Course Selection
Adding Courses
Students may add courses to their schedules during the Drop/Add period. Between the end of the Drop/Add period and the 10th day of classes, a student desiring to add a course may do so only with the written approval of the instructor.
Late Adds
After the 10th day of classes, adding with instructor permission will be accepted by the University Registrar’s Office only under extraordinary circumstances.
Course Levels
Course level numbers are structured as follows:
| Course Level Number | Description |
|---|---|
| 100-199 | Intended primarily for freshmen |
| 200-299 | Intended primarily for sophomores |
| 300-399 | Intended primarily for juniors |
| 400-499 | Intended primarily for seniors |
| 500–599 | For all graduate students |
| 600-749 | For all graduate students, including doctoral |
| 750-799 | Doctoral level only |
Course Loads
Twelve credit hours is considered full-time status for undergraduates. An undergraduate student must be enrolled for a minimum of 12 credits to qualify for full-time certification to any organization.
Full-time undergraduates normally take five courses per semester. Since a majority of courses carry three hours of credit with some carrying four hours of credit, a normal course load is 15 or 16 credits per semester. To complete most undergraduate degrees in four years, students should plan to carry 15 or 16 credits per semester.
Undergraduates may not take more than 18 credits per semester except with the approval of their assigned academic advisor. Students who have cumulative grade point averages of 3.0 may be authorized, in special circumstances and at the discretion of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, to carry a maximum of 21 credits of course work.
Suggested Academic Workload Guidelines
Students should be aware that academic excellence and scholastic achievement usually require a significant investment of time in study, research, and out-of-class projects. To provide guidance to students in planning their academic and work schedules, the following recommendations are offered:
- In general, students should plan to devote between 2–3 hours outside of class for each hour in class. Thus, students with a 15 credits course load should schedule between 30–45 hours weekly for completing outside-of-class reading, study, and homework assignments.
- Students who are employed more than 5–10 hours each week should consider reducing their course loads (semester hours), depending upon their study habits, learning abilities, and course work requirements.