See below for
- Advising and Registration / Waiting Lists
- Completing Registration
- Verifying Registration Online
- Final Exams
- Course Grade
- Changes of Grade
- Repeating Courses / Effect of repeated courses on gpa
- Grade Point Average / How GPA is calculated
To enroll in courses at Catholic University, students must complete the registration process. CUA uses the Cardinal Station registration system.
Registration for the coming semester begins approximately one month before the end of the Fall and Spring semesters. To access the Cardinal Station registration system, the student needs: (1) login ID; (2) password; (3) online schedule of classes; (4) choices of classes for the coming semester (including alternates in case first choices are not available), worked out in consultation with the academic adviser.
A. Advising and Registration
Prior to the date designated for your class to begin registering, make an appointment with your adviser. Be prepared for your meeting with your adviser by bringing your tracking sheet and preliminary choices of courses for the coming semester. During the meeting, you and your adviser will discuss your academic goals and go over your tracking sheet to determine what requirements remain and how the chosen courses will fulfill those requirements.
Waiting lists
For some closed courses, you may place your name on a Waiting List within the Cardinal Students system. However, you are not registered for a course if you are on its waiting list, and that course's credits are not included in determining full-time status or eligibility for financial aid. You should never count on getting into a closed course, even if you are on the waiting list. Please register for alternate courses while you wait to see if you are able to move from the waiting list into the course.
To change courses following your initial registration: see the section on DROPPING AND ADDING COURSES (CHANGE OF ENROLLMENT) in this handbook.
CAUTION: It is your responsibility to check with your adviser to see how any alternate choices, or changes of courses after your advising session, will affect your academic program. It is very dangerous to drop or add courses without being aware of how the changes affect requirements for your degree.
B. Completing Registration
The University requires that all students complete registration by the date designated in the Academic Calendar. Registration is not complete until tuition and other charges are paid in full or satisfactory arrangements made with the Office of Enrollment Services. Students with incomplete registration will be dropped from class lists. The university will not retroactively register individuals who attend classes for which they are not officially registered.
C. Verifying Registration online
Students can verify their registration at any time by looking at their Student Center in Cardinal Station. It is important to verify your registration early in each semester. This is your responsibility, not the responsibility of your adviser or your teachers. Discrepancies can be handled using the DROP/ADD procedure or (in difficult cases) by contacting the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs office for assistance. Remember that a student will not receive a grade in a course for which he or she is not properly registered, and will receive an F* if registered but not attending.
CAUTION: Being on a Waiting List does not register you for a course.
NOTE: Because verification of enrollment is available to each student at any time, there is no valid justification for mistakenly attending a class without being properly registered. A student who is not registered may not attend a class, with or without the instructor's knowledge or permission.
D. Final exams
Many, but not all, courses have final exams. These are held during the week following the last class and according to a special final examination schedule published by the Registrar and available .
The syllabus for each course should specify whether the course has a final exam and, if so, when it will be held according to the published schedule. By university policy, final exams must be given according to this schedule and may not be given early or at alternate times.
A student having an exam scheduling conflict such as:
- two or more exams scheduled for the same time period
- three or more exams scheduled for one day must report to the Undergraduate Dean's Office in McMahon 107 no later than fourteen calendar days before the end of classes. Ms. Patty Galindo (Galindo@cua.edu) will assist the student in rescheduling the exam(s) for the courses having the lowest enrollment(s). All make-up exams must be completed at the earliest possible time during the final examination period.
CAUTION: Make sure that you take the final examination schedule into account in making travel, work, or other plans for the end of a semester.
E. Course grades
Following the conclusion of each semester, students can access the Cardinal Station system for a grade report.
Once posted, a course grade is final and can be changed only by the Dean, for specific reasons as outlined below.
Full information on university policy concerning grades is found at http://policies.cua.edu
A grade assigned for work in a course is subject to change by the dean only, and only in these specific circumstances:
- in the case of a specific error, which may be corrected upon the request of the professor of the course, in writing, to the dean no later than one month after the beginning of the succeeding semester; or
- in the case of a successful challenge to a failing grade after action in accordance with the established university procedures outlines in the Appeal of Failing Grades Policy. Students should note that the Appeal of Failing Grades Policy applies only in cases where the student can demonstrate that a grade was given for reasons based on nonacademic criteria.
Grade change requests will not be approved if based on work submitted after the end of the course or on "extra credit" opportunities not offered during the semester to all students in the class.
G. Repeating courses
A student can receive credit for a given course only once.
CAUTION WITH TRANSFER COURSES: It is particularly important that a course proposed for transfer from another institution be evaluated ahead of time to make sure the course does not overlap a course previously taken at CUA. In addition, take care not to enroll for a CUA course whose content overlaps a course previously transferred.
Replacing or averaging grades in repeated courses:
Sometimes it is necessary to repeat a course, either because the student did not pass or because the grade was below a minimum requirement. When a course is repeated, both instances (with grades) appear on the transcript, but any credit earned on the first attempt no longer counts. If the previous grade was D or F, the second grade replaces the first in the cumulative grade point average; if the previous grade was C- or above, then both grades will be calculated for the cumulative GPA.
H. Grade point average (GPA):
The university uses grade point averages to indicate a student’s progress toward a degree and the quality of his or her academic work. At the end of each semester and summer term, Cardinal Station calculates both a semester grade point average, reflecting the student¹s work for the term just ended, and a cumulative grade point average, based on all CUA academic work to that point. Semester grade point average is the basis of the Dean¹s List.
Cumulative grade point average is the determining factor in many outcomes, both good (retaining scholarships, internships, study abroad, BA/MA programs, and University Honors) and bad (losing scholarships, probation, ineligibility for extra-curricular activities, and academic dismissal).
How GPA is calculated: Each course is assigned a number of credit hours (most commonly 3 credits per course). Each grade is assigned a number of quality points: A-=4.0, A-=3.7; B+=3.3; B=3.0; B-=2.7; C+=2.3; C=2.0; C-=1.7; D=1.0; F=0. (There is no A+, D+, or D-.).
NOTE: Transfer courses are not included in CUA grade point average.
Semester grade point average: For each course taken that semester, the quality points for the course grade are multiplied by the number of semester-hour credits carried by the course, resulting in total quality points for that course. (For example, a B+ in a 3-credit course equals 9.9 quality points (3.3 x 3) for that course.
The quality points for all courses taken that semester are added together, then total quality points for the semester are divided by the total credit hours for all courses taken during that semester. This result is the semester grade point average.
Cumulative grade point average: Quality points for all courses taken at CUA are added together, and the total credit hours taken at CUA are separately added together. The total quality points for all courses taken at CUA are divided by the total credit hours taken at CUA. This result is the cumulative grade point average.
Updated August 9, 2021