Academic Terminology and Policy Guidance
PLEASE NOTE: This page is reviewed for updates ANNUALLY. Students, and constituents, should refer the published online Catalog, as well as catalog addendums, for the most up-to-date information pertaining to enrollment and academic policy and procedure.
Academic Advising
Advisors are assigned in consultation with School Deans and the Center for Student Success (Exploring Students).The First-Year Advising Program aligns students with a First-Year Advisor providing a personalized guidance through all aspects of the first-year experience. Upper-class advisors work closely with students providing guidance in regard to academic planning, registration, and professional school and career planning.
Class Standing - Undergraduate
Students are classified academically based on the number of earned credits. Membership in each class is based on the identified credit minimums:
- First Year, less than 30 credits
- Sophomores, 30 credits
- Juniors, 60 credits
- Rising Seniors, 72 credits
- Seniors, 90 or more credits
Course - Audit
Degree seeking students in good academic standing (2.00 or better) may elect to audit courses provided they do not preempt regularly enrolled students and they have the permission of the professor teaching the course. Refer to the Catalog and Business Office website for more information on course auditing and associated fees.
Course - Cross Registrations
Students may seek approval to cross-register between the School of Graduate and Professional Studies and all other schools. Cross-Registrations are approved on a space-available basis with the approval of the student’s academic advisor and the students School Dean, or designee.
Specific guidelines and the approval process for a cross-registration are outlined in the Academic Policies section of the online Catalog. Students must complete the Request to Register Across Schools form in Jayweb. It the same course is an approved exception/substitution for a program requirement in the students major, minor, or certificate, they must also submit the Notification of Exception/Substition Form available on the Registration and Records website.
Course - Incomplete Grades
A course grade of Incomplete (I) may be obtained by making a formal request to the professor of the course in question. The student and the professor must sign a written incomplete contract agreement that specifies the nature and the quantity of work to be completed and the projected date of completion. A grade of Incomplete is assigned for extenuating circumstances only . It is not simply given to allow additional time to complete required course work or to improve a course grade. In addition, a professor may use a grade of Incomplete in cases of suspected academic dishonesty.
Please refer to the online catalog for the full policy.
Course - Pass/No Pass Registration
Courses registered on Pass/No Pass basis earn credits, for grades of P, but are not included in the students Grade Point Average Calculation.
For more information, please refer to th College Catalog.
Course - Prerequisites and Corequisites
Course Prerequisites.
Prerequisites are courses that a student, or prosepctive student, must complete prior to enrolling into a specific class. For example, a student cannot register for BIO 112 without completing BIO 111 first.
Course Corequisites.
A corequisites means a course or other requirement must be completed at the same time as another course or requirement in the same semester.
Student Responsibility
If a program is waiving a course prerequisite or corequisite for a student the student will NOT be able to self-register during registration. The program director or Dean MUST submit a Course Pre-Enrollment form to the Office of Registration and Records PRIOR to open registration. Pre-enrollments are NOT a guarantee of enrollment. Enrollment is based on seat availability at the time of the request. Students advised of pre-enrollment should see the course registration before the first day of open registration, if not you should contact the program director or Dean governing the course discipline.
Course - Register by Instructor (RBI) Classification
At the request of a Program Director or Instructor, some courses on the class schedule are classified as "Register by Instructor" aka "RBI, RHC, PRBI, and PBWR). Register by Instructor notations appear in the "Notes" associated with the course.
A student cannot self-register for these courses, they must contact the course instructor to request to be enrolled in the course. Registration and Records CANNOT enroll or waitlist a student in a course classified as Register by Instructor.
Course - Repeats
Repeat Policy
Courses that are eligible to be repeated must be taken at Elizabethtown College and not at another institution as a transfer course.
- ONLY alternative study registrations (independent studies, directed studies, and tutorials) can be repeated as an alternative study registration. A course taken in the classroom, hybrid, or fully online may be repeated interchangeably.
- Students may repeat any course in which they earned an F or NP and may attempt failed courses as many times as needed until the course is passed.
- Under certain conditions, students may be able to repeat a course in which they earned a C- or a grade in the D range. To do so, the following conditions must be met:
- The course to be repeated must be in their major/minor or be a course that is a prerequisite to a Core Program requirement.
- The student must have the approval of their advisor and the major/minor Program Director.
- The student must file a repeat registration form in the Office of Registration and Records.
Federal Financial Aid Guidelines
Refer to the Catalog for more detail on coure repeats and federal financial aid guidelines associated with repeating previously passed course registrations.
Student Responsibility
If a student has elected to repeat a previously letter-graded course, they need to be mindful of a their overall earned credits to avoid falling behind class standing and unintentionally delaying graduation. Winter or Summer study may be advisable to maintain academic progress.
Course - Special Topics/Experimental
Experimental/Special Topic courses provide a platform for faculty to introduce a relatively new topic, to address a time issue (e.g., an election), or to simply to our new course ideas before submitting formal proposals for inclusion in the College catalog.
A program may offer Special Topics courses using the following course sequence numbers:170-173, 270-273, 370-373, or 670-673. Experimental courses are formal courses in the program curricula and may be repeatable for credit. An experimental course may be offered for a maximum of three semesters before the program must seek formal approval through the faculty governance process for inclusion in the College Catalog.
Course - Waitlists
Enrolled students may make course schedule changes via Jayweb, on a space-available basis, in accordance with the Course Add Period policy. Students should not drop a course in order to add themselves to a waitlist because they risk losing a seat in the registered course. Registration and Records recommends contacting our office for assistance, when necessary.
If a course is full, students may waitlist. If a seat becomes available, a member of the Office of Registration and Records will email the student using their etown.edu email account.
Please be sure you are monitoring your email; Registration and Records will hold the seat for up to three days, or the conclusion of the course add policy once the semester begins. The Office of Registration and Records reserves the right to return the student to the waitlist and the seat given to the subsequent student if the stated timeline concludes.
At the end of the Registration Add Period, the Office of Registration and Records will drop all student waitlisted registrations.
Program Declaration
Program Declaration (major, minor, etc.) changes are initiated by the student and facilitated by the Office of Registration and Records. When a change in declaration occurs, a student's advising record is transferred from on Academic Program to another, when applicable.
Degree seeking students MUST have a major declaration. Undergraduate Minors and certificates do not standalone. The latter is only transcribed alongside the completion of a bachelor's degree.
Registration - Scheduling for Classes
Students are required to register for classes on designated days in each term. Students register for the fall in April. Students register for Winter, Spring, and Summer in November. A student may register either as a degree or non-degree seeking student as well as a full-time or part-time student.
Registration - Holds
Registration may be delayed because they have not addressed an academic or administration requirement for continued enrollment or registration. HOLDS on registration include, but are not limited to, the following unpaid account balances, incomplete academic records, disciplinary sanctions, failure to meet with the advisor, failure to provide current off-campus address information, residence life housing surveys, or incomplete health records.
Students are responsible for managing holds with the identified office or program advisor. All ACTIVE holds are displayed in Jayweb for viewing.
Registration and Records CANNOT lift an advising hold for a student. In the absence of their advisor, students must contact the school Dean governing your major/program.
Registration - Schedule Changes
Enrolled students may make course schedule changes via the College Web system, on a space-available basis. A student is not dropped or withdrawn from a course simply because they discontinue attendance or by notifying the professor. The completion of any course registration addition or change is the responsibility of the student, not the faculty member. Students can review their registration status in Jayweb 24/7. Seniors should keep in mind that dropping or withdrawing from a course could delay their anticipated date of graduation.
Course Add Period
Students may add a course to their schedule from the first day of open registration for the term and in accordance with the term definitions.
Course Drop Period
Students may DROP a course without permanent record from the first day of open registration for the term and in accordance with the term definitions.
Course DROP forms are available for pick-up in the Office of Registration and Records. Students must obtain signatures to execute a course drop. Simply not attending or informing the faculty member you are dropping a course will not result in the removal of the registration from a student's schedule.
Course Withdrawal Period
At the conclusion of the course DROP period, a student has the option of exercising a course withdrawal. The decision to withdraw from a course is part of a student’s academic record and transcribed based on the date of the form submission to the Office of Registration and Records.
Course WITHDRAWAL forms are available for pick-up in the Office of Registration and Records. Students must obtain signatures to execute a course drop. Simply not attending or informing the faculty member you are dropping a course will not result in the removal of the registration from a student's schedule.
Student Responsibility
Students are required to consult with their major advisor as to course selection, course sequences, graduation requirements, etc. Consultation with the second major or minor advisor is an expectation, but not a requirement. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that all graduation requirements have been met and that other requirements, regulations and deadlines have been observed.
Degree Planners and Degree Audits
Degree Planners for academic majors and minors list the requirements for each program and can be used by students to track their progress.
In addition, electronic degree audits (aka, Grad Reports) are available 24/7 to students and their academic advisors through the College Web system, Jayweb. The degree audit matches the student’s course work against the requirements for a degree and notes which requirements are met and which still are required. The degree audit is not the same as the transcript. The degree audit is an advising tool and as such, is an unofficial document, whereas the transcript is the official record of course history and degree completion. Students are encouraged to review their degree audits and transcripts at the start/end of every semester. While the degree audit is usually accurate, at times the complicated nature of a program or the unique circumstances of a student’s course completions may lead to inaccuracies. If there are inaccuracies, students are responsible for reporting these to the Office of Registration and Records. An error in the degree audit does not change the actual requirements for graduation; in particular, unfulfilled requirements are not waived because of degree audit errors. The responsibility for understanding and meeting degree requirements rests with the student.