Enrollment & Grading Policies

Individual Course Enrollments & Certificate Programs

Students possessing a high school diploma or GED may enroll in a certificate program or individual courses. Credits earned may be applied to a degree program if the applicant student meets admissions criteria.

Continuous Enrollment Policy

In order to receive a degree, Aspen University students must complete all coursework within 10 years (Doctoral degree), 5 years (Masters degree), or 6 years (Undergraduate degree) from the date of enrollment in their first course. To achieve this, Aspen has established a continuous enrollment policy. To maintain continuous enrollment status students must start and complete 4 courses per calendar year. Continuous Enrollment is Aspen University's equivalent of "full-time" enrollment. If a student does not complete 4 classes in a year he or she will not be continuously enrolled, and thus, part-time. If a student does not complete a minimum of 1 class per calendar year he or she will be dropped from the program. If a student is dropped they will be required to reapply, pay the application fee and submit all applicable admission documents before being allowed to return to the program.

Course Completion & Extension Policy

Each course must be completed in 8-weeks (Online Interactive courses), 10 weeks (Online Independent courses), or the allotted time as outlined in the study guide for courses that do not follow this normal schedule (such as the Capstone Course or Clinical Practicum courses). Failure to complete a course within the allotted time frame will result in a grade of I (Incomplete) being keyed on the scheduled last day of course. If an I is keyed the student will be allowed to submit the outstanding modules for the next 2 weeks following, but the final grade will be dropped one letter grade.

Students may request a two week extension, so long as the request form is submitted and approved before the last week of the course's scheduled end date. If an extension is requested after the deadline it will not be approved and the student must submit all modules by the end of the scheduled last day of course or receive the Incomplete. Students will be limited to 3 extensions per calendar year.

Effective December 1, 2008: Students receiving a "U" (failing grade) will be required to reenroll and pay a $180 administrative fee to retake the course. If a previously failed course is passed on the second try, the Unsatisfactory grade will be replaced with the passing grade. Students will be permitted to retake a course once. If a course is failed twice, the grade of "U" for the second failure will remain on the transcript and will be factored into the overall GPA. If a course is a core course in the program and is failed twice, then the student will not be eligible to graduate from the degree program. If course is an elective course in the program and is failed twice, then the student may be able to take another elective course in its place and may still be eligible to graduate from the degree program as long as they remain in good academic standing and achieve the required GPA.

Course planning is available through the registrar's office.

Course Extension Request Form (WORD document)

Withdrawals

If a student does not feel that he or she will be able to complete the required course work within the allotted time for any reason, the student may petition the Registrar to withdraw from the class. To do this a student must send an email to the Office of the Registrar at registrar@aspen.edu requesting the withdrawal (be sure to include the course number in the email). The request must be made before the student's scheduled end date for that class. To view all scheduled end dates please visit the Academic Calendar.

All withdrawals will show up on the student's transcript as a W but will not be factored into the student's overall GPA.

Please note, when withdrawing from a course or program the student is subject to the applicable policies. Click Here for full information on withdrawal, cancellation and refund policies.

Grading Policy

Individual courses are graded according to the grading rubric provided in the study guide for the course. Effective December 1, 2008: Students receiving a "U" (failing grade) will be required to reenroll and pay a $180 administrative fee to retake the course. If a previously failed course is passed on the second try, the Unsatisfactory grade will be replaced with the passing grade. Students will be permitted to retake a course once. If a course is failed twice, the grade of "U" for the second failure will remain on the transcript and will be factored into the overall GPA. If a course is a core course in the program and is failed twice, then the student will not be eligible to graduate from the degree program. If course is an elective course in the program and is failed twice, then the student may be able to take another elective course in its place and may still be eligible to graduate from the degree program as long as they remain in good academic standing and achieve the required GPA.

Students eligible to test out of a course must pass the examination. No re-takes are allows on credit-by exams. A failed test-out will require the student to take the course.

All Graduate-level program students must earn an overall GPA of 3.0 in order to graduate. Bachelor's level students must earn an overall GPA of 2.0 or higher in order to graduate. Students who fall below an overall GPA of 3.0 (Masters) or 2.0 (Bachelors) will be placed on academic probation. Failure to bring the overall GPA to a passing standard within 1 year will result in dismissal from the program.

Mid-program and End-of Program examinations are only permitted one re-take opportunity in the case of a failing grade in the first attempt. These exams cover material from every course in the program that the student has taken, and include 10 questions, randomly selected from the database of questions for each course.

Course planning is available through the registrar's office.