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A student must register for a course before attending, and will not receive credit unless registered.

Students must attend the first day of class in order to secure their place in the course. The instructor has the option to drop a student from the class roster if the student was not in attendance on the first day of the session. Students must not assume they have been dropped if they did not attend the first day of class. To officially withdraw from the class, the student must consult with the DFC Associate Dean of Academics and file a Change in Registration form with the Office of the University Registrar or drop the course using the Web registration system.

Each student is required to meet with his/her faculty mentor to begin the registration process each semester. There are two concurrent registration periods – summer sessions and fall semester in April; January term and spring semester in November. Each student will work with his/her faculty mentor to register for classes

Most undergraduate courses at St. Thomas are 4-credit courses, although some departments also offer 0-credit or 2-credit courses. Each course is assigned a subject-area code consisting of four letters, which designates the department or discipline, followed by a three-digit number. For example, ENGL 121 is the English course numbered 121.

Courses offered through the Dougherty Family College have numbers that begin with either 1 or 2, which indicates they are lower-division courses.

The number of class meetings for a course varies with the nature of the course. indicates the days and times each class meets.

Dougherty Family College is based on an academic cohort model allowing students to take classes together and receive intensive mentoring and other academic and social support. The courses in the curriculum were selected to provide graduates of Dougherty Family College with a pathway to four-year degree programs at St. Thomas and other colleges and universities.

Students who have previously earned credits during high school (e.g. AP, IB, CIS, PSEO) will be required to cecline those credits for equivalent courses that are offered in the curriculum for the Associate of Arts Degree. All other credits for non-equivalent courses will be treated as elective credits at Dougherty Family College.

The normal course load for fall and spring semesters is 16 credits. Students may take no more than the number of credits listed below without endorsement of their faculty advisor and approval of the relevant dean. Students are advised to seek this approval before registration begins.

Credit Limits

• Fall semester: 16 credits
• January term: 4 credits
• Spring semester: 16 credits
• Summer term: 8 credits (4 credits per summer session)

Students on academic probation may register for no more than 16 credits.

A student must consult with his/her faculty mentor and associate dean of academics to add and/or drop a course because it impacts financial aid and progress toward degree completion.

Note: DFC students may not withdraw from individual courses.

Dougherty Family College students should immediately consult with their faculty mentors and associate dean of academics when thinking about withdrawing from all classes. Students may withdraw from the university (that is, withdraw from all classes) at any time by contacting the Academic Counseling & Support Office, but should use the Murphy Online process or paper Drop/Add form to withdraw their class registrations as soon as they decide to take that action. The standard withdrawal calendar as defined in the Changes in Registration section determines how the withdrawal will be recorded on the transcript. Students who withdraw from all classes must return any items that belong to the university (e.g., laptop computer and accessories, metro pass, etc.). Tuition refunds, if any, are established by the tuition refund schedule posted in the section on conditions determining tuition refunds.

New Students will be assigned a faculty mentor and receive their class schedule during their mandatory Summer Enrichment Program.

A student may retake a course if her or his grade or mark is F, R, D-, D, or D+. If the course is retaken at St. Thomas, only the higher grade will be used to compute the GPA. Credit will not be given more than once for the same course. Both notations, however, will remain on the transcript.

If the course is retaken elsewhere, the student must obtain preapproval from the relevant department to confirm that the course is equivalent to the course originally taken at St. Thomas.

If the student earns a C- or higher after taking the off-campus course, the course can transfer to St. Thomas to fulfill a requirement, but credit will not be given for the course the second time and the St. Thomas grade will not be replaced in the GPA. Both notations, however, will be included on the transcript.

Note: DFC does not allow students to take required courses at another university.

Students are expected to attend the first class meeting of a course for which they are registered. Thereafter, regular attendance at classes is expected and required. Instructors will take attendance in all classes. While instructors have the authority to drop a student from a class if the student does not attend on the first day, students cannot assume that this will happen and are responsible for following the appropriate steps to withdraw from a course they do not attend. Non-attendance or minimal attendance of a class does not justify a tuition refund for the course if the instructor does not drop the student from a course and the student does not withdraw using Murphy online or the Add/drop form

Students have the responsibility to attend their classes and complete their coursework. If a student wishes to be excused from the equivalent of two class sessions per semester due to illness, a family or parenting-related emergency, it is the responsibility of that student to inform his or her instructor(s) of the absence as soon as possible.

In the case of numerous and excessive absences (total absences amounting to three class sessions per semester), students must meet with their instructors and faculty mentors to inform them of the situation responsible for the absences as soon as possible and comply with verification requests/requirements that the instructors and faculty mentors may have. Instructors should use their own discretion to determine whether the absences warrant a grade penalty, an incomplete status, a recommendation of withdrawal from the course, or the completion of coursework missed (or an appropriate equivalent) without grade penalty for late submission.

If the student misses four class sessions. The student will need to meet with the instructors, faculty mentors, and the associate dean of academics to create an action plan to address the excessive absences.