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Academic Policies & Regulations Overview

Change of Name or Address

If you are changing your name, address, or ID number, you must submit a “change of name, address or ID” form. Forms are available on the One Stop web page at www.hunter.cuny.edu/onestop, under “forms.” The completed form should be submitted at the One Stop, Room 217 North Building during office hours. Students may change their own address online at their CUNYfirst account at www.cuny.edu. In the case of a change of address, the post office should be notified to forward the mail to their new address.

Withdrawal from Courses

Once you register for a course, it becomes part of your permanent record. If for any reason you do not attend, you must officially withdraw from the course using your CUNYfirst Account before the first day of the tenth week of classes in the fall and spring semesters and by the first day of the fifth week of classes in summer semesters.  A grade of W is posted to your record for the course(s) you have withdrawn from. There is no refund of tuition. W grades are not calculated in a student’s GPA, however they may adversely affect a student’s ability to receive financial aid or impede progress toward degree completion (information regarding the possible effect of withdrawals for students with financial aid can be found on the Office of Financial Aid website). Failure to formally withdraw from a course will result in a grade of WU, which factors into both your semester and cumulative GPA in the same manner as an F grade. All official withdrawals after the official withdrawal period must have the approval of your graduate divisional dean.  These late withdrawal requests are received by the Office of the Registrar via inter-office delivery from the offices of the divisional dean.

Minimum GPA for Retention

Both degree and non-degree graduate students must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 to remain at Hunter College. Students whose grades fall below this standard are required to raise their GPAs to at least 3.0 within one semester. After the posting of grades, the Office of the Registrar will notify graduate advisers of students whose GPA has fallen below 3.0. Those students will receive warning indicating that they have one probationary semester in which to raise their GPAs. Students who fail to raise their GPAs sufficiently will be dropped from their programs. Probations and Dismissals are assessed  at the end of each fall and spring semester.

Appeals Procedure for Students on Probation

  1. Student appeals must be made in writing to the dean of the appropriate school. Appeals must be received no later than the first day of classes of the following semester.

  2. Upon receipt of this written letter of appeal, the dean will convene a probation appeals committee composed of representatives from the graduate programs in the appropriate school, to include the graduate adviser from the appropriate program or a comparable program representative.

  3. The probation appeals committee will meet to review each case and produce a written report stating the grounds for its final decision. Copies of this report shall be sent to the student, to the dean, and to the student’s file. The decision of this committee is final. If the appeal is successful, the committee shall send official notification to the registrar that the student will be retained on probation and allowed to register.

Student appeals received by the first day of classes are handled with dispatch so the student may register within the period of late registration without payment of the late registration fee.

Minimum GPA for Graduation

Students will not qualify for a graduate degree, diploma or certificate unless, by the time of graduation, they achieve a cumulative GPA of 3.0 (B) in all graduate work taken at Hunter College.

Incomplete Work in Course

Instructors may assign the grade IN, meaning that course work (examinations, assignments, classwork, lab work) was not completed. For an IN grade to be changed to a letter grade, all required coursework must be completed within one year after the IN grade is entered. If not changed to a letter grade within one year, the IN grade will become permanent. Penalties for lateness previously established for the course will remain in effect.

Students will have a maximum of one year to complete required course work, whether or not they are in attendance.

Credit

In general one credit represents 15 semester hours of classroom work or 30 semester hours of laboratory work, or the equivalent. Students are automatically classified as full-time during any given semester if they are taking 12 credits. They may be certified as full-time if they are taking fewer than 12 credits but are pursuing additional academic work that is required for the degree and that amounts to full-time study, such as preparing for comprehensive examinations, writing a thesis, teaching on a fellowship, student teaching or undertaking an internship or fieldwork under faculty supervision. Students who believe they qualify for certified full-time status and wish to protect their status as full-time students because of eligibility requirements for financial aid must ask their graduate advisers to verify the full-time nature of their academic work and to make a recommendation on this matter to the registrar prior to the beginning of classes of each semester.

Academic Honesty

Any deliberate borrowing of the ideas, terms, statements, or knowledge of others without clear and specific acknowledgment of the source is intellectual theft and is classified as plagiarism.

It is not plagiarism to borrow the ideas, terms, statements, or knowledge of others if the source is clearly and specifically acknowledged. Students who consult such critical material and wish to include some of the insights, terms, or statements encountered must provide full citations in an appropriate form.