The standard credit load for undergraduate students is 15-18
hours per semester during the regular academic year. A minimum of
12 credits per semester is required to be considered a full-time
undergraduate student (graduate students, 9 credits). Students are
limited to 20 credits per semester (summer session, 15 credits).
Undergraduate students who find it necessary to exceed the credit
limit must have an NDSU minimum institutional grade-point average
of 3.0 to be eligible to petition for an overload. Petition forms
are available at www.ndsu.edu/bisonconnection/forms.
Upon request, all instructors shall inform students directly of
their approximate midterm grades before the end of the eighth week
of the semester.
Final examinations in one-credit or variable length courses are usually given during the last regular class period. Final examinations for all other courses are scheduled by the Office of Registration and Records and may not be rescheduled during the final examination period. According to State Board of Higher Education policy, the examination period is instructional time and, if a final examination is not given, some instructional use of this period is expected. Final examinations for summer school and distance and continuing education classes are arranged by the instructors.
No student shall be obligated to take more than three final
examinations scheduled for the same calendar day. In the event that
a student has four or more final examinations on the same calendar
day, the student shall notify the instructor(s) from the highest
numbered course(s) no later than two weeks before the last day of
class to schedule a make-up examination to be administered at a
mutually acceptable time.
Only one exam or quiz per course may be given during the last
two weeks of the semester (prorated accordingly for variable length
courses), which includes finals week. Exceptions include summer
classes, self-paced/correspondence courses, make-up exams, courses
in which laboratory is incorporated with a lecture, one-credit
courses, and quizzes that account for less than 5% of the students'
overall grade. If a professor chooses to give an exam during the
last week of classes, he/she is expected to make some instructional
use of the final examination time.
Attendance in classes is expected. Only the course instructor can excuse a student from course responsibilities. (The term course includes class, laboratory, field trips, group exercises, or other activities.) If class attendance is a component of the course grade, the course instructor must clearly communicate this to the class in the syllabus.
The course instructor must inform students on the first day of class and in writing in the syllabus (1) of their policy regarding class absence and (2) policy, if any, for making up missed assignments. It is recognized that sometimes an assignment is impossible to make-up. Although the course instructor should exercise a fair and consistent standard for resolving questions of missed assignments, the type, extent, manner, and time frame of the make-up assignments shall be at the discretion of the instructor.
Students are responsible for informing course instructors of absences. If absences are known (e.g., university sanctioned activity), course instructors shall be informed with written notification as far in advance as possible (preferably a two-week notice). Where advance notification is not possible (e.g., illness, family emergency, etc.), students should contact their course instructor as soon as possible about the absence. When a student misses class for any reason, the student is expected to make arrangements with the course instructor to follow the course instructor's policy in making up any missed assignments, if permitted (NDSU Policy, Section 333).
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The information provided on this page originated from the NDSU
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statements.