Correction appended
Students will no longer be allowed to take General Education courses for pass/fail due to changes in the Undergraduate Academic Rules and Regulations.
In addition, students will have to complete their General Education classes before finishing 60 credits at AU.
The changes will go into effect fall 2012, according to a campus-wide email sent by University Provost Scott Bass.
Students will only be allowed to take four courses at AU for a pass/fail grade. Courses with a mandatory pass/fail component aren’t part of that count.
Previously, students could take 50 percent of their courses for pass/fail, as long as all major, minor and Honors courses were taken for a letter grade, according to the current course catalog.
“The main concern is that no other school with which our graduates will be competing does this,” Professor Thaddeus Jackson told the Eagle in November 2010. “So one can graduate from American University with a transcript that looks somewhat suspicious because there’s lots of pass/fail on it.”
Latin honors and Dean’s List requirements were also increased:
Students will also no longer be able to opt out of College Writing by earning a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam or a 5 or higher on the Higher Level English International Baccalaureate Examination.
Student who earn those scores will still have to take “College Writing, Intensive” or “Honors English, Intensive.”
A previous version of this story switched the new and old Dean's List numbers. The Eagle regrets the error.
