Students are permitted to take a limited number of credits in each term, based on the term, their academic standing, and the school in which they are enrolled. The maximum allowed credits for each category is listed below:
FALL or SPRING TERM
Undergraduate students (all schools): 19.0 Maximum Credits
Graduate School (all schools): No Limit
SUMMER TERM
Undergraduate Students: 4.0 credits per 4-week session, or 12.0 credits for the entire summer.
See the Summer Session Website for full information.
Graduate students: No Limit
WINTER TERM
No more than 4.0 credits all students.
COURSE LOAD POLICY
Students wishing to attempt more than the maximum number of credits in a term require permission for an academic overload. A course overload is defined as enrollment in more than 19 credit hours in the fall or spring semesters, or more than 4.0 credits per 4-week session, or 12.0 credits for the entire summer. Academic overloads are permitted under certain conditions in the Fall, Spring, and Summer terms. Overloads are not permitted in the Winter Term.
FALL AND SPRING SEMESTER OVERLOADS
Continuing undergraduates who wish to enroll in 19.5 – 22 credit hours must have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.00. In order to register for 22.5 – 25 credit hours, continuing undergraduates must have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.50. First semester students will not be approved for course overloads. Graduating seniors who do not meet the cumulative grade point average requirements but have at least a 2.00 cumulative grade point average may be approved for an overload if they require such a schedule in order to graduate at the end of the semester in question.
All students seeking an overload must meet with their academic advisor (or academic program manager for off-campus program students) to receive approval. They should be prepared to discuss with their advisor the compelling reason motivating the overload and how they will manage the additional time needed to accommodate the increased course load. Students who meet the overload criteria will receive a Request for Course Overload Form, from their advisor that must be submitted to the Office of the Registrar in order to complete their course registration.
Please note that if a student drops a course after obtaining an academic overload, the student will need to complete another Request for Course Overload Form to add another course back up to the originally approved credit limit. The form does not grant blanket permission for an overload, but is course specific.
SUMMER OVERLOADS
The instructions for Summer overloads are different than the academic year and may be found on the Summer Session Website.
PRE-REQUISITE OVERRIDE
In circumstances where the student has not had the pre-requisite course(s) for a course that they wish to register for, the student will require a Pre-requisite Override Form. The form must be completed, signed by the appropriate academic administrators, and returned to the Registrar before the student may register for the course. Pre-requisite override forms may be required for registration for a variety of reasons: the student took the pre-requisite course at another college of Rutgers; had a significant break in attendance such that course numbers may have changed in the system; had equivalent academic experience that does not align exactly with the pre-requisite course numbers; or other circumstances. Pre-requisite overrides are granted at the discretion of the instructor or academic administrators involved and are not guaranteed. Individual instructors may grant a pre-requisite override if they feel that a student has a sufficient academic background for their course.
Please note that students registering for courses at another college of Rutgers may require a pre-requisite override from the college of the course for which they are registering, and not from the college in which they are resident.
SPECIAL REGISTRATION CASES
Pass/No Credit Courses
SPECIAL CASE FOR FALL 2020 - For more information click here.
SPECIAL CASE FOR WINTER/SPRING 2021 - For more information click here.
Students who have completed 63 or more credits are permitted to register for a maximum of one course per term for credit on a Pass/No Credit basis. Pass/No Credit courses may not be used to fulfill major, minor, or general curricula requirements. Permission to take a course on this basis rests with the instructor of the course and the student's advisor. Permission is granted at the discretion of the instructor and may not be appealed. Instructors are not required to accept students on a P/NC basis for any given course.
Courses taken in this program will appear on the student’s transcript and are graded “P”(Pass) or “NC”(No Credit). Students must pay all course fees and are expected to complete all course work, including the final exam. A Pass grade earns degree credit and is equivalent to an A, B, or C letter grade. A No Credit grade is equivalent to a D or F letter grade and grants no degree credit. In either instance, the cumulative grade-point average is not affected.
The course status should be indicated as P/NC at the time of registration. Students may choose to change a course registration from standard letter grading to P/NC during the first eight weeks of the term. Course status changes must be processed through the Registrar's Office, and requires permission of the instructor and advisor. Again, instructors are not required to allow a student to change their course to a P/NC status. Pass/No Credit courses are indicated on registration forms by the prefix P in the credit-hour prefix area. Courses may not be changed to a P/NC after a regular letter grade has been awarded.
Repeat Option
Undergraduate students receiving a grade of D or F in a course may use the Repeat Option UP TO FOUR TIMES during the course of their degree program. Exercise of this repeat course option is subject to the following restrictions:
- This applies only to courses taken at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
- The option may be exercised only once for each course.
- Students opting to apply this option must visit Registrar’s Office to indicate their intent to repeat the course(s). Courses that are repeated will appear on the student’s transcript with the appropriate prefix next to the credit value of the course. Students may choose to use the repeat option during the semester the student is taking the repeated course(s).
Both the original and the repeated course grade appear on the student's transcript, but only the better of the two grades of the repeated course is computed in the cumulative grade-point average. Degree credit is granted only once when the student earns a passing grade for the course.
Not all courses are eligible for the repeat option. Courses that may use the repeat option are indicated in the College Catalog with an (R ) next to their title. Most 100 and 200 level courses are eligible, but some 300 and 400 courses are not.
Instructors do not have to grade a Repeat Option course differently – they may submit the grade normally on the regular roster. The calculations to the GPA and awarding of credits are done automatically by the registration system.
Non-Credit Courses
Placement exams may require students to take college preparatory courses that do not bear college credit toward graduation, but count as credits attempted for purposes of determining full-time/part-time status or for financial aid eligibility. These are primarily math (640:041, 042) or English (350:097, 098, 099) courses, but also include some graduate Research in science courses. These courses are noted as having the credit prefix of “N” and do not count toward the student’s total credits toward graduation nor do they affect the student’s cumulative GPA. These courses are graded as “S” (satisfactorily passed) or “U” (unsatisfactory), and do appear on the student’s transcript.
Auditing Courses
Upon obtaining permission from the instructor of the course and subject to the availabilty of space in the course, full-time students may audit a course without registration. No academic credit is earned in this manner, and the audited course does not appear on the student's transcript. Students are expected to attend and complete all work for the course, but are not required to take the final exam. The student does not earn a grade for the course. Online courses and courses open only to restricted populations may not be audited. The course does not count toward the total credits for the semester (for purposes of full-time status, overloads, or financial aid). Students are not charged independently for the course, but may be required to pay any individual course, lab, or materials fees.
Senior citizens over the age of 65 that are residents of NJ may also audit courses free of charge (excluding any individual course, lab or materials fees which may still be charged) without being a formal student of the university. Senior citizens still must acquire the permission of the instructor and there must be space available in the course. No credit is earned for a senior audit, and the course does not appear on any transcript. Online courses and courses open only to restricted populations are not eligible for senior audit. Senior citizens doing a course audit need to submit a registration form to the Registrar's Office.
Graduate Credit Option
Graduate students may, with permission of the instructor of the course, their program director and the Dean of the School of the course, register for an upper-level (300-400 level) undergraduate course and receive graduate credit for the course. This option is not available to non-matriculated students. The course uses the symbol “G” in the credit prefix field. The Graduate Credit Option must be done at the time of initial registration for the course, and may not be retro-actively applied to a course.
Students registering with the Graduate option are expected to do additional work at the graduate level, and may require separate exams or paper assignments from undergraduate students taking the same course. Instructors should be aware that they will be expected to do the additional work to permit the student to receive graduate credit, and should take this into consideration when agreeing to allow students to register with this option.
Courses taken in this manner will fulfill graduate program requirements. Please note that in the academic year, students are charged tuition based on the school which the student regularly attends. However, in the Summer and Winter session, students are charged tuition based on the course of attendance, not their origin school, so a course taken with this option will be charged undergraduate tuition, not graduate tuition.
SPECIAL PERMISSION NUMBERS
Special permission numbers are numbers generated by the Registrar’s Office to allow students to register for restricted access courses. They are used in two primary scenarios: first to allow students to register for courses that have reached their maximum enrollment, and second to allow students to register for courses that are “by permission of the instructor.” Special permission numbers are distributed at the beginning of registration of a term to the departments. Instructors looking for special permission numbers should contact their department administrators. If the distributed selection of Special Permission numbers needs to be supplemented, the department should contact the Registrar’s Office for additional numbers.
If a course has reached its normally listed maximum enrollment, students may request of the instructor that they be permitted into the course past the regular stop point. This permission is granted by the instructor at the instructor’s discretion. The instructor does not have to permit students into a course beyond the established stop point. There are also circumstances where it may not be possible to enlarge a class due to safety regulations (such as labs) or equipment limitations (such as computer based classes, some studio courses, or laboratories). If an instructor wishes to permit a student to enroll in a class past the stop point, the instructor should provide the student with a Special Permission number obtained from the department chair or administrator. The student may use that SP Number to register using webreg. The SP number is only “good” for that specific course and section, and may not be used to register for other sections of the same course.
Departments or instructors may desire to limit access to a course by students for a variety of reasons. A course or section of a course may be designated during the course creation process as “by permission of instructor.” This means that students may not use the registration system to add the course without a special permission number. Every student that registers for these courses must have their own SP number, so this option should be used sparingly. Students will need to request the special permission from the instructor or the department before they can register for the course. Signatures of the instructor will not permit students to register for courses that have been designated “by permission” – the instructor will need to provide a Special Permission number to the student.