Continuation Requirements

To graduate from the College, a student must accumulate 126 total credit hours, of which only one credit of physical education, a non-academic course, may count. For students who start as first year students or transfer students in Emory College of Arts and Sciences, this includes a minimum of 125 academic credit hours plus the required 1 credit hour of physical education. For students who begin in Oxford College, this includes 124 academic credit hours, 1 credit hour of physical education credits, and one credit hour of either academic or physical education credit. Additional hours of physical education do not count toward the degree. A grade-point average of at least 2.0 for all work attempted for a letter grade is required of all students.

Minimum requirements for continuation from year to year are determined by hours as follows:

• First Year: a minimum of 30 credit hours passed after two semesters on first-year standing and a 1.5 grade-point average on all work attempted;
• Sophomore: a minimum of 60 credit hours passed after two semesters on sophomore standing and a 1.67 grade-point average on all work attempted;
• Junior: a minimum of 90 credit hours passed after two semesters on junior standing and a 1.75 grade-point average on all work attempted.
• Senior: a student must make satisfactory progress toward fulfilling requirements for a degree.

A year is normally interpreted as two full semesters or the equivalent. A full semester is one in which a student enrolls for 12 or more credit hours; two or more partial semesters in which a student enrolls for fewer than 12 credit hours, but which taken together total at least 12 credit hours, count as one full semester. Usually students will be promoted at the end of a year of work in a given class. Students needing an additional semester to attain minimum standards for continuation or graduation must be granted permission to enroll by Emory College of Arts and Sciences and must take all required work at Emory. In such cases, the additional semester will normally be the next consecutive one except for first-year students (see “Exclusion”). Seniors are permitted three full semesters to fulfill their degree requirements. Any student requiring an additional senior semester in order to graduate must petition the Committee on Academic Standards; however; any student who entered Emory as a first-time, first-year student may have up to eight regular semesters to graduate without submitting a petition to the Committee on Academic Standards.