Credit Policies

The academic standing of each Evergreen student is carefully monitored to ensure the full development of academic potential.

Enrollment Status

 

 Full timePart time
Undergraduate Students 12–20 credits11 credits or fewer
Graduate Students*10–12 credits9 credits or fewer


*For graduate student financial aid purposes, 8 credits is considered full-time, and 7 or below part-time.

Academic Standards

Any student not making satisfactory academic progress is informed of their standing in the college and is advised accordingly. Financial aid recipients must also adhere to Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress policies.

Evaluation by faculty of student achievement formally occurs at the conclusion of programs, individual learning contracts, internships and courses. In addition, any student in danger of receiving less than full credit will be notified in writing at mid-quarter by their faculty.

A student making unsatisfactory academic progress shall receive an academic warning and may be required to take a leave of absence.

Also see the Undergraduate Satisfactory Academic Progress policy for Financial Aid.

Academic Warning

A student who earns fewer than three-fourths (75%) of registered credits in two successive quarters will receive an academic warning issued by Enrollment Services.

A student registered for 6 quarter credit hours or more who receives no credit in any quarter shall receive an academic warning.

Such warning will urge the student to seek academic advice or personal counseling from faculty or through one of the Learning Resource Centers such as the Quantitative & Symbolic Reasoning Center for assistance with math and science or the Writing Center to strengthen writing processes.

A student shall be removed from academic warning status upon receiving at least three-fourths of the credit for which they are registered in two successive quarters.

Required Leave of Absence

A student who has received an academic warning, and while in warning status, receives either an incomplete or fewer than three-fourths credit for which they are registered will be required to take a leave of absence normally for one full year.

A waiver of required leave can be granted only by the academic dean responsible for academic standing upon the student's presentation of evidence of extenuating circumstances.

A student returning from required leave will re-enter on academic warning and will be expected to make satisfactory progress toward a bachelor's degree.

Failure to earn at least three-fourths credit at the first evaluation period shall result in dismissal from the college.

Dismissal and Readmission

A student who is dismissed from the college for academic reasons will not be allowed to register for any academic program or course at the college during any subsequent quarter. A student who has been dismissed may only be readmitted to the college by successfully petitioning an academic dean. The petition must convince the dean that there are compelling reasons to believe that the conditions that previously prevented the student from making satisfactory academic progress have changed.

Twenty Credit Registration

The 20-credit limit is designed to allow students to develop more breadth in their education and to earn credits for work that some students currently do when they are enrolled in, and doing all the work for a 16-credit program, but are receiving only 12 credits so they can enroll in a language or other course for credit.

We do not regard all combinations of courses, contracts and programs that lead to 20 credits as equally satisfactory for the best learning situation.

A load of 12 to 16 credits is plenty for most students, so the decision to enroll for 17 or more credits should be made knowing that the workload will increase significantly and we do not recommend that first year students choose this option.

We believe that students wishing to choose this option will be best served if they are enrolled in a 12 to 16-credit program and enroll for an additional 4 credit course (or even two if appropriate).

We do not recommend other combinations with multiple courses or contracts or partial programs combined to earn more than 16 credits.

How This Works

To ensure that we appropriately balance faculty workload while allowing students to increase their credit load, no single mode of study will be offered for more than 16 credits in a given quarter. Modes include coordinated and group contract programs, courses, internships and individual contracts.

Total registration in contracts plus internships may not equal more than 16 credits per quarter.

Tuition will remain the same for 10 to 18 credits.

Students enrolling for 19 or 20 credits will pay a tuition surcharge.

Students must enroll for more than 16 credits on or before the fifth day of the quarter. No exceptions will be made to this rule.

This option is available only to admitted, undergraduate students.

Financial aid recipients enrolling for 19 or 20 credits may expect to have their cost of attendance automatically reviewed for tuition overload costs, and will be notified of any possible changes.

Tacoma students must make arrangements with the dean to be eligible to earn more than 16 credits at Evergreen.

This policy increases the limit for transfer credit and/or concurrent enrollment credit that will count toward a degree to 20 credits per quarter.

Expect an Increased Workload

A student enrolled for 18 credits should expect to be doing a minimum of 45 hours of work per week, including 16 to 18 classroom hours.

A student enrolled for 20 credits should expect to be doing a minimum of 50 hours of work per week, including 18 to 20 classroom hours.