Selection of Courses

Related Pages: 
Selection of Courses   |  Attendance, Religous Holidays   |  Academic Honesty   |  Exams, Marks   |  Academic Review, Standing and Exemption by Examination   |    Transfer Credits   |  Repeated Courses, Auditing Courses   |  Leave of Absence, Transcripts

Each semester students select programs of study for the following semester. Students select courses via the Web after consultation with academic advisors. Selections are confirmed or denied following review of courses against academic departments' criteria for course limits and priorities, after which students may add or drop courses via the Web, subject to rules stated for each course. 

Deadlines for voluntary changes--adding, dropping, or withdrawing from a course, changing sections within a course, declaring or revoking the satisfactory/unsatisfactory option, augmenting or decreasing credit in courses offered for variable credit--appear in "Critical Dates and Deadlines," published annually by the registrar and available on the Web.

No student may register for more than 20 credit hours in any semester without special permission from the faculty advisor(s) and the dean of students.

Ordinarily, a student can neither repeat a course for additional credit nor register for two courses scheduled to meet concurrently.

Other than in exceptional circumstances specified in advance in writing by the dean of students, a student will not be permitted to register later than the seventh class day of a semester.  

Prior to registration, each student must complete payment of fees as specified by the treasurer, who is not authorized to defer such payment.New students must also provide the required health certificate prior to the first day of classes (see Health Records in the section titled Admissions).

Students in any class year are permitted to add courses to their schedules, with the permission of the instructor, during the first eight class days (hereafter referred to as the "add period") in either semester.

Students may elect a limited number of courses on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis; these cannot include distribution requirements. Most departments specify that major courses must be taken on a conventionally graded basis.

Forms for declaring satisfactory/unsatisfactory options can be obtained from the Registrar's Office. The form must be completed and returned by the end of the add period in the term in which the course is taken. A satisfactory/unsatisfactory election may be voluntarily revoked by a deadline established for each term. Letter grades submitted by instructors will be converted to S (for grades A through C-) or U before being posted on permanent records; any grade below C- is unsatisfactory and will be recorded as a U on the grade record. The Registrar's Office cannot release more specific information on the quality of the S, even upon request of the student who earned it.

All students enrolled full time at Colby--senior, junior, sophomore, and first-year--may drop courses via the Web through the mid-semester drop date. The specific drop dates for each year are published in "Critical Dates and Deadlines," available on the Web or from the Registrar's Office. 

Students' schedules are available on the Web. It is each student's responsibility to ensure that his or her registrations are accurate and total at least 12 credits, the minimum for full-time status (see Student's Program above). "Dropped" courses will not appear on the student's permanent record or transcript. Students may not drop a course simply by absenting themselves from its meetings. Absence without formally dropping a course subjects the student to a mark of F in the course.

Only first-year students may withdraw from courses until the last day of classes and receive the mark of W. Appropriate forms, approved by advisor and instructors, must be filed with the Registrar's Office. If at the time of withdrawal the instructor considers the student to be failing, the mark shall be WF (for a conventionally graded course) or WU (for satisfactory/unsatisfactory option). Neither W nor WF nor WU is used in calculating the student's grade point average but will appear on the transcript.