Office of the Registrar

Satisfactory Progress

If you are pursuing a baccalaureate degree, you are expected to make satisfactory progress toward the attainment of that degree and are expected to enter a major and graduate after completion of a reasonable number of credits and quarters. The satisfactory progress policy looks at your total credits, but when counting quarters, only regular academic-year quarters – autumn, winter, and spring – are considered. The courses and credits you take during summer quarters count towards your degree requirements and are included in your credit total. Summer quarters are not added to your satisfactory progress quarter total and, thus, do not count against the number of quarters you may complete before the satisfactory progress credit limit is enforced.

NOTE: Individual departments may have additional satisfactory progress requirements. For Financial Aid satisfactory progress information click here.

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The 105-Credit Rule

Undergraduates must declare a major by the time they have completed five (5) academic-year quarters and earned 105 credits or a hold will be placed on their registration until they either declare a major, or meet with an adviser and receive a pre-major extension. The hold is placed on the student record when five (5) or more academic-year quarters and 105 or more credits have been completed. Transfer students who are admitted to the University with 105 or more credits are expected to declare a major before their second quarter at the UW, or obtain an extension from an adviser.

You will be granted a pre-major extension if your adviser decides that you are pursuing a reasonable goal, and have a good chance of gaining admission to your intended major. The extension will be granted for the number of quarters it should take you to complete the admission requirements of your major.

You will receive a warning letter from the University as you approach five (5) academic-year quarters and 105 credits, if you have not yet declared a major. If you complete five (5) academic-year quarters and 105 credits and are still a pre-major, the registration system will not let you register for the next quarter. To avoid registration delays, meet with the appropriate adviser at least one quarter before you complete five (5) academic-year quarters and 105 credits.

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The 210-Credit Rule

The University’s satisfactory progress policy requires students to complete their undergraduate degree programs within 30 credits beyond the minimum required for the degree. Because most degrees require 180 credits, students generally must complete their programs by the time they earn 210 credits. The timing for enforcement of this policy is as follows:

  • For a student who first matriculates at the University on a freshman application the satisfactory progress policy is enforced after a student has completed 12 academic-year quarters, not including summer quarters, at the University.
  • For a student who first matriculates at UW on a transfer application, the satisfactory progress policy is enforced after the student has completed:
    • Twelve (12) quarters at the University if the student enters with less than one year of college work (less than 45 credits transferred from another institution).
    • Nine (9) quarters at the University if the student enters the University with more than one year of college work and less than two years (more than 44 and less than 90 credits transferred from another institution).
    • Six (6) quarters at the University if the student enters UWS with two or more years of college work (90 or more credits transferred from another institution).

Undergraduates who have completed over 210 credits will be notified by email the third week of the quarter that a block is being placed on their registration due to lack of satisfactory progress. Students ineligible to graduate will be permitted to register for succeeding quarters only if they receive approval from their program after filing a graduation plan.

Students receiving satisfactory progress registration blocks should immediately contact their program adviser to file a graduation application or to initiate a satisfactory progress appeal.

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Full-Time Requirements

You should register for 12 or more credits to be considered full-time if you are an undergraduate student. If you are a graduate student, you should register for 10 or more credits. It is important to note that differing criteria and standards for full-time enrollment exist for eligibility in certain programs. Consult the Financial Aid Office for its requirements on satisfactory student progress. The tuition schedule does not reflect full-time credit requirements for loan deferments, teaching assistantships or other programs.

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Class Attendance

If you do not attend regularly scheduled class meetings during the first week of the quarter, you are subject to being dropped at the discretion of the teaching department to allow enrollment space for other students. Affected courses should be identified in the Time Schedule and/or posted in program offices. Do not assume that departments will automatically drop you from the course if you do not attend. If you are not going to go to class, you should drop the course through the registration system. Students who are registered for a course section but do not attend will be assigned a failing grade by the instructor. You may not attend a University course in which you have not been officially registered after the first two weeks of the quarter.

An instructor may allow you to attend his or her class only if your name appears on the official class list from Office of the Registrar. A faculty member may attend informally with the approval of the instructor.

Postbaccalaureate Students

Postbaccalaureate students are expected to be either preparing for admission into a degree program, seeking an additional baccalaureate degree, or working toward a certificate.

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Excessive Course Repeats/Drops

The Committee on Admissions and Academic Standards may terminate your enrollment if you have demonstrated lack of academic progress as evidenced by excessive course repeats, course drops, or University withdrawals and cancellations. You may be reinstated with the approval of your program and the Committee.

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Registration Tampering

A student who tampers or attempts to tamper with the registration records of another student, including but not limited to dropping courses and adding courses, may be subject to disciplinary sanctions as defined in the Student Conduct Code (WAC 478-120).

Registration Abuse

To help conserve University resources and ensure the registration system is available to all, students are locked out of Web Registration after a specific number of excessive transactions are made per day. This threshold is sufficient for students’ regular use and should not interfere with typical use. The use of robots and other automated tools to submit registration requests is expressly forbidden.

If your account is locked out for excessive use, you must wait until the registration system removes the lockout (within 24 hours). The Office of the Registrar is unable to override a locked account.

System Abuse

Because use of scripts, robots, or other automated queries can adversely impact University network and computing resources and interferes with equal access to registration, such automated querying of registration-related resources is expressly forbidden. Violators may have their access to University network and computing resources terminated and may be subject to action by the University under applicable law, regulation, or policy, including but not limited to, discipline under any applicable University conduct code.

Policy reference for information on this page may be found in the University Handbook in the following sections: Vol. 4, Part 3, Chap. 20

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