<p>I'm wondering how common it is for students to have new requirements for graduation imposed on them during the course of their undergraduate studies. My son is a senior in college and has just found out that he will not graduate unless he takes a course that just became required this school year. The problem is that he has no slots open for an extra course next semester. Apparently he had warning of this but didn't realize that he was affected. Has anyone else ever heard of this?</p>
<p>My kids’ college states that the requirements listed in the catalog for the year they begin at the school is what will be required for their degree. So nothing new will be added.</p>
<p>Most colleges follow a guideline which is: the general education requirements adhere to the catalog they come in on; the major requirements adhere to those in effect currently when the major is declared.</p>
<p>Changing a requirement mid-program is, I think, unusual.</p>
<p>I agree that this is very unusual. Maybe he misunderstood this, and the rule does not apply to him?</p>
<p>He should run - not walk - to the catalog for his first year - and see if there is any thing in there saying here are the requirements for this year’s freshman class. I ran into this when I went through school and there was a sentence somewhere in there that allowed me to use the original catalog.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s school they also follow the degree requirements in place for the for the year they started at the school.</p>
<p>The cynic in me thinks that some colleges want to be sure to get an extra semester’s tuition; i.e. “Four year graduation rates: Why so low?” and “Beware college students - count carefully!” threads. When a friend took her freshman to school this year, the parents were told (at the parents’ meeting) that 60% of their kids would graduate within 6 years – she was flabbergasted that this was considered acceptable.</p>
<p>S1 had a require for graduation but they had not offered the class in over a year. He went to the Dean and appealed. Got an authorized substitute class. If indeed he was supposed to be required to take the class, this might work.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your replies. I thought that most schools did not operate this way. My son’s school does not have a rule that the catalog from his first year contains the rules that apply to his class. The school is free to change the rules whenever they decide it is warranted. He has not misunderstood the situation. I discussed it with the Dean today. The registrar’s office maintains that the students were given plenty of notice and that my son should have understood that the change applied to him. This is not a ploy to get more college tuition. The school requires that you graduate in 8 semesters; you are not allowed to attend for any longer than that. There is an appeals process that he is pursuing, but I have no idea whether or not that will work out for him. He may have to drop one of his majors so that he can take this class.</p>
<p>My son’s program lists a bunch of requirement variants by date ranges of matriculation. So there may be degree requirements for those starting in 2001-2003, another set of requirements for those starting in 2004-2005 and another set of requirements for those starting in 2006-2008. It seems to me to be similar to a contract. Of course the usual problem is unavailability of courses required to graduate on time. Advising opened up today and our son went in to see his advisor to get the hold removed for open enrollment which starts soon. There’s one course that he needs in the spring that only has 20 seats available so he needs to jump on that course.</p>
<p>edited out</p>
<p>Maybe he could walk in May/June but still do that course over the following summer?</p>
<p>The school mandates that he must finish in 8 semesters. Spring will be #8, so a summer class would not be an option. He will be taking an overload schedule in the spring, so there is no possibility of adding a course. He is petitioning to have a course that he is currently taking meet the requirement, even though it is not on the list of approved courses. He has some good arguments to support that position. But, there are others in the same situation as him, and the school may take a hard line and grant no exceptions. We’ll see what happens.</p>
<p>If this is any sort of lower division GE course, could he take it via a community college, perhaps online?</p>
<p>somemom an everyone else: Thanks so much for your suggestions. You are such a supportive group of people! Unfortunately, I seriously doubt that the college would accept a course taken at a community college, even if my son had time to do that - which he doesn’t. I think that my son is just going to have to let them decide what they’re going to decide about his petition and then he will have to consider his options if the outcome is not favorable. The bottom line is that the school did give advance warning about the change and he just didn’t realize that he was affected. I guess it’s just an application of the principle “ignorance of the law is no excuse.”</p>
<p>Your responses have given me some much-needed information, though. I suspected that this was an unusual situation and the fact that no one has a story of a similar one seems to confirm that. That could be helpful information depending on how things unfold.</p>
<p>Just in case, make sure he has read the catalog - I know they told him that the change applies to him - but they told me the same thing and I was able to find language in the catalog that supported my case. It is worth reading the fine print in this case.</p>
<p>I don’t know that I’ve ever come across a requirement to finish in 8 semesters unless it has to do with funding. What happens if a student fails a course? What would happen if your son cannot pick up a course - can he never get a degree from that school? You said that he cannot take a summer course because the spring semester will be his 8th semester - if he had taken a course last summer would it have counted as a semester? Will he be able to transfer his credits somewhere else?</p>
<p>I really don’t understand the logic behind this requirement - can you please enlighten me?</p>
<p>I wish I knew what college we are talking about because one that (a) adds new course requirements to graduation after the student has been there for a while, and (b) requires students to finish in 8 semesters, is a college I want to recommend to every high school student to stay as far away from as they possibly can. What do they do to you if you don’t finish in 8 semesters and have one course left, kick you out and never allow you to get a degree? This college is draconian.</p>
<p>I’d be interested to know, too. I know the school my S attended said that it had an “expectation” that students would finish in eight semesters, but it never was a downright “requirement.”</p>
<p>My curiosity got the best of me, so I looked at “previous posts by…”. It appears he is at Williams. I have only heard of it on this board, don’t even know where it is.</p>
<p>Well, that can’t be right because it says this on their website: Of the 520 first-year students who entered in 2001, 91% graduated from Williams within four years and 95% within six years. </p>
<p>Maybe it’s a special program?</p>