The university outlines specific registration procedures on the Registrar’s Calendars and Schedules page, which is updated prior to each semester by the Registrar’s Office. Students must register for classes using the procedures outlined in the class schedule including enrolling by the dates and times specified for each semester or special session. Students are expected to complete registration activity online through MyUNLV. MyUNLV also includes registration instructions and the class schedule. Each student must complete registration during the registration period, as specified on the academic calendar. Registration is not considered complete until all tuition and fees have been paid. Students paying tuition and/or fees after the date and time specified in the schedule may be charged a late fee. The registration or enrollment of a student ineligible to attend the university is subject to immediate cancellation.

Adding or Dropping Classes

The add/drop period is the period of time after the semester begins when students can add and drop their classes with no academic or financial penalties. For the fall and spring semesters the add/drop period is the first five days of classes. Summer add/drop dates can be found on the Summer Term website. Students may add or drop a course up to the close of the late registration period. After this date, and with approval, students may make changes only when the circumstance is sufficiently extraordinary to warrant an exception. Please note that the last day to add thesis/dissertation/culminating courses coincides with the last day to add classes with department and Graduate College permission according to the UNLV Office of the Registrar Calendars.

Administrative Drops and Classroom Conduct

Failure to attend a course or to submit required work will result in a grade of F. The student who neglects a course is solely responsible for dropping the course or withdrawing from the university.

An administrative drop may be initiated at the discretion of the instructor, who will record the circumstances. The approvals of the academic unit chair/director, and the dean of the college/school offering the course, are required.

Students have a responsibility to conduct themselves in classes, libraries, and in other campus locations in ways that do not interfere with the right of other students to learn or the right of instructors to teach. Use of electronic devices such as cellular phones or recording devices or other potentially disruptive activities are subject to both university and instructors’ policies. If a student does not comply with requirements or obstructs the smooth functioning of the class, the instructor may opt for an administrative drop or initiate a student conduct complaint.

Serious cases of misconduct, as defined by the UNLV Student Conduct Code, will be referred to the appropriate administrative officer for action.

Administrative Drop for Nonpayment

Nonpayment of tuition and/or fees by the Administrative Drop for Nonpayment date listed in the term calendar may result in an administrative withdrawal/drop from classes.

Cancellation of Courses and Programs

The university reserves the right to cancel any registration in which the enrollment is insufficient to warrant offering the course and/or to eliminate, cancel, phase out, or reduce in size courses and/or programs for financial, curricular or programmatic reasons.

When programs are closed or eliminated, enrolled students will be given a fixed amount of time to complete their degree requirements or they will be given a free application to transfer to a different graduate program.

Dropping/Withdrawing from Classes

A student who has officially dropped or withdrawn from a course is ineligible for further attendance in that course.

Dropping Courses: A student has the opportunity to drop a course up through the fifth business day of the semester (excluding modular/mid-semester courses) without penalty.

Withdrawing Courses: A student has the opportunity to withdraw up to the date identified on the academic calendar (which is 60% into the course). No withdrawal will be allowed after the last day to withdraw. Students who withdraw will be assigned a withdrawal grade (W), which will appear on the transcript but will not be calculated in the GPA, and be responsible for the tuition and fees associated with the withdrawn course. A student can qualify for a refund by withdrawing from all courses by the 50% refund date identified on the academic calendar. A grade of F will be recorded and will appear on the transcripts for students who stop attending class and fail to officially withdraw.

Refer to the Office of the Registrar Calendars page for term-specific drop/withdraw deadlines.

Cancellation of Registration

The university reserves the right to cancel any registration in specific courses for which the student is ineligible. The registration of any student who is ineligible to attend the university is subject to immediate cancellation. The university also reserves the right to cancel the registration of an individual whose attendance, in the opinion of the appropriate administrative officials, would not be mutually beneficial to that person and to the institution.

Combined / Cross-listed Sections

Undergraduate/graduate (300/500, 400/500, and 400/600) level courses that share the same meeting time and days in the same classroom with the same instructor are considered to be cross-listed. In order for courses to be combined/cross-listed, they must undergo curricular approval via Graduate College process. Please see the definitions below. Please note that graduate courses that are cross-listed with undergraduate courses require the graduate student to complete additional, more advanced work in the course, and they may be required to meet for some limited, additional hours to fulfill course requirements as indicated on the course syllabus.

Cross-listed Sections

Shared Definition: The term “cross-listing” is a general term that denotes jointly connecting at least two courses. All cross-listed courses must undergo standard curricular approval process either via the Faculty Senate (undergraduate) or the Graduate Course Review Committee (graduate). Cross-listed courses contain the same or similar content and may be in different programs (eg., WMST 621 & SOC 621) or different careers (e.g., BIOL 467 & BIOL 667 or PSC 722 & PHIL 728).

They may or may not be scheduled as combined courses in class schedules.
A cross-listed course is one that carries credit in more than one department or program. Students may not enroll in more than one of the cross-listed courses and may receive credit in one department only.
If graduate courses are cross-listed with undergraduate courses, graduate students are required to complete additional, more advanced work in the course, and they may be required to meet for some limited, additional hours to fulfill course requirements as indicated on the course syllabus. These courses may or may not be combined in the schedule.
300- or 400-level courses may be cross-listed with 500-level courses; 400-level courses may also be cross-listed to 600-level courses. Courses that are at the 700 level and above may not be cross-listed with undergraduate courses.

Same-as Courses

Shared Definition: A specific type of cross-listed courses used in curriculum identifying a sequence within the same career type (e.g., WMST 621 & SOC 621 or PSC 722 & PHIL 728)

Undergraduate courses: Per NSHE CCN, although the prefix and number can differ, undergraduate same-as courses must have the same title, credits, course descriptions, and content. The parent/original course information must be retained in the UNLV catalog. Cross-listed courses are intra-institutional only. If another institution wishes to implement the cross-listed course, the parent course must be implemented first then additional cross-listed courses can be added. Parent courses will not be able to be deleted unless the same-as is removed prior to the deletion.
Graduate courses may or may not share the same number, title, and/or course descriptions.

Combined

Shared Definition: Combined courses refers to offering courses assigned to the same scheduling resources such as classrooms, times, dates, days, and/or instructors. In order to be combined, a class must be curricularly approved. A curricularly approved cross-listing sequence does not mean that the courses will be combined automatically in the schedule. Departments will need to request to combine the courses every term and will be denied the combination if the courses have not undergone the appropriate curricular approvals.

Cross Schedule

On rare occasions, there is a need for courses with distinct instructors, content, and title to share a specialty space such as a: studio, tennis court, performance hall, green space, or other similar spaces. In these cases, the sections can be combined for purposes of sharing space only. Cross scheduling is not permitted for web, department-arranged, or remote classes. Cross scheduling is not permitted for the same instructor.

Course Credit Expiration

Courses completed more than 10 years prior to the student’s intended graduation term cannot be used towards a graduate program without an approved Time Limit Extension Form available in the Grad Rebel Gateway on the Forms tab under Additional Forms.

Course Repeat Policy

A failed course cannot be challenged by examination and it does not have to be repeated unless the course is a specific college or department requirement. A student receiving a final grade of ‘F’ in a course can obtain credit by registering for the course, repeating the class work, and receiving a passing grade. Any course may be repeated, regardless of the grade received. The fact that UNLV has granted a degree to a student shall not preclude the student’s right to repeat a course for the purpose of improving a grade. Credit will be allowed only once for successful completion of the course, except for courses designated in the catalog as allowable repeats; these courses may be repeated only up to the maximum number allowed in the catalog and MyUNLV system. A student may repeat any UNLV course once at UNLV and not have the original grade included in the computation of the grade point average. The repeat grade must be on the same grading option as the original grade. The original grade will remain on the student’s academic record with a notation.

When a course is repeated more than once, only the original grade is omitted in computing the GPA and all subsequent course attempts will be included in calculation of the GPA. For courses repeated prior to February 1971, both the original grade and the repeat grade are included in the GPA.

Credit by Examination

UNLV does not offer credit by examination for any graduate degree-, certificate-, or non-degree-seeking students.

Credit Load Limitations

Graduate students normally may not take more than 15 credits during the fall and spring terms, unless they are in a professional program that specifically requires additional credits. Graduate students may take no more than six credit hours in a single five-week summer term and earn no more than a total of 15 credits during the summer term (pre, post, and regular five-week sessions combined). Students who want to exceed the standard maximum credit load, must submit an Authorization for Overload form available through the Grad Rebel Gateway. Overload requests will be processed by the Graduate College in MyUNLV on approval of the form.

Enrollment Verification

Immediate online official enrollment verification certificates for current students are available through the National Student Clearinghouse. Please note that enrollment information cannot be verified until the last day to add/drop for a semester. This is so that the verification is an accurate indication of your semester enrollment. The National Student Clearinghouse Free Self-Service Site is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information visit the Office of the Registrar’s Enrollment Verification page.

Full- and Part-Time Enrollment

For university purposes, graduate students enrolled in nine or more credits in a semester are considered full-time; GAs need only enroll in six graduate credits per semester to count as full-time. Graduate students who are not GAs and enrolled in fewer than nine credits in a semester are considered part-time students. Please note the exceptions below:

For federal financial aid purposes, any graduate student who is enrolled in fewer than nine graduate credits in a semester will be considered a part-time student even if they are a graduate assistant.
For graduate students who are United States veterans who are using veteran education benefits, enrollment in five to eight credits is considered half-time; fewer than five enrolled credits is considered less than half-time.
International students must refer to the Enrollment Policy for International Students section for more information on enrollment requirements.

Grade Point Average

A candidate for a graduate degree or certificate must have a minimum Graduate Program GPA of 3.00 to be eligible to graduate or receive a certificate. The Graduate Program GPA, computed by the Graduate College, includes all completed graduate coursework accepted at admission and all subsequently approved coursework that is being applied toward a degree or certificate via the Plan of Study form Parts I and II. This Graduate Program GPA is different from the cumulative graduate GPA listed on the student’s transcript. The cumulative graduate GPA reflects all of the graduate-level courses taken while a graduate student (graduate degree and/or non-degree) in any certificate or program at UNLV.

Graduate-Level Grades

At UNLV the following symbols are used in reporting and recording graduate student grades:

A - Superior (4.0)

B - Passing (3.0)

C - Below Average (2.0)

D - Deficient (1.0)

F - Fail

AD - Audit (not graded, no credit toward GPA)

I - Incomplete (see guidelines below)

S - Satisfactory

U- Unsatisfactory

X- Hold: Grade is used only for thesis or dissertation courses. Grade is changed upon successful completion of thesis or dissertation by the Graduate College on receipt of a passing Culminating Experience Results form

Faculty members have the option of using plus (+) and minus (-) for grades of A, B, C, and D. Exception: A+ grades are not given. At the graduate level, grades below a B are generally considered unacceptable. Graduate students must have a 3.0 GPA in order to qualify for graduation.

Note: At the graduate level, grades below a B or B- (depending on the program) are often considered unacceptable and some program handbooks prohibit students from using course grades below a specific cut-off on their degree program. All graduate students must have a graduate program GPA of 3.0 or higher in order to qualify for graduation. A course in which the student earns a grade lower than C may never be used to fulfill graduate degree or certificate requirements.

Incomplete Grades or “I”

The grade of ‘I’ — incomplete — can be granted when a student has satisfactorily completed at least three-fourths of the semester but, for reason(s) beyond the student’s control that are acceptable to the instructor, the student cannot complete the course, and the instructor believes that the student can finish the coursework without repeating the entire course again. In this case, the following rules apply:

The ‘I’ grade is used for content/lecture type courses (not thesis, dissertation, or select professional paper credits) designed to be completed within one year in instances where the student has completed the majority of the semester coursework, but is unable to complete all of the requirements with good cause. The professor is responsible for determining if the reason for non-completion is satisfactory, if an Incomplete grade is appropriate, and the terms of the Incomplete including what the student needs to do to successfully complete the course requirements as stated in the course syllabus to earn a final grade.
An ‘I’ may only be given when the majority of the coursework has been completed with a cumulative average of ‘B’ or better.
Graduate students receiving an ‘I’ grade have one calendar year to complete all course requirements and remove the ‘I’ grade; however, the instructor may require that it be made up in less time. If course requirements are not completed within one year, the Registrar’s Office will automatically record a grade of ‘F’. Undergraduate students enrolled in graduate-level courses must complete the coursework within one semester or the “I” will default to an “F.”

Graduate Students Taking Undergraduate-Level Courses

If a graduate student enrolls in undergraduate-level courses in their graduate career (under a graduate non-degree-seeking or graduate degree- or certificate-seeking program), the undergraduate course enrollment will be marked as “cross-career” on the student’s official transcript and those courses will not contribute to earned credits or graduate GPA.

If graduate students need undergraduate-level courses to show as earned credit on their transcript for employment or educational reasons, they must submit and pay for an undergraduate non-degree seeking application through the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and register for those courses in an undergraduate career.
If a graduate student takes undergraduate courses in their graduate career and needs them changed to reflect earned credit at a later date, they will be required to submit and pay for an undergraduate non-degree seeking application through the Office of Undergraduate Admissions in order for the coursework to be moved.

Graduate Credit

All courses numbered 500-999 or above are considered graduate-level. Undergraduate-level courses are numbered 100-499. Some graduate level courses are not usable for graduate credits. One example of this are courses with an RPDP prefix; these are non-graduate credit granting courses and are indicated as such on the UNLV transcript.

500-level classes are generally seen as remedial graduate courses, and they may also be used for non-degree, non-credit bearing courses; these may be cross-listed with 300 or 400 level undergraduate courses, with appropriate curricular review and approval.

600-level classes are generally seen as foundational graduate coursework, and/or masters level coursework; these courses may be cross-listed with 400-level undergraduate courses, with appropriate curricular review and approval. When cross-listed with an undergraduate course, graduate student course requirements will be different from, and more rigorous than, those of undergraduates. As much as possible, 600-level graduate classes should not be cross-listed with undergraduate courses unless there are specific disciplinary, accreditation, and/or programmatic reasons to do so.

700+-level classes are generally seen as advanced graduate coursework and/or doctoral level coursework; they may not be cross-listed with undergraduate courses.

Office of the Registrar and Schedules

The Office of the Registrar is the official repository of academic calendars, term calendars, and final exam schedules. Students can also find the Class Search and the Course Catalog in the MyUNLV registration system.

Pass/Fail Grades

The Satisfactory (S) or Failing (F), or Satisfactory (S) or Unsatisfactory (U) marks are used upon completion of the thesis, dissertation, professional paper, or for non-credit or satisfactory/fail courses. Grade-point values are not assigned for S or U grades. F grades are calculated as a zero on transcripts and in the graduate GPA.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the university allowed graduate students to opt for Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) grading for the following semesters: spring 2020, summer 2020, fall 2020, spring 2021, summer 2021, and fall 2021. From classes held in spring 2020 through fall 2021, the university considered letter grades of “B-” or higher as equivalent to “S”, and grades of “C+” or lower as equivalent to “U”. Graduate students in most programs (excluding students in some graduate programs due to licensure requirements) will be permitted to count up to six credits of “Satisfactory” graded coursework from summer 2020 through fall 2021 toward master’s or doctoral degree requirements.

Beyond the COVID-19 exception described above, UNLV allows a maximum of three (3) graduate coursework satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U) units to apply towards a master’s degree, and up to six (6) credits of S/U or S/F coursework may be used toward doctoral degrees, excluding the S/U or S/F units allowed for the comprehensive examination, professional paper and thesis/dissertation units, but including transfer units. No pass/fail, satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U), satisfactory/fail (S/F), credits may be transferred in unless they were earned in the spring/summer/fall 2020 or 2021 semesters/trimesters/quarters during the COVID-19 pandemic. For graduate courses, a grade of “S” indicates achievement equivalent to a “B” or above. The grade of “U” represents performance equivalent to a “B-” or below.

Transcripts of Credit

Official transcripts bear the university seal, the registrar’s signature, and reflect all academic work attempted at UNLV. Current students may access their unofficial transcript in their MyUNLV Student Center. Official transcripts are copies of student academic records of all work attempted at UNLV and bear the seal of the university and the registrar’s signature. Official transcripts may be requested via the Office of the Registrar. Transcripts of work from other institutions or any nontraditional credit transcripts will not be issued.

Undergraduates Taking Graduate-Level Courses

Undergraduate students who have completed a minimum of 90 semester credits and have a 3.00 or higher grade point average may enroll in graduate courses. Students in the Honors Program must have a minimum of 45 semester credits and a 3.00 or higher grade point average. The Approval for an Undergraduate to Enroll in Graduate-Level Coursework form, available on the Forms page of the Graduate College website must be completed and approved by the academic department and the Graduate College in order for permission to enroll to be granted. Students may enroll in up to six graduate-level credits during one semester.

Reserving Courses for Graduate Credit - Upon approval, and pursuant to the policy above, UNLV undergraduates may enroll in graduate-level coursework and reserve the credits earned for possible future use in an advanced degree program. Students must indicate that they are reserving the credit on the Approval for an Undergraduate to Enroll in Graduate-Level Coursework form. After approval of the form, the Graduate College notifies the Office of the Registrar, and that office adds a notation to the student’s transcript in MyUNLV indicating the courses have been reserved. Coursework reserved for graduate credit may not be used to satisfy baccalaureate degree requirements.

Graduate Courses for Undergraduate Credit - Upon approval, UNLV undergraduates may enroll in graduate-level coursework for use in an undergraduate degree program. Students must indicate that they are not reserving the credit on the Approval for an Undergraduate to Enroll in Graduate-Level Coursework form. Courses used in an undergraduate program may not be applied toward an advanced degree at a later date.

Unit of Credit

The unit of credit, or semester hour, is generally defined as one 50-minute lecture per week for a semester. Two or three laboratory hours per week, depending on the amount of outside preparation required, usually carries the same credit as one lecture hour. UNLV follows the NWCCU guidelines and requirements for hours per credit.

Navigation:

Next: The Graduate Student Lifecycle

Previous: Admissions Policies (listed alphabetically)

Registrar’s Office

Find

Quick Links

Registration, Enrollment and Curricular Policies (listed alphabetically)