Grading Policies

Audit Grade Procedures

A student must decide to audit a college credit course before the end of the drop/add period in the session in which the class is held by completing a request to audit form. Under extenuating circumstances, a change to or from audit status may be made after the drop/add period with approval through an academic appeal. All regular fees apply to audited courses but no credit shall be awarded.

Grading System

Florida State College at Jacksonville’s grading system is designed to evaluate the performance of students as fairly and equitably as possible.

Letter grades will be assigned for courses as follows:

A = Excellent
B = Good
C = Average
D = Poor
F = Failure
FX = Failure grade excluded
W = Withdrawal
I = Incomplete
X = Audit
NR = Not Reported by Instructor

*The assignment of an F grade will require a last date of attendance. The faculty member must be able to document that the student participated through the end of the session except as otherwise specified by programmatic requirements. Documentation would be an attendance sheet, final exam grade, project, paper, participation in an online discussion group, or something of that nature with a date on or near the closing date of the class. Note that for online classes, merely logging in is not sufficient. There must be evidence of academic activity.

Grade Forgiveness and Course Repeats

Students may repeat a course in an attempt to improve a grade previously earned. State Board Rule 6A-14.0301 limits such attempts to courses where a D, F or FN grade was earned, and limits to two the number of times a course grade may be forgiven. The official grade used in calculating the grade point average is the best grade earned in the course. Grade point averages for financial aid purposes may include all attempts.

A student may have only three total attempts in any course, including the original grade, repeat grades, and withdrawals. A fourth attempt may be allowed only through an academic appeals process based on major extenuating circumstances.

Courses may be repeated if they are designated as repeatable through the curriculum process or if they are required to be repeated by a regulatory agency, or are being repeated as part of a regulatory requirement for continuing education to stay current in a field, such as teacher certification.

In all cases of repeated courses, the best attempt of the course is used for calculating credit totals and GPA.

Academic Fresh Start Policy

The Academic Fresh Start policy at Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) allows students a second chance for academic success when they have failed courses in the past and may find it difficult or impossible to continue their pursuit of a degree or certificate. In order to qualify for academic fresh start:

1. The student must not have enrolled in graded, college-level courses at FSCJ or any other post-secondary education institution for two (2) consecutive calendar years prior to application for academic fresh start. A student may apply for a fresh start any time after this time requirement has been met.

2. The student’s cumulative grade point average must be less than 2.0 at the time of re-admission to the College.

3. Following re-admission, the student must complete a minimum of twelve (12) credit hours with no grades of “F” and a GPA of at least 2.000 in each term in which the 12 hours are attempted before a fresh start will be granted.

4. The student’s cumulative GPA is less than a 2.0 after the 12 completed credit hours.

Academic fresh start will only be granted once. A maximum of 16 hours of “F” grades earned at FSCJ will be excluded from the cumulative GPA calculation. The classes themselves will still be listed on the transcript.

When eligibility requirements have been fulfilled and fresh start has been granted, the student’s cumulative grade point average will be recalculated with “F” grades removed from the calculation. All grades, including those excluded, will continue to appear on the FSCJ academic transcript and will be counted as attempted hours for Financial Aid purposes. Students that plan to transfer to another institution should be aware that the receiving institution may use all of the grades that are excluded by FSCJ for calculation of the grade point average for admission review. Excluded grades will be indicated by an FX grade.

Withdrawal Grades

A student may withdraw without academic penalty from any course up to the last withdrawal date published for each session. The student will be permitted only two withdrawals per course. Upon the third attempt, the student will not be permitted to withdraw and will receive an A, B, C, D or F grade for the course.

Students may request a withdrawal for extenuating circumstances after the session withdrawal date by following the grade appeal procedure.

To withdraw officially from one or more courses (withdrawal from all courses constitutes withdrawal from the College), the student must use the withdrawal process in myFSCJ.

Note: Students who receive Title IV Federal Aid and withdraw during the first 60 percent of the academic term will be subject to repayment terms as outlined by the federal agency from which the aid was awarded.

Incomplete Grades

An I grade may be assigned at the instructor’s discretion, upon request by the student, to permit the student time to complete required course work that he/she was prevented from completing in a timely way due to non-academic reasons. The instructor may require the student to furnish documentation for the request to assist in the decision. The instructor may choose to not grant the request. The I grade should be considered only when the student has the potential to earn a passing grade if the missing work is made up.

The instructor shall prescribe in a written agreement with the student the remaining course work required for completion and removal of the I grade. A copy of this agreement will be kept on file in the office of the appropriate dean. All work must be completed within the first eight weeks of the subsequent term, unless the instructor agrees to a longer timeframe (not to exceed one year). When the work is completed, the instructor will submit an online grade change with the grade earned. If the work is not completed within the prescribed time frame, the I will automatically change to an F grade. The student will be informed of the final grade assigned. To be eligible for an I grade, the student must be passing the course at the time of the request and must have completed at least 75% of the course work.

Student Warnings

When students repeat a course at Florida State College at Jacksonville, only the best grade earned is calculated in their cumulative grade point average (GPA). However, students with an excessive number of W or I grades and students who repeat courses to improve their GPA may jeopardize their admission to programs in the State University System of Florida or other institutions.

Grade Points

To evaluate the scholastic standing of students, the following points are assigned to grades.

A = four grade points per semester hour
B = three grade points per semester hour
C = two grade points per semester hour
D = one grade point per semester hour
F = zero grade points per semester hour
FX = Failure grade excluded and no longer used in GPA calculation

Students’ scholastic standing or grade point average is obtained by dividing the total number of grade points earned by the total number of semester hours attempted for which the foregoing grades have been assigned. Grades of I, W, NR and X are not used in the computation of grade point average. Grades earned in college preparatory classes do not count in the computation of the grade point average.

GPA Calculation Example

Formula: 18 GPA points divided by 9 GPA hours equals 2.00 GPA.

President’s and Dean’s List

Degree seeking students who achieve academic excellence during a term are recognized by being placed on the College President’s or Dean’s list. The Registrar’s Office posts the designation on the transcript three weeks after the completion of each term. The criteria of eligibility for each list are described below.

College President’s List

To qualify, a student must have all the following criteria:

1. minimum enrollment of at least 6 credit hours in the term (excluding college preparatory classes);

2. minimum of 12 credit hours earned at FSCJ (excludes transfer and preparatory courses);

3. cumulative GPA of 3.0; and

4. term GPA of 3.75-4.0.

Dean’s List

To qualify, a student must have all the following criteria:

1. minimum enrollment of at least 6 credit hours in the term (excludes college preparatory classes);

2. minimum of 12 credit hours earned at FSCJ (excludes transfer and preparatory courses);

3. cumulative GPA of 3.0; and

4. term GPA of 3.5-3.74.

Grade Changes

The completed grade change must be submitted to the Registrar’s Office within one semester following the semester in which the original grade was earned. Grade changes submitted via an appeal need both the instructor and instructor’s supervisor approval.