In order to encourage exploration into unfamiliar, risky areas of the curriculum, Carleton offers students the option to take courses under the S/Cr/NC option. S/Cr/NC grades have no grade point value and do not count toward student GPA. A continuing student may elect to take up to six credits per term on a S/Cr/NC basis with a maximum total of 30 such credits being allowed during the student’s four years at Carleton. The limits of six and 30 credits do not include mandatory S/Cr/NC courses. The grade of S means the equivalent of at least C- work; Cr means D+, D, or D- work; NC means F work.

Students may declare up to six credits per term as elective S/Cr/NC by completing and submitting a S/Cr/NC form, which is available from the Registrar’s Office website. The form requires both the student’s and the instructor’s approval and must be completed and received by 5:00 p.m. on the seventh Friday of the term for ten-week courses, the third Friday of the term for first five-week courses, and the eighth Friday of the term for second five-week courses.

Students considering a S/Cr/NC option should discuss the choice with their advisers. Those contemplating graduate school should be aware that some graduate schools compute S (satisfactory) grades into a GPA as the lowest possible letter grade they might represent and some schools compute NC (no-credit) grades as F grades; some graduate schools look askance at more than a few ungraded courses on a transcript. The Academic Standing Committee (ASC) will not consider petitions to change a grade to or from the S/Cr/NC option.

Courses may not be retaken S/Cr/NC unless they were originally given only on a S/Cr/NC basis.

Note that for a course to count toward the major or the minor, it cannot be taken on an elective S/Cr/NC basis. Departments may make exceptions for extra-departmental courses if appropriate. Courses taken to fulfill specific college graduation requirements (e.g., liberal arts requirements and writing and language proficiency) must be passed with a grade of S or C- or better.

If the professor wishes to grade all students on a S/Cr/NC basis, prior approval of the Associate Provost is required.

At the option of the instructor, an independent study may be offered on a mandatory S/Cr/NC basis, on a mandatory A–F basis (with no option for a S/Cr/NC grade), or on an elective basis (with the student given the option to elect to alter the A–F basis to a S/Cr/NC grading basis by the deadline described above; it is only in this last case that the credits are charged toward the 6- and 30-credit maximums). The grading method for independent work must be designated on the independent study form approved by the instructor.

The registrar cannot verify the exact letter grade represented by “S.”

See also concentrations, drop/add, major field requirements, minors, and Phi Beta Kappa.