Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
On Tuesday, the College announced that faculty adopted changes to the College’s longstanding Credit/No Credit (CR/NC) policy in February. Chemistry Professor and Provost Tom Stephenson wrote in an email to the Classes of 2019, 2020, and 2021 that the changes were in response to recommendations made by the College’s Curriculum Committee.
“These changes offer you a new option and other modifications about how the grades you earn in CR/NC courses appear on your transcript,” he wrote.
While much of the current CR/NC policy remains intact, particularly the CR/NC policy for the fall semester of students’ first year, a handful of key changes were made. For courses that students opt to take CR/NC after their first semester at the College, students will have the option to remove that designation up until the second week of the following semester.
The deadline for designating a class as CR/NC remains the ninth week of the semester, and students may still only designate up to four classes as CR/NC after their first semester. Most notably, CR/NC classes for which the shadow grades are uncovered still count against this four class limit, and the optional uncovering does not apply to classes taken students’ first semester.
“[F]all semester, first year CR grades are never uncovered to reveal the shadow letter grade,” Stephenson wrote.
The College also made changes to the minimum grades required for a “CR” designation on students’ transcripts. The threshold for receiving credit for a class during students’ first semesters is now a D- instead of a D.
Additionally, for classes taken after the first semester, even if a class is designated CR/NC, if a student receives a D+, D, or D- in the class, that grade will be recorded on their transcript, and the class will count against the four class limit.
More information about the College’s new CR/NC policy can be found here.
