Students who wish to pursue an unfamiliar field or otherwise expand their educational boundaries beyond the requirements of any declared academic program may request to take certain undergraduate courses on a pass/fail basis. The purpose of this option is to foster experimentation by providing students with the opportunity to explore a broad range of coursework without affecting their grade point average.

Students may not request the pass/fail grading option for the following types of courses:

  • Courses used to meet requirements in a student's major, minor, concentration or certificate program, or to meet college general requirements for the student's degree.
  • Courses designated as Kent Core (general education requirement).
  • Courses numbered 00000-09999 (developmental).
  • Courses numbered 50000-89999 (graduate).
  • Courses graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U).

Pass/fail grading is subject to the following conditions:

  1. Students whose overall GPA is below 2.000 after their most recent graded term are not eligible to request the pass/fail grading option. Transfer students admitted on probation are not eligible to request the pass/fail grading option in their first term.
  2. Students may take only one course per term on a pass/fail basis.
  3. Instructors will not be informed of students’ selection of the pass/fail grading option. Regular passing letter grades (e.g., B, C, D) that are reported by the instructor will be converted to a Pass (Y) grade. Letter grades of F (Fail), NF (Never Attended–Fail) and SF (Stopped Attending–Fail) reported by the instructor will be converted to a Fail (Z) grade.
  4. Under no circumstances will Pass (Y) or Fail (Z) grades be converted to regular grades.
  5. Students who earn Pass (Y) grades and later declare a major, minor, concentration or certificate program may apply the pass/fail credit to program requirements, if applicable, but all subsequent required coursework must be completed with regular grading.
  6. A maximum 12 hours of Pass credit may be applied toward a declared undergraduate program.
  7. Pass (Y) and Fail (Z) grades are not used in computing grade point averages and do not satisfy specific required grades (other than the minimum D grade) in course prerequisites and program requirements.

In order to request the pass/fail grading option, students must submit a Pass/Fail Grade Request form to the Office of the University Registrar. Students may not change grading options, including pass/fail, after the final day of course registration. Information about schedule adjustment deadlines, which includes deadlines for changes to grading options, is located in the Registration policy in the University Catalog.