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Dismissal

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Dismissals:

  1. What is it?
  2. Why do students get dismissed?
  3. Who gets dismissed?
  4. If I'm dismissed, what should I do?
  5. Do dismissed students get back in?
  6. Does everyone who asks get back in sooner or later?
  7. If I'm on probation now, and the current term isn't going well, what should I do?
  1. What is it?
    The Academic Standards Board will dismiss some students at the end of a term. A dismissal ("Academic Stop") means that you cannot enroll again in LS&A until the Board says you can. Board members notify you by letter, and place an academic hold on the computer and on the official transcript, and if you are already enrolled in the next term, they withdraw you. Only the Board can change a dismissal.

  2. Why do students get dismissed?
    The LS&A faculty believes that students have to be dismissed if they are performing so poorly that they are harming the likelihood of ever getting a degree from the College. Everybody here wants students to grow intellectually, to become more knowledgeable and more aware. But if the grades are very weak, the faculty believes that students should not continue until they are likely to get much better grades.

  3. Who gets dismissed?
    If you are on probation and your next term's grades do not meet the requirements of probation, you might be dismissed. The greater the gap between what you earned and what probation requires, the greater is the chance of a dismissal. Even if you are not on probation you might get dismissed if the most recent term is extraordinarily weak (for example, a term average of 0.600) or if you have gone sharply below 2.0 in your desired concentration. Board members evaluate everything about the academic record, and the decision to dismiss is not made simply based on grade point average, though of course grades are at the heart of the issue.

  4. If I'm dismissed, what should I do?
    Your real job is to figure out why the grades are as they are-- be thorough and honest in this self-analysis-- and to identify and test changes or solutions so that you can be confident that grades in a future registration would be significantly better. Doing all this takes time, and hard work, and you probably can't do it alone. So meeting with a Board member is a good idea. Dismissal letters typically say that students should not expect to get back in immediately. This is because very quick solutions tend not to be real.

  5. Do dismissed students get back in?
    Yes, a majority of those who ask do get back in, at least over a period of eight months or more. Simplistically, students who are out at least eight months perform better after returning than those who returned more quickly.

  6. Does everyone who asks get back in sooneror later?
    No. It is possible to have done so much damage to a record that no return, ever, can be allowed. Board members try very hard to intervene before the record gets that bad.

  7. If I'm on probation now, and the current term isn't going well, what should I do?
    Talk to a Board member, and the sooner the better. This is true when the current term is very rough even if you're not on probation. Face up the way things are going, think very carefully about why this is happening to you, and consult with someone to get help. Board members will examine your practical choices with you and also will help you to deal with a dismissal if that is what is going to happen.

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