When to Ask For and How to Resolve an Incomplete Grade
Sometimes you may be doing well in a class, but then something unexpected happens—a car wreck, a sudden hospitalization of you or a loved one, a death in the family— which prevents you from keeping up with the class, finishing your paper, or preparing sufficiently and sitting for the final exam. Rather than withdrawing immediately, communicate with your instructor about your situation, and inquire about taking an Incomplete (I) grade.
Instructors have discretion to grant an Incomplete when asked by a student, if student has completed a majority of the class. If granted you are allowed time extending beyond the end of the current semester to finish and turn in your assignments or sit for your final exam. You will negotiate a specific due or final exam date with your instructors and your instructors file a form with the Office of the Registrar, indicating that they have clarified with you what their expectations for completion are. If you and your instructors do not negotiate a specific other completion date, university administration will flip the “I” to an “F” after one calendar year. Both you and the instructor will get an e-mail notification roughly 60 days before that happens.
Your instructors may advise you to sit through a class again to finish an incomplete. If that is the case, do not re-register for the class! Tell the instructor of the class you are completing an incomplete, and they can add you to their course site manually. If you register in the class again, Bursar will bill you for it again.
Incompletes count like Ws and Fs in your Financial Aid and scholarship completion rate calculations, until they turn to a final, passing grade. If you are sitting through the class a second time to finish an incomplete, it will not count toward current semester enrollment for determination of full time status. Students participating in employer-sponsored tuition reimbursement programs may not be able to seek reimbursement until the Incomplete is resolved into a grade deemed sufficient by the employer plan.