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College students’ records are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which restricts institutions from releasing grades and other educational records without the student's written permission. Students may view their grades online through the Colleague Self-Service after the grades have been submitted and recorded by the Office of the Registrar. Since the system is student-controlled, students are encouraged to share grade information with their parents. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ does not mail grade reports home. If a student wants the College to disclose grade information to parents/family members, they must first sign a FERPA waiver.

If you have questions about how your student is doing academically, you should talk first with your student. It is best not to contact faculty members, as it is important that the faculty-student relationship be built directly by those individuals. In addition, because of FERPA, faculty members generally cannot speak with anyone outside the college about a student’s academics.

A typical course load is 16 credits (usually comprised of four 4-credit courses. A student’s first semester often consists of the First-Year Tutorial (a one-semester course required of all new students), plus one course from each of the three academic divisions: Humanities, Social Studies and Science. The minimum allowed course load is 12 credits, and the maximum is 18 credits (with some exceptions for music lessons and PE courses).

During the summer, your student will have the opportunity to select a First-Year Tutorial and learn about the rest of Grinnell’s course offerings to prepare for fall registration. Registration for the remaining fall courses happens on campus during New Student Orientation. Your student’s Tutorial professor serves as their faculty adviser until your student declares a major.

We place high value on this advising relationship. The faculty adviser is not just someone to approve course registration. A student’s academic plan is a negotiation between the student and the faculty adviser, weaving the student’s goals with the College’s vision of a liberal arts education. Both the adviser and the student have responsibility for creating a productive advising relationship. As such, we believe that advising should be done in person and benefits over time by the instructor-student connection established in the tutorial. Through the tutorial, the adviser will get to know your student well.

Encourage your student to read Academic Planning for New Students this summer, published by the Academic Success Center and follow the Academic Onboarding directions in the New Student Checklist.

Grinnell has an individually-advised curriculum. That means that we do not have general education or specific distribution requirements (for example, a certain number of credits or courses in Humanities, Social Studies, and Sciences). Still, we have requirements and expectations! In order to graduate students must complete 124 credits, including the First-Year Tutorial and a major (typically eight to ten courses, that is, 32 to 40 credits), and they are expected to complete a program of study that embraces the liberal arts.  

Students should plan to create an individualized academic program in collaboration with their adviser, which reflects both breadth and depth in the liberal arts. We encourage work in a variety of disciplines for the development of diverse skills – linguistic, literary, quantitative, artistic, and analytical.  

Your student should rely on Academic Planning for New Students and the   for specific major requirements, course prerequisites, and other academic policies.

Your student will be notified by the Office of the Registrar of pre-matriculation credit awarded for Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) of A Level scores. Generally, a score of four for AP and five for IB and a grade of B or better for A-levels, warrants credit but rules vary by department. Your student may see Grinnell’s AP Policy on the Registrar’s website . Grinnell will accept a combined maximum of 24 credits of pre-matriculation (AP, IB, A-level, transfer) and post-matriculation (transfer) credits toward graduation.   A word of caution – if your student receives AP, IB, or A-level credit for a course, usually they will lose AP/IB/A-level credit if they repeat the same course here. Occasionally a student will decide to forego the AP, IB, or A-level credit and choose to start over in an introductory level course at Grinnell. The best rule of thumb on these matters: have your student consult with the Registrar and with their faculty adviser.

Students must declare a major during their fourth semester, prior to registering for their fifth semester. We do not encourage students to declare their major early, because we want them to explore as many fields as possible during their first two years at Grinnell.

Highly likely. While it is possible to finish in fewer than eight semesters or to request a ninth semester, Grinnell’s academic program is based on a residency requirement that assumes eight semesters. If students want to graduate early or extend their academic program into a ninth semester, they must apply, in writing through the Registrar, to the Committee on Academic Standing. (Have your student visit the Office of the Registrar’s GrinnellShare site.)

Your student is entirely responsible for attending class and doing their work. This is potentially a major shift from high school. If your student misses class, the professor can share their concern using an ‘academic alert’ communication tool. You student will then receive outreach for coaching to discover the issues preventing them from attending class and support their return to class.

We strongly encourage students to talk with their faculty members outside of class if they are experiencing difficulty. This usually requires a change in thinking and habit, since many students did not seek out their teachers in high school. We also urge students to contact their faculty advisers for support and counsel.  

In addition, the staff in the Academic Success Center (ASC) are experts at working with students in academic difficulty. The staff in the ASC can help with study skills, time management strategies, interventions with faculty, and referrals to other academic resources (for tutoring) and to health services or personal counseling.  

Most academic problems can be resolved if a student seeks help in a timely way and engages responsibly in the process. Grinnell is a resource-dense campus, so encourage your student to explore those resources!

In addition to engaging faculty members for academic support, all students may use the many academic resource centers at Grinnell, including the Writing, Reading, and Speaking Center, Science Learning Center, Math Lab, Computer Science Learning Center, Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication, and the Library. These offices are staffed by professionals and offer students one-on-one assistance through appointments and walk-in visits. These resource centers are not remedial in nature, and it is expected that all Grinnellians will engage with these resources when needed. For classes that are not supported by academic resource centers, students may request a tutor.  All of these services are provided as part of a student's tuition.

Your student may make the necessary adjustments to college with no difficulty, but if you sense that is not the case, advise your student to go directly to the  Academic Success Center  or to one of the other academic resource centers, such as the Writing, Reading, and Speaking Center. Their staff offer excellent evidence-based study strategies tailored to your student.

Realistic expectations help. We expect students to study and engage in independent coursework about 20 hours outside of class time each week. After all, being a student is their full-time job.

No, the Academic Success Center will contact your student and will notify their adviser. Students admitted to Grinnell have the ability to graduate. When students experience difficulty, the reasons are as diverse as the students. We do everything we can to help students identify problems, accept responsibility for them, and actively engage in solving them. Should you have a concern about your student, we welcome your call, though federal regulations (with some exceptions) limit the extent to which we can share information about your student.

It happens, unfortunately. Sometimes life presents challenges and students need support to resolve crises without leaving school. If your student is having a personal or family problem, please urge them to contact the Office of Student Support and Advocacy or the Academic Success Center . We try very hard to create a plan so that students’ grades don’t suffer unduly while they are trying to resolve a personal difficulty. 

Sometimes a student is well advised to reduce their course load or to take a leave of absence from school to address a major problem. Students may contact the Academic Success Center to discuss emergency course withdrawals, personal leaves of absence, or emergency/medical leaves of absence.

Matriculated students must complete a Transfer Course Approval Form (available from the [login required]) before they enroll in the summer or winter course.  These courses cannot overlap with the Grinnell semester. Additionally, students must petition the department if they wish to use a transfer course to complete a requirement in the major. Generally, departments want major requirements to be completed at Grinnell. Students are not permitted to repeat a course at another institution in which they received a D or F at Grinnell; instead, they are encouraged to repeat it here. Grinnell will accept a combined 24 credits of AP, IB, A-level and transfer credits toward graduation. When in doubt, your student should contact the Office of the Registrar.

Students who study abroad (approved off-campus study) take an academic leave , but two other types of leaves of absence are available to students. Students experiencing medical difficulties may apply for an emergency/medical leave of absence by contacting the Dean for Student Success and Academic Advising.   

Some students benefit a great deal from taking a semester or two of personal leave sometime during college. They may suffer from a lack of motivation, they may be uncertain of their career goals and want a semester or two to explore them, or they may have a unique opportunity to work or travel. A student may apply for a personal leave by contacting the Academic Success Center. A personal leave reserves their place at the college for one or two semesters.

If you would like to talk with someone at the College about your student’s academic situation and learn about college resources and policies, feel free to call the Academic Success Center. Know that federal regulations (with some exceptions) limit the extent to which we can share information about your student. We do believe that your most important source of information about your student’s progress is your student, and we hope that you will foster open and honest communication with your student about their academic work.

Your student will be assigned an exploratory adviser from the Center for Careers, Life, and Service (CLS) upon arrival at Grinnell to help them assess their values, strengths, and interests; connect them with alumni and others to build a professional network; explore professional, personal, and civic options; and engage in experiential learning experiences to gain skills to prepare them for life after Grinnell. Although the CLS resources and programs are available to all students, it is the responsibility of your student to take advantage and reap the short- and long-term benefits. CLS advisers are here for your student through every step of their professional, personal, and civic development, so that your student (and you!) can feel confident with their initial plan to embark on a purposeful life following graduation.

We hope that your student will ask questions of everyone on campus. People are our best resources at Grinnell. In addition, important written sources of information regarding academic policies are Academic Planning for New Students and the, both available online. They should lead students directly to answers to most academic questions or helpful people to consult with. When in doubt, reach out to the Academic Success Center to get connected to resources.