The University maintains an adult degree completion academic forgiveness policy for courses taken at any institution, including Southern Adventist University. The policy allows for the removal of previous coursework from the calculation of the student’s grade point averages and from consideration for fulfillment of all University requirements. Academic forgiveness does not remove the record of these courses from the student’s transcript.
Eligibility:
- A student must be admitted to an undergraduate adult degree completion program at Southern Adventist University.
- Students must not have earned an undergraduate degree.
- Students cannot have attended Southern Adventist University for a minimum of three (3) consecutive years immediately prior to the most recent admission into the adult degree completion program.
Policy:
- Any undergraduate course with a grade below a C- included on the student’s Southern Adventist University transcript taken anywhere by the student prior to his or her most recent admission into the adult degree completion program is eligible for forgiveness.
- Students may request and be granted academic forgiveness only once over their academic lifetime at Southern Adventist University.
- Upon requesting academic forgiveness, students may select up to 32 credit hours of eligible courses to receive forgiveness.
- Once approved, the forgiven courses will no longer impact a student’s cumulative and university GPAs, which are used for academic determinations including, but not limited to, academic standing, graduation requirements, and honors.
- Academic forgiveness is not retroactive and will have no effect on prior actions or academic determinations.
- A record of forgiven coursework and the grades earned will remain on the transcript, but the quality point values will be removed from the cumulative quality point average. A notation on the transcript will indicate which courses have been forgiven.
- Once approved, academic forgiveness is irrevocable. It is very important that students seek academic and financial aid advisement prior to requesting academic forgiveness.
This policy is independent of financial aid regulations. All coursework will still count in the financial aid satisfactory academic progress (SAP) calculation. Financial aid requirements at the time of application will apply. Therefore, students should check with their student finance counselor for guidance prior to requesting academic forgiveness. Approval of academic forgiveness at Southern Adventist University does not guarantee that other institutions will recognize this action.