Office of the Registrar

Repeating a course

Undergraduates

If you repeat the identical course as an undergraduate at Rensselaer, both grades will appear on your student record and transcript. However, keep in mind that:

• The grade received in the repeated course is always the one used in computing your GPA.

  Note! If a student repeats a course that they previously passed, and fails the course, the failure takes precedence and the student has not completed the course requirements for graduation purposes.

• The course credit will count only once.
• Independent Study courses, courses taken on a P/NC basis, or courses taken at another institution cannot be used to replace the original course grade.
• Repeating a course for which a "WI" grade was originally received will not replace that grade in determining the GPA.

The recalculation of GPAs to account for repeated courses occurs at the end of the semester after all grades for all students have been processed.

Graduates

If a graduate student repeats a course, both grades are entered on the record. However, course credit will count only once and, although both grades appear on the transcript,the grade received in the repeated course is always the one used in computing the GPA. The grade for a repeated course for which the student receives a grade of “W” or taken at another institution cannot be used in place of the original course grade in calculating the GPA.