Academic Scheduling Policies

When a course has more requests than seats available, students are placed in the course by an algorithm. After the maximum number of students have been placed in the course, a waitlist may be formed.

When a waitlist is formed, students will be notified. 

Students are expected to select courses carefully. Course requests in Spring are used to determine the courses offered, staffing allocations, and structure of the master schedule. In order to meet the needs of students, appropriately staff the building and create optimal class sizes, within budget constraints, we are firm in our position that students may not change classes after Verification Week.

Course Changes are defined as any course that is added, any course switches from one subject matter to another, or any course drop. 

Course Changes will only be considered for the following reasons:

• To correct an error. Errors include: 
  • Missing a course you requested by April 6 and not receiving an alternate for it 
  • Missing a required course (for example English or PE) 
  • Being enrolled in two sections of the same course 
  • Needing to drop a course as a result of summer school 
  • Having unbalanced quarters/semesters (many more free/study blocks in one semester than the other) 
  • Being under-enrolled
• In exceptional cases, such as:
  • Illness
  • Family emergency
  • Mental Health needs (with counselor support)
  • Other exceptional case circumstance

All course changes must be approved by the appropriate department head. 

Any course that is dropped after the timelines below will result in a W (Withdrawal) for that course as a final grade. Note: Students making level changes within a course do not receive a W in any circumstance.

• Full Year Courses: midpoint of the first term 
• Semester Courses: midpoint of the first term of the course 
• Quarter Courses: 3 weeks (of class meetings) after the course begins

Students are reminded that all final grades are included on the student’s report cards and transcripts. For GPA computation, a W carries no weight. 

Level change requests are not considered during the summer months. Students must start the year in the levels of courses on their schedule in September. The student must stay in the current class until enough evidence can be collected to assess performance. Therefore, level change requests begin to be considered at mid-term of Q1. Level changes may occur at mid-term, or end of term, during Q1 or Q2. All level change requests for full-year courses must be initiated before the December vacation. If a student changes course levels, or courses, near the end of a quarter, the grades from the former course may appear on the report card. Final grades for the new courses will be calculated based on the subsequent quarters only.

All students must register for a minimum of 76 credits, or an average of 6 classes per quarter plus advisory and WIN. Being a classroom aide, being a peer tutor, and/or being enrolled in an independent study do NOT count toward the minimum course requests.