College of Fine and Applied Arts

Any student formerly enrolled as an undergraduate student at Appalachian may choose to re-enter the university under one of two forgiveness policies. Either of these policies permit a student to retain all earned credit while resetting his/her institutional cumulative grade-point average to 0.00 for academic standing and graduation purposes. Students wishing to return to Appalachian under forgiveness must apply for readmission, select the desired forgiveness policy, and send official college transcripts from all accredited institutions attended after leaving Appalachian.

Students returning under either forgiveness policy are considered for financial aid eligibility upon completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Students not making satisfactory academic progress (SAP) towards the completion of a degree also need to complete a Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal Form to be considered for financial aid eligibility. More information on SAP and the appeal form can be found at financialaid.appstate.edu.

For forgiveness policies, transferable credit is defined as:
1) completed coursework,
2) coursework that can be used for graduation purposes at Appalachian, AND
3) coursework that does not repeat an Appalachian course for which credit has been earned

To be considered for admission, students under the age of 21 must meet the high school minimum course requirements, as established by the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina System. Meeting these minimum requirements does not guarantee admission.

Students returning under a forgiveness policy should consider the following

Academic Probation

Failure to earn the minimum 2.0 cumulative grade point average (GPA) will place the student on academic probation.

An undergraduate student, whether admitted as a freshman or a transfer, will be allowed to enroll for a total of two academic terms of probation (excluding summer) during his / her academic career at Appalachian. These two terms of academic probation DO NOT have to be consecutive.

If a student uses the two terms of academic probation mentioned above, but again fails to earn a cumulative GPA sufficient for good academic standing, that student will be suspended.

Probation status is indicated on the grade report as follows:

• Academic Probation - First Probation Term
• Continued Probation - Second Probation Term
• Academic Suspension - Ineligible to Return Fall/Spring terms
  
  

First Semester Zero GPA Suspension Policy

The exception to the minimum GPA policy applies to some students earning a 0.0 GPA.  Any undergraduate degree-seeking full-time student enrolled in her / his first semester (fall or spring) at Appalachian State University will be academically suspended if she / he receives a GPA of 0.0 (including "I" incomplete grades) for that semester and must return under the forgiveness policy. 

Academic Suspension

Students who have used their two terms of academic probation and again fail to maintain the minimum 2.0 GPA will be suspended from the university. Suspended students may not attend during fall or spring semester and are only permitted to attend the summer terms in order to attempt to raise the GPA to the minimum 2.0 to be in good standing.

Suspended students should review the Academic Forgiveness policies to determine if using a forgiveness policy would be a more beneficial way to re-enter the University.  Consultation with the Dean’s Office academic advisor is advised.

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.

Students are able to add or drop courses during the designated Drop / Add period which is the first five days of a fall / spring semester without using career drops.
The deadline for the Drop / Add period for summer terms is the second day of classes. These dates are published on the Registrar’s Office website.

Students dropping or adding after the Drop / Add period and prior to the 9th week of fall / spring courses must obtain the Late Drop / Add form and have all of the required signatures (student, instructor, chairperson) before submitting it to  the Dean’s Office for final approval. The form must be submitted to the Dean’s Office within TWO business days of obtaining the chair’s signature.

Attempted Hours

Attempted hours are defined as all hours accumulated throughout a student’s career at an institution (including all passed courses, failed courses, repeated courses, courses dropped after drop-add period, summer courses and transfer work). 

For example, a student who:

• Enrolls with 15 transfer credits
• Takes five courses at three credit hours each (for a total of 15 credit hours)
• Fails one three-credit course

Note:  Hours currently in progress are not calculated in attempted hours 

Earned Hours

Earned hours are defined as credits attained from all courses (including transfer work, AP classes and summer courses) a student has successfully passed. Withdrawals and failed courses do not count as earned hours. 

For example, a student who:

• Takes five courses at three credit hours each (for a total of 15 credit hours)
• Fails one 3-credit course

Will end up accumulating 12 earned hours at the end of the semester.

Note:  Hours currently in progress are not calculated in earned hours

During the Drop / Add period (the first five days of the term) students may change a course from credit to audit. The student must obtain the Request to Audit a Course Form from the Registrar’s Office website. Instructor permission is required for a student to change from credit to audit. Auditors must be in regular attendance and pay regular fees, but they will NOT receive credit. Students who stop attending an audited class will receive a grade of “F” that will be calculated in their GPA.

Students may freely drop and add courses during the first five days of the fall and spring terms without using any Career Drops.  From the sixth day until the end of the ninth week of the fall and spring semesters, students may drop no more than four courses in their entire academic career at Appalachian. These are called Career Drops.

You may use Career Drops by dropping courses on your Appalnet account. No form is needed:

1. Sign into the AppalNet account and click on the Self Services tab.
2. Click on the Student tab.
3. Click on the Registration menu.
4. Once in the Registration menu, select Add / Drop Classes.
   1. Classes may be dropped by using the options available in the Action field.
   2. If no options are listed in the Action field, the class may not be dropped (i.e., all drops have been used or it is too late in the semester to drop classes).
   3. Once all changes are made, click on Submit Changes.

It is a good idea to sign out of AppalNet and sign back in to review the registration to ensure the drop has been completed. You may not claim that a drop was not processed as a reason to drop a class late; it is your responsibility to verify a drop was processed.

If you have accumulated four career drops and attempt to drop another course, the drop will be denied and you will remain enrolled in the class.

Official drop dates for all terms, including summer, are published on the Registrar’s website on the term calendars.

Exceptions to this policy are rare; require the approval of the instructor, the department chairperson and the Dean's Office; and require documented extenuating circumstances. See Exception to the Drop Policy.

It may be necessary to substitute course(s) for students due to extenuating circumstances.  This may enable the student to meet degree requirements.  The Dean’s Office requires written notice (email) from the department chair or designee for each substitution made on student’s degree audit.  Students who fail to meet all published degree requirements will not be approved for graduation by the Dean’s Office.

Faculty advisors should initiate all requests for substitutions through the department chair or designee.  These requests should be initiated immediately upon discussion to prevent a delay in the student’s graduation and should have  documentation in DegreeWorks indicating “course substitution/waiver request pending approval.”

Important Information to Include When Requesting Substitution

Waivers

In instances where waivers are granted, only the requirement is being waived and not the minimum number of hours required for degree completion.

Not all courses are amenable to credit by examination, but many are. Students who wish to challenge a regularly listed course should consult with the appropriate department chair. If arrangements can be made with the chair, a fee of $50 is charged for each examination and a receipt from the Student Accounts Office must be shown to the chair with the Credit by Examination Form before final approval can be given.

If the examination is passed, credit without grade will be noted on the student’s transcript. The department chair will notify the Registrar’s Office, in writing, to enter the credit on the permanent record and notify the cashier, in writing, to reimburse the faculty member who administered the examination. If the examination is not passed, no notation is made on the transcript. In the case of freshmen who take placement examinations during the freshman orientation period, the fee is waived.

Anyone seeking credit by examination must be either degree seeking or taking courses for teacher licensure. Credit by examination cannot be used to repeat a course, nor can it be used to meet the university’s residency requirements for graduation.

In exceptional cases, credit can be awarded for prior non-college-based learning if the credit sought is related to the student's degree program (i.e. general education, major or licensure requirements). Assessment of prior learning can commence only after a student has been admitted to the university and has declared a major.

The student will first meet with the designated academic advising representative who will assist in defining the areas or disciplines in which appropriate creditable learning may have occurred. Actual assessment is conducted by a faculty member in the appropriate academic area. A $100 fee for each area of assessment will be charged. Payment is made to the Student Accounts Office.

Note:  Anyone seeking credit for life experience must be either a candidate for an undergraduate degree at Appalachian or taking courses for teacher licensure. Credit for life experience cannot be used to repeat a course, nor can it be used to meet the university's residency requirements for graduation.

A full-time semester is defined as 12-18 hours, or 6-7 hours in a five-week summer term.  Anything above this is considered an overload.  

An undergraduate student may be granted approval from his/her Dean’s Office to take an overload if the following GPA requirements are met.

Note:  The associate dean must approve any exceptions.

Process to Request an Overload

In rare circumstances, a late or extra drop may be requested if documented extenuating circumstances beyond the student's control occurred after the official drop date and prevented the student from completing a course. Students may review the Request for an Exception to the Drop Policy form on the Registrar's Office website for more information.

Not Extenuating Circumstances

Extenuating Circumstances 
(Documentation must be provided)

Requests for exceptions to the drop policy must be submitted to the appropriate office with the required documentation.  Please review the form for instructions and required documentation.  Students should continue attending the class unless the exception has been approved and you no longer see the course(s) in your AppalNet.

**Any approval needed by the department or Dean's Office will be handled electronically.

A student may repeat up to four courses and have Grade Forgiveness applied. Grade Forgiveness removes the initial grade AND the earned hours from the calculation of the grade point average (GPA). All courses will appear on the transcript. Grade Forgiveness will be automatically applied for the first four courses the student repeats. 

If the student does not want a Grade Forgiveness applied to a repeated course, he / she must submit a Grade Forgiveness Exception Form to the Registrar’s Office prior to the end of the Drop / Add period for the semester in which he / she is repeating the course.

Grade Forgiveness Exclusions

Incomplete grades are assigned only because of sickness or some other unavoidable cause, not because a student fails to complete assignments in the course. An “I” becomes an “F” or “U” if not removed within the time designated by the instructor, not to exceed one semester, except that all incompletes must be removed at the time of graduation. 

Students do not re-register for a class in which a grade of “I” was earned in order to complete the incomplete. If a student receives a grade of “I” in a class and then re-registers for the class (either with the same or a different professor), the grade of “I” in the first class will default to “F” or “U”.

Independent Study is a special course, not listed in the regular curriculum, in which the student designs a project and then pursues it under the guidance of a faculty member who serves as a consultant for the student during the course of the study. The faculty member who will direct the student’s work, the chairperson and the Dean’s Office must approve the Independent Study.  Anyone wishing to pursue an Independent Study must be a degree candidate at Appalachian or working toward teacher certification.

Guidelines

Note:  These guidelines define policy in ordinary circumstances, although the department chairperson may make exceptions in cases of hardship or for some other extraordinary cause.

Approval Process

Individual study is a special provision where a student makes a contractual agreement with an instructor to complete a course on a different time schedule or without attending class regularly.  Anyone wishing to pursue an individual study must be a candidate for a degree at Appalachian or working toward teacher certification.

Approval Process

Courses numbered less than 1000 (excluding applied music courses, major-principal, MUS 0001 - 0025) are taken for “institutional credit” only. These courses DO NOT count for graduation, but are computed in the student’s GPA (the hours count toward full-time student eligibility, but do not count as hours earned for graduation). Institutional credit courses will not be used in determining eligibility for honors.

The instructional assistance program is designed for students interested in earning academic credit through supervised participation in the instructional process. Students with junior or senior standing are eligible to participate in this program.  An undergraduate student may include a maximum of 3 credit hours toward graduation requirements under the instructional assistance program.

Approval Process

Students pursuing an official Appalachian State University program of study that leads to a degree, certificate or licensure are considered eligible to enroll for internship credit.

Internship courses are graded on a S / U basis. Students must contact the appropriate program, department, college advisor or designated representative for instructions on approval and registration procedures.

All students must take a Math Placement Test except for those who:

All other students must pass part I of the Math Placement Test or complete MAT 0010 prior to taking any courses in math, computer science, statistics or any ND designator course.

If a student needs MAT 1110 or higher, he / she must take the Calculus Readiness Exam portion of the math placement test. 

The Pass / Fail option may only be taken by a full-time undergraduate student with sophomore standing or above who is in good academic standing. Students may elect to take one course per semester (up to 6 in their academic career) under the pass / fail grading system. 

The following rules apply to the Pass/Fail option:

Physical Education Credit Limitation

Non-physical education majors are not allowed to count more than six semester hours of PE activity courses towards their required number of hours for graduation. 

PE Wellness Literacy Modules

As part of the General Education Wellness Literacy requirements, students must complete a series of wellness modules to earn credit for their wellness courses.  Transfer students who take PE activity courses at other institutions did not complete this wellness component, so their transfer PE courses are granted credit but NOT given equivalent credit for Wellness Literacy until these modules have been completed.  These courses transfer in as “PE ACTV” courses and will be used in fallthrough or free electives but not in the Wellness General Education area.  Students who have these courses on their transcripts will have a message next to their Wellness Literacy requirement in DegreeWorks explaining that they must complete the wellness modules to move their PE ACTV into General Education.

Effective Summer 2017, new transfer students who take PE activity courses at other institutions and received credit are given equivalent credit for the Wellness Literacy modules. 

For each PE course a student takes, they must complete three Wellness Literacy modules in order to receive credit for the course.  If the student completes the course and does not complete the modules, they will fail the course. The first PE course are modules 1-3 and the second PE course are modules 4-6.  If all 6 modules have been successfully completed and the student enrolls in a third PE course, they will not have to complete additional modules.  The student will receive information on how to purchase the modules in the course syllabus.  Click PE Activity Course Wellness Literacy Module for more information.

A previously enrolled Appalachian student who plans to re-enroll and has not attended the university during a fall or spring semester due to withdrawal or suspension must be readmitted.

The readmission process is completed online and has a non-refundable $65 fee. The readmission application can be found on the Office of Registrar's website. In addition to the application, students must complete all items on the readmission portal by the application deadline.

The definition of a completed application is one where all checklist items have been received. Students are encouraged to apply by the Priority Application Deadline (but no later than the Final Application Submission Deadline) to allow adequate time for a decision to be  processed and course registration to be available. If the application deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline will be the next business day.

Advising occurs by the faculty advisor in the major department. The faculty advisor who completes the advising should email the Record Specialists in the Dean's Office according to the alphabetical cohort (first letter of last name) with verification of advising so the student can be approved for readmission.

Students must meet all residency requirements to earn a degree from Appalachian State University

When first degree is from Appalachian State University

Students who have earned a bachelor's degree from Appalachian may return for a second degree or major.  These students must complete all catalog requirements stipulated for the second degree.  General Education is considered met, and a minor is not required as a part of the requirements when pursuing a second degree in a different discipline from the first degree.  There is no minimum number of hours required.  Students will need to apply for graduation when all requirements will be met, and a second diploma will be awarded.

When first degree is from an institution other than Appalachian State University

Students who have earned a bachelor's degree from another institution may attend Appalachian for a second degree. These students will have a 92-hour block of credit hours transferred in as DEG CORE, and General Education is considered complete.  Students must complete all catalog requirements stipulated for the second degree and a minimum of 122 (up to 128 for some majors) is required to graduate.  If a minor is required as a part of the degree, students must earn a minor at Appalachian.  Students will need to apply for graduation when all requirements will be met, and a diploma will be awarded.

All baccalaureate degrees granted by Appalachian require the completion of a minimum of 50 semester hours at a senior (four-year) college or university.

Note: credit awarded for military service or Prior Life Experience does not count as part of the required 50 hours.

Students who wish to take courses at another collegiate institution must seek approval from Appalachian State University PRIOR to enrollment at the other institutions. Failure to secure prior approval may result in the course(s) not being accepted by Appalachian.

Visiting Coursework Request Instructions

Effective July 1, 2019, the tuition surcharge legislation has been repealed beginning with the 2019-2020 academic year and will no longer be charged according to the NC General Assembly passing Senate Bill 225 (Repeal Tuition Surcharge).

NC Governor Roy Cooper signed Senate Bill 225 into law which repeals the 50% tuition surcharge imposed on students who take more than 140 credit hours to complete a 4-year program or more than 110% of the hours necessary  to complete a 5-year program.  

Prior to the Repeal of the Tuition Surcharge

Undergraduate students who initially enrolled at Appalachian in the fall of 1994 and after must comply with North Carolina Session Law 321-89 (Senate Bill 27) and 769-17.10 (Senate Bill 1505). In 2009, the General Assembly (Senate Bill 202 - Section 9.10b) increased the surcharge rate from 25% to 50% beginning in fall 2010. 

This legislation requires a tuition surcharge on

Included in the calculation of credit hours

Attempted hours DO NOT include

Students pursuing a second degree or major may contact the Dean's Office once they receive a bill for tuition surcharge to ask that their surcharge threshold be adjusted to allow for the second degree/major.  The new threshold will be the total number of unique hours required for the double degree/major multiplied by 110%.

Students who drop out and then return to the university will have their credit reviewed for applicability. Any credit earned more than 10 years prior to the date of re-entry is considered to be expired and may not be used for meeting degree requirements unless it has been approved. 

The old credit must be reviewed for approval by the Office of General Education, the major department and the minor department (if applicable). Any course not approved for use towards a degree must be taken again for credit.

Students inquiring about VA benefits and / or credit for military service should be referred to the School Certifying Official in the Student Financial Aid Office.

Students inquiring about veteran programs and policies as well as activities that facilitate the transition from military to the campus and Boone community should be referred to the Coordinator of Student Veteran Services.

Students should consult with the Registrar’s Office for more information on officially withdrawing from the university if you decide not to return to Appalachian State University.

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