ACADEMIC RULES THAT AFFECT UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Double concentrations

Students may not pursue a double concentration of any program offered within the Departments of MCDB, EEB, or the Program in Biology. These concentrations include: Cell and Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Biology, General Biology, Plant Biology, and Neuroscience. Students also may not pursue a double concentration in CMB and Biochemistry, because these concentrations have too many courses in common. Students may pursue a double concentration in Chemistry and any of the other concentrations listed above.

Waiver of requirements

Concentration prerequisites or required courses cannot be waived! However, substitutions for prerequisites may be approved if the student demonstrates that he or she has mastered the topic of a prerequisite. For instance, a student who did not achieve a high enough score on the AP exam to receive credit for calculus, but nonetheless elected Math 215 and received a passing grade, should have 215 approved as satisfying the calculus requirement.

Advanced Placement credit for high school work

Students who receive a score of 4 or 5 on the Biology AP test will receive credit for Biology 162, and are eligible to register for any course listing introductory biology as a prerequisite.
Students who receive credit for Biology 162 by virtue of their AP test, and elect to take Biology 162, will lose the Advanced Placement credit.

Students who receive a score of 3 on the AP exam will receive credit for biology 100. Such students will need to take Biology 162 to satisfy their introductory biology requirement, and will receive full credit for this course.

Credit limit on introductory level courses

Students may receive no more than 12 credits for biology courses numbered 199 and below.

Credit for course work at other schools

The Credit Evaluators in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions will evaluate credits received at other institutions. Often, the Admissions Office will assign generic credit at the 100, 200, or 300 level. If a student wishes to receive the exact course equivalent for a transfer course, he/she needs to meet with the professor who teaches the course at Michigan for a determination as to whether or not this is appropriate. The Admission Office will check if the grade the student received qualifies for transfer credit. In general, a grade of at least C- is required.

All introductory biology courses taken elsewhere transfer as Departmental credit. The concentration advisor or introductory biology coordinator can determine whether or not the course is equivalent to Biology 162, or to a course for non-majors. To receive credit for having satisfied the introductory biology requirement, the student needs to have completed a course that covered cell and molecular biology, genetics, ecology, evolution, plant and animal biology, and had labs. Two-semester introductory sequences at four-year institutions will almost always meet these criteria. So will some two-semester sequences at community colleges, but the syllabi for transfers from community colleges will be carefully reviewed to verify that the student is adequately prepared to move into upper level biology courses.

A student who has completed 60 credit hours at the University of Michigan cannot take courses at a two-year institution and transfer them for credit. With permission of the concentration advisor, a student who has attained junior status may use courses at a community college to fulfill prerequisites. Usually, a minimum grade is required, although credits will not transfer.

No more than 60 credits achieved at institutions other than University of Michigan can be counted toward a degree.

Students may fulfill some of their concentration requirements at other schools, but they should be advised to take as many courses as possible at U of M. No more than half of the credits included in a concentration program may be acquired at institutions other than University of Michigan.

Students who want to take a course at another university to satisfy a specific concentration requirement are advised to receive approval in advance. Otherwise, they may only receive generic credit which will not fulfill the requirement.

Grading

Letter grades must be assigned to all courses fulfilling concentration requirements. LS&A permits students to fulfill concentration prerequisites on a pass/fail basis. A grade of at least C- is required to achieve a passing grade in a pass/fail course.

To graduate with any concentration, a student must achieve an overall grade point average of 2.0. A grade of D- is still a passing grade as long as the overall GPA in the concentration is acceptable. A passing grade generates honor points, which are used to calculate the GPA.

Credits for a repeated course that was passed the first time will not count towards graduation. Grades for repeated courses will be indicated on the transcript each time the course is repeated; however the repeat grade will only contribute toward the student’s GPA when the initial grade for the course was D+ or below.

“I” (incomplete) and “X” (absent from exam) grades must be made up by the fourth week of the next fall or winter semester in which the student is enrolled. Otherwise, the grade will lapse to “E”.

Students dissatisfied with grades received in Biology courses may pursue grade grievance procedures, which can be obtained from Undergraduate Student Services.