Academic Policies & Regulations

Students are responsible for complying with all university-wide academic policies that apply to their individual academic status. Additional and unique policies, or exceptions, most of them related to state requirements for teacher certification, appear below.

Grades in Professional Education Courses

All education courses must be completed with a grade of C+ or higher. Students must be aware, however, that the State of Pennsylvania requires a minimum GPA of 3.0 for teacher certification. For this reason, obtaining the minimal grade of "C+" will typically not be sufficient to obtain certification.

Courses Inapplicable to Certification

Specific courses are required in order for students to be endorsed for state teacher certification. It is possible, for example, that a student may have accumulated enough credits to graduate but not have the appropriate courses to be recommended for certification. This is one of the reasons why it is mandatory to meet with an academic advisor at least once per semester.

Courses Inapplicable to Graduation

Some credits from ROTC and preparatory courses do not count towards the total number of semester hours needed to graduate.

Courses Over Five Years Old

Courses over five years old are subject to review to fulfill certification requirements.

Dean's List

Each fall and spring semester, those undergraduates who have met the credit hour and academic criteria for their school or college are placed on the Dean's List. See the Dean's List policy for specific GPA and credit-hour requirements.

Graduation without Certification

In rare instances, a student who is unsuccessful in meeting certification program requirements or who has less than the required grade point average(s) may be graduated without certification, provided that selected additional requirements are met as recommended by the academic advisor and approved by the department chair and the associate dean.

Transfer within the College of Education

Students must be in good academic standing in their program to transfer to another program within the College of Education. To transfer to another program within the College of Education, a student must complete a Declaration of Change of Concentration form. This form is available in the Student Resource Center, Ritter Annex 150, and must be submitted, upon completion, to the Advising Office.