Grades

Final grades become part of your official record and will appear on your transcript. Midterm grades and final grades are available to you in plus.hope.edu. Grade reports are not mailed.

SYSTEM OF GRADING

The system of grading is as follows:

GRADE	SIGNIFICANCE	QUALITY POINTS PER SEMESTER CREDIT
A	Superior	4.0
A-	Superior	3.7
B+	Good	3.3
B	Good	3.0
B-	Good	2.7
C+	Adequate	2.3
C	Adequate	2.0
C-	Adequate	1.7
D+	Weak but passing	1.3
D	Weak but passing	1.0
D-	Weak but passing	0.7
F	Failure	0.0
P	Pass (Pass/Fail Option)	0.0
I	Incomplete
W	Withdrawal
IP	In Progress

Quality points (the numerical equivalent of a letter grade) are used to determine your academic honors and academic warning, probation or suspension. For example, a student receiving a A, B, C, D or F in a 3-credit course receives 12, 9, 6, 3 or 0 quality points respectively.

The number of earned quality points divided by the number of semester credits attempted (excluding Pass and Withdrawal credits) establishes the grade point average (GPA) of the student.

A minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 is required for graduation from Hope College.

MIDTERM GRADES

Your midterm grades will be available to you in plus.hope.edu. You’ll be able to see them as soon as they are entered by your professor.

Midterm grades reflect your grades in your courses after about eight weeks. Midterm grades are not part of your permanent record and therefore are not part of your semester or cumulative GPA. No midterm GPAs are calculated.

However, midterm grades are important indicators of your progress in the course. Keeping on the same path may result in the same grades; spending more time on classes may not be enough.

COMMON CONCERNS ABOUT MIDTERM GRADES

You may have midterm grades missing for some courses. That is because the instructor did not submit a midterm grade.

If you’re not happy with your midterm grades, talk honestly with your professors. Consider the study strategies you use, and discuss whether they are appropriate. You may have opted to attend Hope College because you value our strong faculty-student connection. Now is the time to take advantage of it. Talk with your professors about supplemental help — there are a lot of resources available on campus.

Advisors are also a great resource: either your academic advisor, or other advisors located in the Registrar’s Office.

FINAL GRADES

Final grades are usually due from faculty on the Wednesday following exam week and are entered in plus.hope.edu. You can check your grades in your account beginning the night grades are due. You will not be mailed a grade report.

If your grade is not listed on plus.hope.edu after final grades are due, then the instructor has not yet entered the grade. In that case, contact your instructor. Occasionally, the grade was entered but has not yet been processed by the Registrar’s Office. We try to process grades multiple times per day for about a week after grades are due.

WITHDRAW GRADES

If you withdraw from a course, you will receive a W grade on your transcript. More information about withdrawing can be found on the schedule changes page.

INCOMPLETE/NO REPORT GRADES

An Incomplete (I) grade is given only when unusual circumstances, beyond the control of the student, prevent giving a specific grade. The I grade must be removed within six weeks after the close of the session in which the incomplete was given, or it will become a failure (F).

No Report (NR) grades are given when the professor has not submitted a grade. Like I grades, a NR grade becomes a F after six weeks. Degrees are not awarded to students who have I or NR grades. If your I or NR grade is not resolved before the end of the six weeks, your degree will not be awarded and your graduation will be deferred to the next graduation date.

PASS/FAIL GRADES

Sophomore, junior and senior students are permitted to request one course per semester to be graded as a Pass (P) or a Failure (F). Once the course has been changed to pass/fail, it may not be reversed back to a standard, graded course. Some graduate and professional schools accept only a certain number of pass/fail courses, so we recommend that you determine that number before making this choice.

The requirements for pass/fail are:

• You must be enrolled as a full-time student (12 credits or more).
• You must be at least sophomore standing (24 earned credits or more).
• The subject of the course must lie outside your major or minor subject and may not be a required course for your major or minor.
• The course may not be used to complete any general education requirements.
• If you are seeking teacher certification, you may not take professional education courses as pass/fail.

To request a pass/fail, you must first register for the course. Email your advisor to request permission to pass/fail, then fill out the Course Pass/Fail Request Form. Your instructor does not need to know that you are taking their class on a pass/fail basis. Our office must receive your form and permission by the pass/fail deadline.

During the semester, you will receive standard letter grades for your work in the course (including a midterm grade), but at the end of the semester, you will receive a "P" or an "F" on your record. Credit is earned for P grades, but P grades do not get computed into the cumulative GPA; Failures result in no credit earned and are computed into the GPA as zero quality points.

AUDITING

We do not recommend that degree-seeking students audit courses; the fee to audit is the same as taking the course for credit, but you will not receive a grade or earn any credit for the course. In addition, an audited course will not transfer to another institution. In place of auditing, we suggest you take the course on a pass/fail basis (see above) so that you may at least earn credit for the course.

However, you may register to take most Hope courses on an audit, non‑credit basis. Exceptions to this rule are courses requiring activity or performance, such as in the arts or kinesiology.

To audit a course, you must first register for the course, then obtain instructor and advisor permission and bring it to the Registrar’s Office. The deadline for changing a course to audit is the same as the drop/add deadline. Once you change a course to audit, you may not change it back to a standard, graded course.

DEAN’S LIST

The Dean’s List is awarded on a semester basis for full-time, degree-seeking students with a semester GPA of 3.5 or above. The list is compiled at the end of each semester, a few days after final grades are due. In order to be included on the Dean’s List, all of your courses must be graded, meaning no NR or I grades may be a grade for one of your courses.

Notice of the award is sent to students via email. Student names and class standing are also published on the Hope website. You can see each semester you were named to the Dean's List on your transcript.

If you have NR or I grades at the time the Dean's List is compiled and you later resolve those grades to qualify for the Dean’s List, it will be placed on your academic record. However, you will not be notified, and your name will not appear in the web announcement. Dean's List announcements are completed only once a semester.