The standard credit load for undergraduate students is 15-18 hours per semester during the regular academic year. A minimum of 12 credits per semester is required to be considered a full-time undergraduate student (graduate students, 9 credits). Students are limited to 20 credits per semester (summer session, 15 credits). Students who find it necessary to exceed the credit limit must have an NDSU minimum institutional grade-point average of 3.0 to be eligible to petition for an overload. Petition forms are available in the Office of Registration and Records, 110 Ceres, or online.
Upon request, all instructors shall inform students directly of their approximate midterm grades before the end of the eighth week of the semester.
Final examinations in one-credit courses are usually given during the last regular class period. Final
examinations for all other courses are scheduled by the Office of Registration and Records and may not be
rescheduled during the final examination period. According to State Board of Higher Education policy, the
examination period is instructional time and, if a final examination is not given, some instructional use
of this period is expected. Final examinations for summer school, variable length, and distance and
continuing education classes are arranged by the instructors.
No student shall be obligated to take more than three final examinations scheduled for the same calendar
day. In the event that a student has four or more final examinations on the same calendar day, the student
shall notify the instructor(s) from the highest numbered course(s) no later than two weeks before the last
day of class to schedule a make-up examination to be administered at a mutually acceptable time.
Only one exam or quiz per course may be given during the last two weeks of the semester (prorated accordingly for variable length courses), which includes finals week. Exceptions include summer classes, self-paced/correspondence courses, makeup exams, courses in which laboratory is incorporated with a lecture, one-credit courses, and quizzes that account for less than 5% of the students’ overall grade. If a professor chooses to give an exam during the last week of classes, he/she is expected to make some instructional use of the final examination time.
Attendance in classes is expected, and may be required by the instructor. If attendance is required, and will impact grading, it is the responsibility of the instructor to clearly communicate that policy to students.
The information provided on this page originated from the NDSU course catalog bulletin
and is subject to Reservation of
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