The mark of R is a non-evaluative grade that confers credit for registration without designating an A-F letter grade. It appears on SSOL and on official transcripts.
Please note: R credit and Pass/Fail (P/F) are two different marks. Unlike R credit, the mark of P/F assesses the quality of a student’s performance. Additionally, students taking a course Pass/Fail are evaluated on all the gradable assignments for the course.
Students who elect to take a course for R credit are not required to take the final examination; however, they must meet all other course requirements, unless the instructor states otherwise in writing.
Before electing to take a course for R credit, students should first consult the DGS or program director to learn whether the course will count toward their degree requirements. They should also confer with the instructor of the course to obtain permission to take the course for R credit.
Please note: Starting with Spring 2017 registration, the R process has changed. Students may no longer elect R credit on SSOL during Change of Program Period.
Requests for R are handled directly between students and instructors any time from the start of the semester until the eleventh week of classes. (See Academic Calendar for the precise deadlines each term). For students taking half-semester courses, the deadline to request R is the Friday of the fourth week of the course.
Students should discuss the R credit option with the instructor, and obtain written confirmation of the agreement, typically via email. Instructors will be able to select the R at the end of the semester, when submitting grades.
The deadline to request R credit for a course in the fall and spring semesters is the same as the deadline to request to take a course Pass/Fail; please refer to the School of Professional Studies website for summer-term deadlines. After the deadline, decisions to take a particular course for R credit are not reversible at any time.
A course that has been taken for R credit may not be repeated for a letter grade.
When a student chooses to take a course for R credit, but does not satisfactorily fulfill the conditions for receiving R credit, the instructor may award the mark of IN, UW, or F depending on what the insturctor deems appropriate, using the Change of Grade tool in SSOL.
If a student receives an Incomplete for a class taken for R credit and does not submit the work by the GSAS deadline, the mark of IN will be changed to an UW, which will not be subject to change at a later date.
Courses taken for R credit are applied toward the calculation of Residence Units for billing purposes in the same way as courses taken for a letter grade. The number of points of R credit acceptable for a degree, however, is set by each program in consultation with the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.