College of Fine and Applied Arts

Academic Standing

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To be in good academic standing, a student must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.0. Failure to maintain the minimum 2.0 will automatically place the student on academic probation during the fall or spring term that follows.
(Note: The cumulative GPA includes all courses taken at Appalachian (grades earned on coursework taken at other institutions do not affect the GPA at Appalachian, and are not used to determine academic standing)

Effective fall 2014, there are some major changes to the Academic Standing policy.  Beginning fall 2014, academic standing will be determined based not only on the cumulative GPA, but also on the satisfactory completion of at least 67% of all cumulative attempted credit hours. To remain in good academic standing (or to return to good academic standing after being on probation), the student must meet BOTH of the following requirements each term:

  1. 2.0 cumulative GPA
  2. Successfully complete 67% of cumulative attempted credit hours
     

What are attempted credit hours and what does it mean to successfully complete 67% of cumulative attempted credit hours?

Attempted hours are:

  • Courses taken at Appalachian (with either a passing or failing grade)
  • Courses from which the student withdrew after the Drop / Add period (the first five days of classes) either by dropping the course or withdrawing from the university
  • Courses repeated (even if no additional credit was earned for the course)
  • To successfully complete 67% of the cumulative attempted hours, a student would need a passing grade in 67% of the hours listed above that were taken at Appalachian. 
    For example, if the student passed 60 hours, failed 6 hours and repeated 12 hours, he / she would have 78 cumulative attempted credit hours (even though there would be only 60 earned hours).  If you calculate 67% of 78, you will get 52.2.  Rounding that up, the student would have to pass 53 of those 78 hours to have successfully completed 67% of them. Since, in this example, the student passed 60 hours, he / she would meet this requirement.