Undergraduate Course Repeat

Policy

A course repeat occurs when a student retakes a course for which they have already received a grade of A, B, C, D (including shaded grades), P, F, NC, or W. A student may repeat any one course no more than two (2) times. Under exceptional circumstances, students may submit a formal written appeal to repeat a course for a third time.

Students may repeat any course in an effort to improve grades. All repeated courses will appear on the student's academic transcript and will count as attempted credits in calculations of credit completion rate and total credits attempted.

For each repeated course, the highest grade earned will be the only grade included in GPA calculations. When a student withdraws from a repeated course and receives a grade of W, the last letter grade (A, B, C, D, F, P, NC) will be used in GPA calculations.

Individual departments and major programs may limit the number of course repeats that apply to their major or minor. Individual departments and major programs also may determine whether all course attempts and grades received will be used in the GPA computation for program admission or for completion of the major.

Courses which are designed to be repeated (e.g. Independent Study, Special Topics, Music Recital, etc.) are exempt from this policy.

Procedure

The Registrar's Office processes course repeats at the end of each semester before reports of satisfactory academic progress (SAP) are run.

It is recommended that students repeating courses involving transfer credits file a ʺNotice of Repeated Courseʺ form with the Registrar’s Office upon completion of the repeated course to confirm the change to the transcript. This includes students who originally completed a course at another school and is repeating the course at Minnesota State Mankato.

Appeals for a Third Course Repeat

The registration system will not allow students to register for a course after three course attempts (includes A, B, C, D, P, F, NC or W). Students can file an appeal through the Office of Academic Affairs using the form located on the Registrar’s website. (At the time of this policy’s approval, the URL is https://www.mnsu.edu/academics/course-planning-and-registration/registration-and-academic-records/registration-forms-contacts-and-information/forms-list-links/).

Students who wish to repeat any course beyond the two-repeat limit must seek permission from the department chair of the course. These students will file a formal written appeal requesting an exception using the form provided by the Office of the Registrar. The appeal must include the following:

1. the student’s transcript;
2. an explanation and justification for the exception; and
3. a supporting statement from the chair of the department that offers the course.

The appeal form should be submitted to the Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Education. Appeal forms must be submitted at least seven calendar days before the first day of the term in which the student wishes to repeat the course.

If the appeal is approved, the student will need to register for the course and pay all applicable university charges.

Rationale

The course repeat policy permits students to retake any course in an attempt to earn a higher grade.  This policy is based on the report of the 2005-06 MinnState system Satisfactory Academic Progress Study Group, which believed that allowing students to repeat courses can have a significant positive impact on student retention and eventual graduation.

However, the number of repeats for any individual course are limited because unlimited repeats are not in the best interest of the student or the institution. Federal financial aid regulations require that all courses attempts are included in the cumulative count of aid-eligible credits, so students may use a significant amount of financial aid eligibility on credits from course attempts that do not count toward graduation, even if institutional policy allows them to be excluded from calculations for institutional academic progress purposes. Overuse of the course repeat process may lower the student’s cumulative credit completion rate and result in academic warning, probation, or suspension. A student who repeats a course is taking a class space that is then not available to a student who needs the course to fulfill requirements. Finally, there is concern about stewardship of state resources when taxpayers are asked to continue paying for a course that a student has attempted previously.