GSAS students must maintain a grade point average of at least a B (3.00) each academic year; the grade point average is weighted for each course based on the number of course credits. For example, a grade received in a two-credit course proportionally impacts the grade point average compared to a four-credit course.
Students taking Reading and Research (300-level courses) are graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory (SAT/UNS) basis, but at the academic department's discretion, TIME-equivalent courses may be marked as ungraded (NOG). With permission of the instructor, students may petition the Registrar’s Office to take certain foreign language courses on a SAT/UNS basis (language courses may not be counted toward the minimum course requirements for a higher degree). See the Academic Calendar for the deadline.
Students who miss a regularly scheduled examination arranged by the Registrar’s Office are given a failing grade of absent (ABS), which will be changed only if the student is granted and takes a make-up examination. A grade of ABS=0.
Students may request an out-of-sequence exam due to religious observance by submitting a Religious Out of Sequence Exam Form 30 days prior to the start of the examination period. If granted, the rescheduled exam will typically be held within 24 hours of the scheduled exam.
Students may receive a grade of excused (EXC) for a final examination or other course assignment if they have passed departmental examinations or other requirements and their program approves. If a student elects to take the final examination and complete the course, they receive a letter grade.
My.harvard assigns a Course ID whenever a new course is created in the course catalog. The Course ID acts as the unique identifier for the course over time. The number allows us to track courses despite a change in title and/or catalog number.
The Final Exam field in the Course Catalog is a required field that should be defaulted to “Yes" for all FAS courses. This ensures courses are assigned to an exam group, which drives grade due dates.
The description field is a short title field that should convey the spirit of the Long Course Title. The field holds a maximum of 30 characters (including spaces). It will appear on student schedules and other pages in my.harvard.
Entered by catalog coordinators. All FAS class are to be open for cross registration. The Course Attribute Values, therefore, is Yes. The exceptions to this policy are as follows: Expository Writing, Freshman Seminars, and tutorials.
In the case of a series of seminars (e.g., Expository Writing undergraduate seminars), the Course Topic Id field in the Schedule of Classes may be used to distinguish individual topics.
The spirit of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is that the greatest number of courses should be open to the greatest number of students. As noted in Information for Faculty Offering Instruction in Arts and Sciences: As a general principle, students should be able to study the topics they want and for which they have the appropriate background, with the exception that concentration tutorials, including junior seminar programs, are ordinarily limited to concentrators. If a course has a known enrollment limit, the maximum number of students that can enroll should be indicated in the Enrollment Capacity field on the Schedule of Classes. Any course set to limited enrollment must require instructor approval within my.harvard. If Add Consent is not set to “Inst Cnst”, enrollment will be on a first-come, first-served model.
If a course is not in the Schedule of Classes for a particular term, but the Status is Active in the Catalog, the course will automatically appear in the Advanced Course Search as bracketed.
A minimum of three students must be enrolled for a course to be evaluated. In addition, scheduled discussion sections are evaluated based on the enrollment of its corresponding lecture. Athletics courses are also evaluated.
Stanford is very concerned about the confidentiality of its evaluations. Because of this, we have chosen an outside vendor to manage and store the data. A student logs on to Axess to get to the online evaluation process, but is redirected to this third-party vendor's server to complete the form.
The grade release program is used as an incentive for students who complete all their evaluations to see an early view of their grades. All students are able to see their grades two days after the evaluation is closed.
Grades are released each morning for the evaluations completed the day before. If you require your transcript or grades before the following morning, reach out to the Student Services Center. If the grades have been submitted before the grades deadline during each quarter, the SSC can help
If you are enrolled in a GSB crosslisted course, you must fill out two evaluations: one is the Stanford University evaluation and the other is the GSB evaluation. Courses crosslisted with the GSB are evaluated using two different sets of questions. Note: not all crosslisted courses have two evaluations to complete, just those crosslisted with GSB.
You can decline to evaluate a course by starting an evaluation and clicking the 'Decline' button on the first page. If you are evaluating a GSB course, however, you are not able to waive (decline) the evaluation. With regards to grade release, declining to evaluate a course is equivalent to evaluating it.
The GSB forms cannot be waived/declined. You must fill out the evaluation in order to see your grades early. If you do not fill out the evaluation, you will see your grades two weeks after the grading deadline.