Grades Assigned to Research Courses That Are Repeated

If students are working on dissertation or thesis research, they should be registered in the appropriate research course (e.g., Individual Dissertation or Individual Master’s Thesis), and the course work should be given a final grade each semester. The use of P/F for such courses is strongly recommended to avoid undue influence on GPA due to individual grading practices and the large amount of research credit awarded, but it is recognized that some programs will want to use letter grades. “Placeholder” grades such as SP and NG should not be used. 

Regardless of the grading scheme selected, it must be consistently applied across an entire program. If a program faculty cannot agree on a single grading scheme, the program must use the P/F choice. Students should be graded for each semester based on their progress and achievements in that semester.

Note: The definition of a “research course” is a course outside of formal class work or instruction that allows a student to be registered as a graduate student while they are working independently on their thesis or dissertation under the guidance of their advisor or dissertation committee. This policy also applies to internships and other multiple semester or series courses.