Grades: End-of-Term

At semester's end, instructors submit a grade for each student in a course; this will be a letter grade unless the student completed the course on the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) option.

• If, because of serious illness or other emergency, you cannot complete all the work for a course, you may request assignment of a grade of "I" (Incomplete) in a course.
• If you fail to take a final exam in a course at the scheduled time, the instructor will record a grade of "X" (unless you have a failing grade going into the final exam, in which case the instructor may submit an F).
• An "N" indicates that no grade has been submitted.

Note: if you abandon or otherwise discontinue a course without authorization from your academic dean, University policy stipulates that the instructor is to submit a grade of F.

A detailed discussion of grades is available in the Bulletin of Undergraduate Instruction.

If you receive one or more low grades (D, U, and F), it can result in an academic warning, academic probation, or academic withdrawal. In determining whether a student should be placed on academic warning or probation or dismissed for academic reason, a grade of U earned in a course, whether that course is offered only S/U or the student elects to take it on the S/U basis, is considered equivalent to a grade of F.  You are also at risk of not meeting continuation requirements. In determining fulfillment of continuation requirements, grades of "I"  (Incomplete) and "X" (Absence from a Final Exam) are assumed to be failing grades until they are replaced by a permanent passing grade.

A summary of the consequences of D, U, and F grades follows:

In the First Semester at Duke:

In Any Other Semester:

In Course Work Completed in One or Both Duke Summer Sessions:

In Course Work Completed in 2 Consecutive Semesters:

See Also:

• Absence from a Final Exam
• Academic Warning
• Continuation Requirements
• Dismissal
• Grade Notations
• Incomplete Course Work
• S/U Option
• Probation