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General Academic Requirements
NAU and the Arizona Board of Regents have established certain academic requirements that you must meet to earn a graduate degree. Your adviser and others in your department are available to help you understand and meet these requirements, but ultimately you are responsible for fulfilling them.

If you do not meet all requirements for graduation, your degree will not be awarded. Therefore, you should acquaint yourself with all relevant university regulations and remain informed throughout your academic career.

In doing so, you should read this catalog carefully--particularly this chapter and the next one. Although this catalog does not establish a contractual relationship, it summarizes the requirements you must meet to qualify for a faculty recommendation to the Arizona Board of Regents to award you a degree.

In this chapter, we provide information about general academic requirements, including

In the next chapter, Degree Requirements, we describe more specific requirements for obtaining master's and doctoral degrees.

Admission to Courses
Before you register for courses, you need to understand who can take which courses as well as our course-load requirements, which we explain in the following sections.

Our course number categories indicate which courses are generally open to which students:

500-599 These graduate courses are open to graduate students and qualified undergraduate seniors.

600-699 These courses are open to all students admitted to graduate study.

700-799 These are advanced graduate courses, usually reserved for doctoral students.

Admission to Graduate Courses
You must be qualified by background and level of academic maturity to enter our graduate courses. If a course is listed with a prerequisite, you must have received credit for the prerequisite as a condition of admission to the course. Otherwise, you must present satisfactory evidence to the course's instructor that you can complete the work successfully.

You can enter a graduate course that has no prerequisites if you have been admitted to graduate study; however, we assume you have at least the equivalent of an undergraduate minor in that course area.

Undergraduates in Graduate Courses
If you are a qualified senior, you may register for a 500-level course with your adviser's permission. You can count credit for this course toward your bachelor's or a graduate degree, but not both. If you plan to count the course toward a graduate degree, you should not list it on the graduation application for your bachelor's degree.

If you are a senior in the last semester of your bachelor's program, you may enroll in a 600-level course and count it as credit toward a graduate degree with permission of the instructor and your adviser. Obtain the instructor's signature and stamp on an Override Authorization form and present it to the Registrar's Office when you register.

Course Loads
For graduate students, we consider 9 credit hours during fall and spring semester and the 10-week summer session to be full-time enrollment, and we consider 5 hours to be half time. The minimum full-time course load is 9 credit hours during fall or spring semester, and 16 hours is the maximum (12 hours for graduate assistants).

You can only carry an overload (more than the maximum hours explained above) with the approval of your adviser, the department chair, and the associate provost for graduate studies and research. To register for an overload, you must submit the appropriate approval form when you register. This form is available from the Graduate College office.

You cannot take more than 6 hours of credit during any five-week summer session or more than 1 hour per week for pre-session courses. If you register for a workshop that begins before the regular summer session and extends into it, you must reduce the number of hours for which you are registered during the summer session by the number of credit hours that the workshop overlaps the summer session. We make no exceptions to this maximum summer session load.

Registration
Registration is the process by which you enroll in academic courses. If you are new to NAU, you must be formally admitted to the university before you can register for courses.

Registration Periods
We offer three formal registration periods for each semester:

We conduct preregistration, which is open to all continuing students, in the middle of each fall and spring semester for the subsequent semester. You can simply submit your course requests to the Registrar's Office, and our computerized system schedules your courses based on availability and priority. If you are a continuing student, this is the preferred time to register because it is your earliest opportunity and the most courses are available then. In addition, it allows you to obtain courses according to your class level and other selected priorities.

We conduct on-line registration toward the end of each semester, after preregistration is complete. At the end of July and the end of fall semester, on-line registration is open to all new and continuing students. At the end of spring semester, it is open only to continuing students. If you didn't take advantage of preregistration, you can use on-line registration to register for courses. If you did participate in preregistration, you can now adjust your schedule by adding or dropping courses if needed.

We conduct arena on-line registration just before the start of each semester. It is open to all new, readmitted, and continuing students. Arena on-line registration takes place at various locations on the Flagstaff campus, including the University Fieldhouse (in conjunction with other university services that are temporarily centralized here for this event) and many of the college and school advisement centers. Arena on-line registration provides another opportunity for you to adjust your schedule by adding or dropping courses or to register for the first time.

At on-line and arena on-line registration, you register with the assistance of trained staff members who tell you whether the courses you want are open or closed. Both on-line and arena on-line registration are available on a first-come, first-served basis. See the current semester's Class Schedule for published registration dates, procedures, deadlines, and required signatures. (You must have your adviser's signature and stamp to register initially for each semester.)

Before you can participate in classroom instruction, use university facilities, or make use of the professional time of faculty members, you must be officially registered for courses. To participate in specific classroom activities, you must also be registered for that particular course.

Please be aware that you are not considered officially registered until you have met all admission requirements and have paid your tuition and fees or have had arrangements for such payments approved by the Office of Student Business Services.

Continuing Students
If you are currently enrolled at NAU or if you have previously attended and have not been absent for two or more consecutive semesters (excluding summer sessions), NAU considers you a continuing student for registration purposes. This means you need not apply for readmission to the university. As a continuing student, you may register during any of the published registration periods. See the current semester's Class Schedule for published registration dates.

To be considered in attendance for any semester, you must have:

However, if you have received all grades of W (withdrawal) and/or AU (audit) for two consecutive semesters, you are not considered a continuing student. Therefore, you must be readmitted to NAU. (See the section titled Readmission, which is in the Admissions chapter of this catalog, for more information.)

If you attend NAU only during summer sessions, you are considered a continuing student if you attend at least one session of each successive (annual) summer session from your point of admission.

Late Registration
If you register on or after the first day of instruction during a regular semester or summer session, you must pay a late registration fee. See the current semester's Class Schedule for information about this date.

Student Identification Card
When you first register, you must get a permanent identification card that will assist in identifying you as an enrolled student. For security reasons, you should carry your student ID card with you at all times and keep it secure so mis-identification and fraudulent use can't occur. Refer to the current Student Handbook for more information about student ID cards.

Student Identification Numbers
It is university practice to use Social Security numbers as student identification numbers for general recordkeeping purposes. However, NAU is not required to use Social Security numbers for these purposes; instead, we can assign a unique nine-digit number if you prefer. (Please note, however, that federal law requires that your Social Security number be supplied on any federal financial aid application.)

If you are a new graduate student, you may request an identification number through the Graduate College (building 11). If you are a currently enrolled student, you may make this request through the Registrar's Office (building 1), NAU, PO Box 4103, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4103 (800-255-2916 nationwide or 520-523-2108).

Course Changes
With the help of your academic adviser, you should plan your course schedule carefully to avoid having to make changes after you register. If you do need to make changes during the semester, you must use the following procedures to add or drop individual courses. (If you wish to withdraw from all courses, see the section titled Withdrawing from NAU, later in this chapter.)

Your first attempt to register for any semester, whether at preregistration, on-line registration, or arena registration, requires registration forms with adviser signatures and departmental stamps. After your initial registration is complete, adviser's signatures and departmental stamps are not required for adds or drops.

Refer to the current Class Schedule, the Statewide Academic Programs Class Schedule, or the Summer Session Bulletin for specific dates and procedures for adding or dropping courses.

Adding a Course
If the course you wish to add is open, you may add it during the first week of the semester.

During the second week, you must get the instructor's signature and stamp to add it. It is the instructor's prerogative to judge whether you can enter the course late and successfully fulfill its requirements.

From the third week of the semester on, you may not add courses.

You may add mini-courses and summer session courses on a schedule with the same proportion as is used for fall and spring semesters.

You may petition the Registrar's Office in writing for an exception to the add policy. Your petition requires justification and the written approvals of your adviser, the course instructor, the chair of the department offering the course, and the dean of the college or school offering the course. In applying for an exception, you must provide specific and verifiable reason(s) that your petition should be granted and enclose the applicable fees. Petitions for exceptions are not automatically approved.

Dropping a Course
You may drop a course through the eighth week of the semester. If you drop a course through the fourth week, we delete the course from your permanent record; between the fourth and eighth weeks, we record a grade of W (withdrawal).

You may drop mini-courses and summer session courses on a schedule with the same proportion as is used for fall and spring semesters. If you drop a mini-course after the regular drop-delete deadline, you will receive a grade of W. (See the current semester's Class Schedule for dates.)

Be aware that if you are receiving financial aid or have a graduate assistantship, dropping a course may jeopardize your eligibility for continued funding.

You may petition the Registrar's Office in writing for an exception to the drop policy. The petition requires justification and the written approvals of your adviser, the course instructor, the chair of the department offering the course, and the dean of the college or school offering the course. In applying for an exception, you must provide specific and verifiable reason(s) that your petition should be granted. Petitions for exceptions are not automatically approved.

If you have not participated in a course but also have not officially dropped that course and your name appears on the final grade report, you receive a failing grade for that course. Your instructor cannot record a W on the final grade report.

Administrative Drop
If you have not completed the prerequisites for a course as stated in the catalog or if you are absent from class during the first week, you may be administratively dropped from the course before the twenty-first day of the semester. If you are dropped in this manner, you will receive confirmation from the Registrar's Office.

Do not rely on your instructor to drop you from courses that you want to drop. You are responsible for changing your own course schedule.

Class Attendance
You are responsible for regularly attending all courses for which you are registered.

Should an absence from class be unavoidable, you are responsible for reporting the reason to your instructors. (Be aware that Fronske Health Center does not provide documentation of your health problems.) In addition, you are responsible for making up any work you miss. Your instructors are under no obligation to make special arrangements for you if you are absent.

You should know that Arizona Board of Regents' policy forbids discrimination because of your religious beliefs or practices or any absences resulting from them. In addition, you cannot be discriminated against for seeking a religious accommodation pursuant to this policy.

continue on in the General Academic Requirements chapter