Academic policies

Grades, GPA and the transcript

Porter uses A through F with pluses and minuses on a 4.0 scale; a D is a passing grade for the course but often not enough for a prerequisite or a major requirement. Some courses are graded satisfactory/unsatisfactory, and undergraduates may elect S/U for a limited number of free electives — useful for stretching into a hard subject without risking the GPA, but S/U courses cannot fill Core or major requirements. Both a cumulative GPA (every Porter course) and a major GPA are calculated; many programs require a 2.5 or higher major GPA and a minimum grade in specific courses regardless of the overall average.

Grades are final once posted except for a calculation or recording error, which the instructor corrects, or a successful grade appeal on grounds of unfair or inconsistent application of the stated grading standard — a disagreement about academic judgment is not grounds.

Academic standing

An undergraduate whose cumulative GPA falls below 2.0 is placed on academic probation: still enrolled, but with a required meeting, often a capped credit load, and sometimes a success-plan agreement (advising check-ins, a study-skills course, tutoring). Bring the GPA back above 2.0 and you return to good standing; make clear progress toward it and you stay on probation another term; fail to progress and you can be suspended for a semester or two, after which you apply to return with a plan. Dismissal follows a failed return. Every step has a documented appeal, and the point of the sequence is recovery — students who use the support on probation mostly climb out of it.

Financial aid has its own "satisfactory academic progress" standard (GPA plus pace of completion) that runs parallel to this; losing aid eligibility and being on probation are separate events that often arrive together.

Credit load, repeats and incompletes

Full-time is 12+ credits; 15–16 a term is the pace that finishes a 120-credit degree in four years. Above 18 credits needs adviser approval. You may repeat a course to raise a grade; at Porter the most recent grade is the one that counts in the GPA, though the earlier attempt stays visible on the transcript, and financial aid limits how often it will pay for a repeat. An incomplete ("I") is for when you have done most of the work at a passing level and a documented emergency stops you from finishing — it is a written contract with the instructor listing what is owed and a deadline, and it lapses to the default grade if the work never comes.

Auditing a course (attending, no grade, no credit) needs instructor permission and still costs tuition.

Petitions and exceptions

Nearly every rule here has a petition path for documented, non-routine circumstances: a late withdrawal after a medical crisis, a substitution when a required course is discontinued, readmission after suspension, a retroactive drop, an extension of a degree time limit. Petitions go to a specific office — the Registrar, the college dean, the department, or an academic-standards committee depending on the rule — and an adviser or the Student Ombuds will tell you which one and what evidence it expects (usually a clear statement of what happened, dates, and third-party documentation). Decisions take days to a few weeks; file as early as you can rather than waiting for a deadline to pass.