Academic Catalog 2020-21

Pass/Fail Courses: Undergraduate Programs

A student in good academic standing (at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA) may enroll in any elective course on a Pass/Fail basis if they have the consent of the instructor teaching the course. Courses taken Pass/Fail may not be used to fulfill the CORE Curriculum requirements for graduation or the units required for a major or minor in most programs, with the exception of the Senior seminar, internship, fieldwork. A significant exception to this policy is Dominican's Applied Computer Science program, which is graded solely on a Pass/Fail basis, with accompanying narrative evaluations.  Requests for Pass/Fail grading in a specific course that is not already designated as a Pass/Fail course, must be completed and submitted to the Registrar's Office no later than the deadline to add courses each semester/session. After the semester deadline for adding courses, the student who has registered to take a course for a letter grade or on a Pass/Fail basis may not change the grading option. A student registered for a course on a Pass/Fail basis is expected to do all of the work for the course.

The Experiential Learning Portfolio option in the Adult Degree Completion program is a process that evaluates college level learning through proficiency assessment. While letter grades are not assigned to units awarded through Experiential Learning Portfolio, students must demonstrate proficiency at the level of ‘C’ (2.0) or better. Selected Experiential Learning units may meet some General Education requirements, elective units, or required electives in some majors. See the Credit for Prior Learning section of this catalog for experiential learning areas that may be petitioned for credit.

Students may apply credit earned through selected examinations and/or approved course challenges toward electives or requirements in the major or for certain General Education areas. Detail is provided in the Transfer Credit Policies section of this catalog.

Students are advised that the GPA for Graduation Honors is based on the student’s computable letter-graded units completed at Dominican (a minimum of 30 units taken at Dominican is required for the undergraduate degree). Pass/Fail units are not included in the computation for honors at graduation.