Course Loads

Southern University operates on a semester system consisting of two 16-week periods. In addition, Southern offers two four week summer terms, and a concurrent eight-week summer term. One credit under the semester system is equal to 1.5-quarter credits. 

Full-time Graduate students may enroll in a maximum of 12 hours in fall and spring semesters or 9 hours in summer term. Graduate students with assistantships may enroll in a maximum of 12 hours in the fall and spring semesters. Minimum registration for full-time graduate students is nine credits during the fall and spring semester. The minimum for the summer term is six credits. 

A normal academic load for a full-time graduate student is 9-12 credit hours; however, under specific circumstances, individual programs may require more. Fifteen (15) hours may be allowed in Fall/Spring with a GPA of 3.5 and above and a supporting letter of justification from the chair/advisor. 

Part-time Graduate students must register for a minimum of 3 credit hours and no more than 8 credit hours to maintain part- time enrollment status in the fall and spring semesters. While graduate students may be required by their major program to register for a greater number of credit hours, they must enroll at least for the required minimum credit hours.

Independent Studies: No Graduate students shall be allowed to take more than two (2) courses in any program of study per semester. 

Course Numbering System 

Undergraduate courses numbered 100-399 may not be used as any part of the graduate degree requirements, including the requirement for a period of concentrated study. A maximum of two undergraduate courses (400-499) may be used for graduate credit when taken as part of an approved graduate program, provided: 

• The student advises the instructor, prior to taking the course, that it is being taken for graduate credit 
• The instructor assigns the student additional work (over and above the work of an undergraduate student). 

Courses numbered 500 and above are limited to graduate students, with the exception of the policy described under Undergraduate Student Registration (privileged seniors) in Graduate Courses. 

A complete list of approved graduate courses appears in the section of this catalog entitled Fields of Instruction. Departments reserve the right to decide which of these graduate courses will be offered in a given semester and the departments should be consulted concerning available courses.

Course Repetition 

A student may repeat a graduate course only once for credit and it must be a repeat and delete of the same course enrolled in at the university. When a course is repeated at Southern University, hours pursued, hours earned, and quality points of previous attempts are excluded from the calculation of cumulative averages. When a student repeats a course for credit, the last grade earned is the official grade. Both grades will appear on the transcript. Students repeating courses must identify such courses on their registration forms or on the program change forms. However, courses designated as variable credits (e.g. 1-15 credit hours) may be repeated for credit up to the maximum number of credit hours indicated for those respective courses. Variable credits are primarily courses such as research, thesis, dissertation, clinical, practicum, etc. 

This policy does not provide a provision for students who fail graduate courses at the university and wish to enroll in a similar course at another university for a repeat/delete. The Graduate School does not have policy agreements with other universities and colleges regarding repeat/delete of graduate courses taken at Southern University-Baton Rouge. 

Course Substitutions 

Substitutions of courses in a student's approved Plan of Study may be permitted upon the written approval of the student's advisor, the department chair, the dean of his/her college and the Dean of the Graduate School. The dean of the Graduate School will make the final decision on course substitutions. A request for course substitutions must be submitted on forms designated for this purpose and available in the Graduate School.

Students who wish to request course substitutions should be aware of the following: 

• Three typed copies of the request must be fully completed. The student, the student's advisor, the department chair- person and the dean of the student's college, must sign all copies before being submitted to the Graduate School
• Undergraduate courses (below the 500 level) cannot be substituted for graduate courses (at the 500 level or above), except in special cases where appropriate supporting documentation can be provided by the course instructor to the effect that 400 level courses involved graduate level content (limited to a maximum of two courses) and were taken for graduate credit 
• The content of the substitution course must be similar or comparable to the required course being Substituted. Three copies of the course outline, catalog description, or syllabus of both the substitution course and the course being substituted must be attached to the request for course substitution 
• The number of credit hours of the substitution course must be equal to or greater than the number of credit hours for the course being substituted (e.g. a two-credit course cannot be substituted for a three credit course) 
• Requests for substitution must be submitted for approval prior to the substitution course(s) being taken. It is suggested that requests be submitted no later than one month prior to the beginning of the semester in which the student intends to take the substitution course 
• Master's degree substitutions are limited to a maximum of twelve credit hours, including credits transferred from other institutions. For doctoral degrees, a maximum of six semester credit hours may be substituted as indicated under the requirements for Ph. D. degrees 

PLEASE PLAN AHEAD. Poor planning and/or the desire to graduate in a certain semester is not an acceptable reason/excuse to violate the above or any other policies and procedures of the Graduate School.

Grading System 

The Graduate School adheres to the quality point system of four points per semester hour for an "A," three points for a "B" two points for a "C", one point for a "0" and 0 point for "F". For example, 3.0 indicates a "B". 

The only grades accepted for graduate credits are "A," "B," "C", and "P". A grade of "0" will not be accepted for graduate credit. 

A grade of "P" is usually awarded only in the following courses: Supervised Research, Supervised Clinical or Practicum, Master's Research, Special Project, Advanced Research, Doctoral Research Thesis and Dissertation. 

Additional courses for which a grade of "P" may apply are noted in the departmental listings. No other courses-graduate or undergraduate- may be taken for a "P" grade. Grade points are not designated for "P" grades; "P" grades are not used in calculating the grade-point average.