Hobart and William Smith Colleges

All students are encouraged to register on days and times specified by the Registrar and published on the registration schedule. However, class or scheduled laboratory time may not be used for the purposes of registration.

Students enroll in their course selections from their Student Centers via the registration system.  If there is difficulty, they may request help by emailing their inquiry to a Registrar staff member or to Registrar@hws.edu.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges reserve the right to cancel any course without prior notice should minimum enrollment not be reached, or staffing situations necessitate it.

Dropping and Adding Courses

During the fall and spring semesters, students may drop and add a course during the first five days of class via the web-registration system or in person with an add/drop form. No signatures are necessary to make changes during the add/drop period unless the student needs permission to enroll, does not meet pre-requisites, or is being overloaded into a class. Registrations and student class schedules are finalized at the end of the five-day drop/add period. Students are accountable for all courses for which they are enrolled from that point on, and those courses are reflected on the permanent academic transcript. If a student has attended a course in which he or she was not properly registered, no credit or grade is recorded. If a student stops attending a course but fails to drop or withdraw properly, a grade of “F” may be assigned by the instructor of the course and recorded on the permanent academic transcript.

Under certain circumstances, changes may be allowed beyond the add/drop period. Half credit courses may be added/dropped with the approval of the instructor(s). Half credit courses may be dropped until the end of the eleventh week of classes with the approval of the instructor(s). Students seeking to only add a full credit course beyond this period require the approval of their instructor for the late add. Normally any full credit course dropped beyond the add/drop period will require the student to withdrawal (voluntary or authorized- see the dean of the College) from the course. If the student receives dean’s approval to add/drop beyond the add/drop period, the student will need the approval of the instructor of both the class to be added and the class to be dropped, and the advisor in addition to the dean’s approval.

For a voluntary withdrawal students only need the permission of their dean. Authorized withdrawals go through the Committee on Standards and require input from the instructor of the course and the student's dean.

Course Load

The normal course load for Hobart and William Smith students is eight full-credit courses in an academic year, evenly distributed across the two semesters. Students in good academic standing may take three, four, or five courses in any particular semester. Students should be aware that 32 total credits are required for graduation, and therefore an average course load of less than four courses in any semester may lengthen the time required to complete the degree requirements and to graduate. Students who have fallen behind in credits must submit to their dean an academic recovery plan that they have created in consultation with, and approval by, their academic adviser. Good academic standing will be defined as maintenance of a minimum GPA of 2.0 (C), while accruing 7 courses passed in the First Year, 15 by the end of the Sophomore Year, 23 by the end of the Junior Year, and 32 by the end of the Senior Year. Course withdrawals carry no penalty but do not diminish the minimum requirements for the degree. Tuition remains the same if a student takes three, four, or five full credit courses in a semester.  Additional tuition will be charged for more than five full credit courses.

Deregistration

Students may be deregistered from a course prior to the first day of classes if they have already received credit for the course through advanced placement or transfer credit from another institution. Students may also be deregistered from courses prior to the first day of classes if they have not met the required financial obligations to the Colleges at that time, or made arrangements with the Bursar to do so. In the event of deregistration, re-registration is on a space available basis, and students may not be able to re-enter the courses for which they were previously enrolled. Deregistered students who have been cleared by the Bursar may attempt to reregister into their original class schedule before the first day of classes. Students are urged, therefore, to resolve all financial responsibilities within the established deadline. Finally, students may be deregistered from a course if they do not have the required prerequisites for course entry.

Attendance on the First Class Day

A student may be dropped out of class by the instructor of a course for non-attendance on the first day unless the student has made prior arrangements with the Dean or in extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of the student. Students who register for a course and fail to attend for the remainder of the semester (without properly dropping the course) may be issued a grade of 'F' (FAILURE) for non-attendance. For remote learning classes, students must be electronically "present" and submit assignments as required.

Change of Grading Option

ALL courses are to be offered as GRADED ONLY with the exception of those approved by the Committee on Academic Affairs (CoAA) to be offered as CREDIT/D-CREDIT/NO CREDIT ONLY. A full credit course may only be changed to a CR/NC/DCR grading option after the course is completed and the instructor has submitted a final letter grade to the Registrar. Students retain the option to change a course to CR/DCR/NC up until 2 weeks after incomplete grade submission. For courses taken in the Fall semester, students would have until the eighth week of the Spring semester to make a change. For courses taken in the Spring semester, students would have until the end of the fourth week of the Fall semester to make a change. Seniors in their final semester will be able to change their grading option up until the end of the eleventh week of the semester. Students are permitted a total of four Changes of Grading Option plus D-range grades (D+, D, D-, or DCR) combined. Courses which are being repeated must be taken for a letter grade; they may not be taken for CR/DCR/NC.

A student may change a full credit course from a letter-graded option to a CR/DCR/NC graded option by submitting a form, approved by the student’s adviser, to the Registrar under the timelines mentioned above. However, students may not change a full credit course from a letter-graded option to a CR/DCR/NC graded option if they stand accused of a violation of the principle of academic integrity or if they have been found responsible for such a violation.

Changing a full credit course from letter-graded option to CR/DCR/NC graded option is not reversible. Once the action has been taken, the change is final and no petitions to the Committee on Standards will be allowed, unless a student is petitioning to use the course toward a major and/or minor.

Exception for Spring 2020 courses for all students: Changes of Grading Option for Spring 2020 will not count toward the limit of 4 Changes/D-range grades permitted. Courses which are being taken as repeats in Spring 2020 may be changed to CR/DCR/NC.

Course Withdrawals

Exception for Spring 2020: Students who are more than two credits behind in their progress to graduation may withdraw from a course with the approval of their Dean.

There are two kinds of course withdrawals. The voluntary course withdrawal (see “a” below) and  the authorized course withdrawal (see “b” below). The authorized course withdrawal is available to students only under exceptional circumstances beyond their control. All requests for retroactively withdrawing from a course, petitions for retroactive grade changes, or petitions for a retroactive change of grade status must be made within one calendar year from the last day of the semester of the course in question.

a.) Voluntary Course Withdrawal.  A voluntary course withdrawal may be performed by a student at any time up to and including the last day of classes of the semester in which the student is enrolled in the course. However, Spring semester Seniors will only have until the end of the 11th week of classes to withdraw from a course so that graduation requirements can be finalized. Students will be allowed to take four (full credit) voluntary course withdrawals provided that the action would not reduce the student’s net course count below -2. For a voluntary course withdrawal not allowed by the above process, the student must petition the Committee on Standards. Students will be required to obtain a signature from the Office of Financial Aid prior to any other signatures on the course withdrawal form to ensure that there are no unanticipated financial aid consequences. A course withdrawal from the Maymester or Summer Session will not count as a voluntary withdrawal or towards the total number of voluntary withdrawals. If the voluntary course withdrawal is in order, it is communicated immediately to the student’s adviser and instructor. Students may not use a voluntary course withdrawal if they stand accused of a violation of the principle of academic integrity or if they have been found responsible for such a violation.

b.) Authorized Course Withdrawal.  With the exception of the four voluntary course withdrawals described above, withdrawal from any course after the first five days of class, and prior to the due date for the semester’s grades, is granted only for serious and compelling reasons beyond the student’s control. A student seeking to withdraw under such circumstances must petition the Committee on Standards (COS).  COS makes its decision based on input from the student (rationale), input from the course instructor, and documentation of any extenuating circumstances, as appropriate, e.g., input from a health care provider.  Approved withdrawals are communicated immediately to the student’s adviser and instructor.

Course withdrawals under this policy, either voluntary or authorized, carry no penalty, do not diminish the minimum requirements for the degree, and do not reduce tuition charged for that semester.

We do not offer an unauthorized withdrawal.  Students remain enrolled in and will receive a grade for any class which appears in their registration.

Students who register for a course and fail to attend for the remainder of the semester (without properly dropping or withdrawing from the course) may be issued a grade of ‘F’ for non-attendance.

Repeatable Courses

Courses may be designated “repeatable” if they are fundamentally creative and/or experiential in nature, such that student performance is cumulative or held to a progressively higher standard of expectation across successive registrations and/or the content of student experience is substantially different with each offering of the course. Repeatable courses are identified as such in this Catalogue, subject to any published limit which may be established by the sponsoring department. Additionally, students may elect to take an Independent Study (450) without limit.  Each registration of such courses carries full credit and is calculated independently in a student’s grade point average.

Special Topic Courses

Courses designated as “Special Topics” registrations may vary in content by semester or by instructor. Each unique offering is considered an independent course and ordinarily carries a title extension indicating the topic in a given term. Each carries full credit and is calculated independently in a student’s grade point average.

Course Repeat

(This does not apply to “repeatable courses”)

Students may repeat courses in which they have earned a grade below a C- (1.7). Courses with a grade of C- or better may not be repeated. The deans will not approve any exceptions. The student’s permanent transcript records each time a course is taken, including the grade. In computing the student’s GPA, the highest grade will be used. Courses repeated at other institutions and transferred to the Colleges are not included in the GPA nor are they treated as HWS course repeats. Repeated courses count only once toward the 32 courses required for graduation.

Registration into 100-Level Classes for Juniors and Seniors:

• Juniors and Seniors can get into a 100-level course if the course is listed as a requirement on an officially declared major or minor, or on a Baccalaureate Audit form as a requirement for a goal. This applies only if there is space in the class, and only if the space is not specifically reserved for First Year Students and Sophomores.
• 100-level language courses are open to all students, unless otherwise noted in the schedule of classes.
• Any course for which the adviser judges there to be a compelling programmatic reason, with written permission of the adviser and course instructor.