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Arts, Sciences and Engineering

Credit Hour Policy

The ordinary unit of undergraduate instruction in the College is the course, which is defined as consisting of a coherent body of academic material requiring approximately 25 percent of the working time of the student during one term. Lecture and discussion courses normally meet for three 50-minute or two 75-minute periods each week with the equivalent of a fourth period being made up of enriched independent study, lecture, or discussion. Laboratory courses ordinarily involve four 50-minute class periods or their equivalent in laboratory sessions each week. For purposes of recording, computing grade averages, and reporting to the State Education Department, each course shall normally be assigned four hours of credit. This definition shall ordinarily apply to all courses in the College numbered between 100 and 399.

  1. Partial-credit courses, with the exceptions noted below, may be used to meet degree requirements. These two-credit courses may last for one-half of a semester, or take one-half of the usual course time but last the entire semester. (Partial courses may also carry one credit hour.)
  2. Students not majoring in music shall be permitted to submit for degree credit no more than 16 credits of Applied Music, and no more than eight credits of vocal or instrumental ensemble on the River Campus. All courses listed in the Undergraduate Bulletin as being taught at the Eastman School shall be awarded credit according to the system used at the Eastman School of Music.
  3. Work in naval science courses may be credited toward the fulfillment of the requirements of the BA or BS degree to the maximum extent of five academic courses.
  4. A student who passes a course by independent study without registering for it, and who passes an examination in that course, may receive degree credit for it upon request from the relevant academic department to the director of the College Center for Advising Services.
  5. No more than three courses in a major or two courses in a minor may be used toward a separate major or minor. Allied field courses used to fulfill the requirements of the major are included in the set of courses subject to this restriction. However, prerequisite courses required for the major and non-departmental ancillary course requirements (such as chemistry for biology majors) are not subject to this restriction.