Grade Options: Spring 2020

If you receive a grade of B or C, you can replace those grades with a Z. The Z grade will still give you credit for the course and count to meet pre-requisite and degree requirements such as a capstone course but will not count in your GPA.

If you receive a grade of D, you can replace that grade with a P. The P grade will still give you credit for the course but will not count in your GPA. P grades do not satisfy pre-requisite requirements or course requirements such as a capstone course where a grade of C or better is required.

If you receive a grade of F, you can replace that grade with an NP. The NP grade will not give you credit for the course and will also not count in your GPA. An F grade counts toward your GPA, so taking an NP is beneficial in this circumstance.

**Please note that some classes require a grade of B to meet prerequisite requirements. If you are unsure about requirements for a specific class, please consult with your advisor before submitting your request.

You can choose which classes to change, and that can be one of them or all of them. When you fill out the request form, there are multiple spaces for classes.

Final grades from instructors will be available on Tuesday, May 19, 2020.

On Wednesday, May 20, students may begin requesting grade replacements. A link will be placed on the Registrar’s homepage to an electronic form the student may complete to make the request. Students will have 7 days to submit requests for changes. No requests will be allowed after 11:59pm on Wednesday, May 27, 2020.

Students must list their usm.edu email account when submitting the request.

No. Grades of Z, P, and NP are specific only to Spring 2020 term and cannot be used to mark a repeat on a previous grade.

Example: you took MAT 101 in the Fall of 2019 and made a D grade. You retake MAT 101 in Spring 2020 and choose the Z grade. You cannot mark a repeat on the D grade from Fall 2019. Both grades will appear on your transcript and the D grade will still be included in your GPA.

No. If you wish to keep all your grades that your instructor assigns at the end of term, you do not need to do anything.

Yes. If you take the course in a future term and want to use your letter grade to mark the Z, P, or NP as a repeat that is permissible. However, you should consider if this is a good use of your repeat hour limits. Z, P, and NP grades do not affect your GPA so marking them as repeats doesn’t change or benefit your GPA.

Example: you took MAT 101 in Spring 2020 and chose the Z grade. You repeat MAT 101 in the Fall 2020 and make a B grade. You can mark a repeat on the Z grade using the new B grade.

This question will be answered differently in each student situation. Please reach out to your academic advisor and seek advice before making your request. You can find your advisor’s contact information in your SOAR account on the Advisor Information

In this situation your term GPA would be a 4.0.

The Dean’s and President’s list designations will be awarded to students who keep all original grades issued by instructors and who meet the GPA requirement for that designation. A student who chooses one of the new grade options, even if it’s only for one class, will not eligible for either of these distinctions.

Academic standing calculations will be run as usual after grades are submitted (due May 18) and end-of-term processing happens. The window for students to have the option to change their grades (May 20-27) will occur after those initial standing calculations occur. Adjustments to academic standing will be made manually after grades are changed, and those adjustments will depend on whether students change no grades, all grades, or some of their grades for spring 2020:

• Students who choose to keep all original grades issued by instructors will retain the academic standing they were assigned automatically by the system during end of term processing. These standings will be assigned as normal according to the existing academic standing policy outlined in the Bulletin.

• Students who choose to change all grades to those included in the new grading basis will have their previous term academic standing applied, regardless of previous standing. If it is the student’s first term of enrollment and they change all grades, their academic standing will be “Good.”

• Students who choose to change some, but not all, grades to those included in the new grading basis will have their academic standing manually recalculated after the grade changes. Their standing will then be re-evaluated according to our current academic standing policy and either assigned a standing of “good” or “probation.”