
- Most lower division courses (numbered from 100-299) may be attempted a maximum of three times, provided a grade of B or higher has not been achieved in the course. If a course is repeated, credit toward a degree will be counted only once and each grade in the course will count toward a student’s GPA (unless the student invokes forgiveness). For an exception to this maximum attempts rule, a student must seek approval by the chair of the department controlling the course.
- Most upper division (300-499) and graduate (500-799) courses can be attempted a maximum of two times, provided a grade of B or higher has not been achieved in the course. If a course is repeated, credit toward a degree will be counted only once and each grade in the course will count toward a student’s GPA (again, unless forgiveness is invoked and forgiveness is not considered for graduate students or courses).
The above number of attempts applies to an individual course taken at the University of Mississippi. There is no specific limit to the number of different courses that can be repeated. A student should check with the Office of Financial Aid as to whether there is a consequence to repeating a course that has been previously passed.
Note that dropped courses do not count as attempts, whereas a course with a temporary Incomplete grade does count as an attempt. If a student has an Incomplete grade assigned for a course, the student cannot re-book the same course while the “I” is in effect.
If a student makes a lower grade on the second (or third) attempt, the highest grade is considered with respect to meeting pre-requisites and degree requirements.
The eligible courses must be taken at UM and must involve a repeated attempt of the same course. If a student takes the same UM course three times, forgiveness may be invoked for the two earlier attempts, provided the number of credits and hours is within the limit.
A student may re-book a course in which he or she is currently enrolled, provided the maximum number of attempts has not been exceeded. A student will be booked into the course in a future semester in a conditional manner. If a student makes a B or above in the currently booked course, he or she will be removed from booking into the future semester (following the submission of grades). Note that this may result in a student falling below full-time status and it is the responsibility of the student to deal with any consequences of falling below full-time.
When forgiveness is invoked, the first attempt is shown on a student’s transcript with a notation of R (for repeated) beside the initial grade. This initial grade will not be counted toward a student’s cumulative GPA. A forgiven “C-“, “D” or “F” will not change the academic standing which existed prior to the repeated course.
When a course is excluded, the course is shown on a student’s transcript with a notation of R (for removed) beside the grade. Excluded grades are removed from total earned hours and cannot be used to satisfy degree requirements.
The recalculated GPA will be used for determining graduation honors.