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Course Policies

Academic Calendar and Sessions

Hunter College offers fall, winter, spring, and summer semesters. Consult the Academic Calendar for specific starting dates. Courses are offered from early morning to late evening each semester and in the summer. Students are expected to attend both the fall and spring semesters; students who do not must apply for readmission.

Attendance in the summer program is optional. Students who receive financial aid under the New York State Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) should realize that these awards are available for no more than a total of eight semesters (ten for SEEK). TAP assistance for a summer session will count as one-half a semester; the other half may be used only in a subsequent summer session.

Attendance Policies

All students must report to classes during the first week of classes. Students will lose their place in some classes if they do not attend the first class meeting, and will be given the “never attend” grade of WN. Although this grade won’t appear on an official transcript, the student is liable for payment depending on the date the instructor notifies the Registrar’s Office of missing attendance. 

Although Hunter is not an attendance-taking institution, the instructor has the right to set attendance as one of the requirements for the course, thus using attendance in the calculation of final grades. Such attendance policies will be listed in the course syllabus.

Credit/No Credit Policy for Undergraduate Courses

In many courses, it is possible to obtain credit for the course without receiving a letter grade. If students decide to receive a grade based on this system, they will receive “Credit (CR)” instead of A, B,or C, and will receive “No Credit (NC)” instead of D or F. Students can receive a grade of D instead of NC if they indicate this on their form requesting the CR/NC option. Students requesting grading according to this system must satisfy all requirements regarding attendance, assignments, and examinations set by the instructor. Course requirements and standards are the same as in the letter grading system, but CR/NC grades are not counted when a student’s GPA is calculated by Hunter College. Students can choose whether they want to take a course for a letter grade or CR/NC, but certain restrictions apply.

Restrictions for Credit/No Credit Grades:

  1. Some departments or programs restrict a student’schoice in opting for Credit/No Credit. Several programs of study prohibit the use of Credit/No Credit grades in major courses. This applies especiallyto programs of study leading tooutside certificationor post-graduate study. Students should check with their departmental advisers for specific policies. On the other hand, there are some courses in which letter grades are not assigned. Departments who restrict student choice of the CR/NC option must have this policy approved by the Senate. When departmental policies allow the CR/NC option, individual instructors cannot refuse students who want to exercise this option.

  2. Credit/No Credit grades are not allowed for students on probation.

  3. A maximum of four courses (including repeated courses) taken at Hunter College may be assigned a Credit/No Credit grade on the Hunter College transcript, excluding any courses with mandatory CR/NC grading. (Students who obtain a D as the final grade and have asked to have this appear on their transcript instead of NC, will have a grade for this course, which will then not count towards the permitted maximum of four Credit/No Credit grades on the Hunter transcript.)

  4. The grade of No Credit shall be used to replace the academic grades of D and F. It shall not be used to replace the grade of WU.

  5. If (as a result of a student’s request) a Credit/No Credit grade is given where it is not an allowed grade according to existing regulations, it will be converted to a letter grade by the Registrar’s Office, Room 217 Hunter North. CR will be changed to C; NC will be changed to F.

Alert

Other colleges, graduate and professional schools, services, and employers may not favor credit/no credit grades. They may convert “Credit” to “C” and “No Credit” to “F” for their purposes. Such decision is done by the other institution. The choice of credit/no credit grades may affect the eligibility for some financial aid grants. Students should check the policies of grant-making agencies before opting for credit/no credit grades.

How To Opt For Credit/No Credit

Credit/No Credit is an agreement between a student and the student’s instructor. Students opt for Credit/No Credit by presenting a signed and dated CR/NC form to the instructor, who will sign and date the form (in accordance with departmental policy) and return the appropriate portion of the form to the student. The form is to be used to resolve disputes when either student or instructor think that a letter grade or grade of CR/NC has been given in error.Forms, including full instructions, are available on the Office of the Registrar’s web page. Timeline: The Credit/No Credit form must be submitted by the student to the instructor by 5:00 p.m. on the scheduled last day of classes for that semester (or session) as published in the academic calendar for that semester (or session), or by the last class meeting of the course in the semester. No requests can be made after the final exam/paper/project has been submitted.