Advising Office

• Advising Office Home
• Message From the Advising Office
• About Advising
• Advising FAQ
• TU Advising Talk
• People
• PreMed Guidelines
• Courses
• Useful Links

Computing

Continuing Engineering & Science Education (CESE)

Departments

Home

The University of Tulsa

Audit: Students may elect to audit a course and will have all the privileges of students taking the course for credit, except those of taking the final examination or receiving credit for the course. Students who have completed all other requirements for a course may elect to take the course for credit at any time within the first three weeks of a regular term if the course instructor and the college dean give their permission. Students originally enrolled in a course for credit may elect to change their status to that of auditor at any time within the first three weeks of a regular term if they are passing the course at the time the change in status is requested and if they secure the consent of the course instructor. Students must complete an drop/add form and secure permission from the college dean in order to make such a change.

Balance sheet (also called Flow Chart): A list of courses required for a particular major. This form is maintained by the Advising Office to show which courses have been completed satisfactorily. Balance sheets can change over time so always make sure you check your own for specific requirements or you may end up taking something that does not count towards your requirements.

Catalog: TU's Undergraduate Catalog contains answers to many of the questions students ask about academic policies, financial issues, majors, departments, colleges, and course offerings at TU. It describes the different kinds of financial aid; defines such policies as Probation, Dismissal, Incomplete, etc. It lists all of the majors at TU, course requirements for the majors, the names of faculty members in each department, and descriptions of the courses offered by each department. As a TU student, you are responsible for knowing the information in the catalog, such as academic policies, course prerequisites, and major requirements. Therefore, EVERY TU student should have his or her own copy of the catalog be familiar with it, and use it as a reference.

College: The University of Tulsa is made up of three colleges: Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, and Engineering and Natural Sciences. When you graduate from TU, you will receive your bachelor's degree from one of the colleges. Each of these three colleges houses a number of departments. For example, the Electrical Engineering department is housed within the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences.

Corequisite: A course that must be taken before or at the same time as another course; meaning that there is material that students need to be learning in one class at the same time (or before) they take the corequisite. Corequisites are part of the course description in the catalog, and they should also be listed on the syllabus for the class.

Credit hour: You can think of the "credit hour"; as a unit of measure for college courses. For instance, a lecture course that meets for 150 minutes a week (three days for 50 minutes each day, or two days for 75 minutes each day) is usually a three credit hour course, whereas a lab that might meet for two to four hours per week still carries only one credit because labs are considered to require less preparation outside of class and to consist mainly of activities that reinforce what you are learning in a lecture course.

Reading Days: One or more days between the last day of classes and the first day of final exams, placed in the academic calendar to give students time to prepare for final exams.

Drop/Add: Students may add a class through the second week of classes or drop a class through the third week during a regular semester. Adding a class after the first week of classes requires completion of the Drop/Add form, including the instructor's signature. A class may be dropped without academic penalty through the third week (this does not require the instructor's signature). Drop/add forms are available in the Advising Office. When requesting to add, remember that the professor or department is under no obligation to allow you into a class either that is full or that you have missed more than the first week of class.

GPA: Grade Point Average: To calculate your GPA, multiply the number of credit hours for each class by the number of "grade points" earned for the grade you receive: A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0. For a 3 credit hour class in which you earn an A, for example, give yourself 12 points. Once you have arrived at a total of credit points for each class, add them all together and divide by the number of credit hours you passed that were graded A-F plus the number of credit hours you failed, whether graded A-F or P/F. (Pass-fail classes that you fail count in your GPA, but pass-fail hours that you pass do not.)

Incomplete: Students who are doing passing work but who, because of serious illness or other legitimate extenuating circumstances, cannot complete their course work may, at the discretion of the instructor, receive a grade of I (incomplete). Incompletes will not be granted, without an exceptionally good reason, to students who have been absent excessively during the term nor to students who have merely failed to complete course work. When the instructor grants an incomplete, a "Record of Incomplete" form must be filed in the office of the undergraduate dean. This form, which is to be signed by the instructor and, as soon as possible, by the student, should specify what must be done to remove the incomplete and give a deadline for completion of unfinished work. The contract will be attached in the course grade report for inclusion in the student's official file in the Office of Registration and Records. The incomplete grade will remain on the student record for one year. After that time, unless the course work is completed and the instructor changes it to an alternate grade, the Office of the Dean will notify the Office of Registration and Records that the grade is to be changed to F. Students with more than 9 credits of I will not be permitted to enroll in courses at the university without the permission of the Office of the Dean.

Major: A major is a program of study, or group of selected courses, required for an academic degree in a particular subject

Minor: A minor is a group of courses, fewer than the number required for a major, for students to take who wish to develop expertise or pursue an interest in some subject in addition to their major. The courses required for the minor are specified by each department that offers a minor. For most minors, the required courses are listed in the catalog, though for some you need to consult with the department in question or your academic advisor.

Office Hours: At the beginning of a semester, a professor will announce weekly hours during which he or she will be available to help students. If a student cannot visit a professor during office hours, an appointment for another time can usually be arranged.

Pass/Fail: Some courses may be taken pass/fail. Grades of C or better are recorded as a pass (P). Grades of D are recorded as D, and grades of F are recorded as F. Grades of P are not computed into the GPA, but grades of D or F are. You should be careful about your selection of P/F and consult your advisor. A Permit for Declaring Pass/Fail should be completed in the Advising Office and turned into the Office of Registration and Records within the first three weeks of the semester. See the important dates information on this web site.

Prerequisite: A course which must be completed successfully before you enroll in another course. The first course is a prerequisite because it contains knowledge or skills you need to have mastered before you take the second course. You can find out if a course has prerequisites by reading its course description in the catalog; the syllabus for a course should also list any prerequisites.

Probation: Student academic performance is reviewed at the end of every regular (fall or spring) semester. Any student whose cumulative University of Tulsa grade-point average falls below 2.0 (C) is automatically placed on probation. A student on academic probation may be required to make up course deficiences, accept limitations on enrollments (no more than 14 hours in the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences) or abide by limitations on extracurricular activities, as determined by the dean of the college in which the student is enrolled. In order to be removed from academic probation, students must raise their University of Tulsa cumulative grade point average to 2.0. The decision to remove a student from academic probation can be made only by the dean of the college in which a student is enrolled at that moment. Students may ask to be removed from probation at the end of a summer session if they have raised their cumulative grade point average at The University of Tulsa to at least a 2.0. Work taken outside The University of Tulsa does not count toward a student's removal from probation. There are many reasons for poor grades, and many people on campus who can help you to figure out what those reasons are for you and what to do about them.

Schedule: Your schedule is the computer printout of your classes. Your schedule tells you which section of each course you are enrolled in--each section has a different number and meets at a different time and place. You will be on the roll of the instructor who is assigned to the sections indicated on your schedule. Therefore, it is crucial that you attend the exact classes that are printed on your schedule, or that you make official changes to your schedule using the drop/add procedure.

Section: A course may be offered in several sections each semester, with each section meeting at a different place and possibly at a different time and with a different instructor, but having basically the same content. Different sections of some courses have the same syllabus, while different sections of other courses do not.

Semester: A semester is half of the academic year, with the academic year lasting from late August until early May. A summer term counts as a semester, for while each summer term is only five weeks long , these classes meet more often and for a longer class period, giving you the same time in class that you would have in a regular semester.

Staff: The most popular professor on campus. This term is used on schedules when a course instructor is not yet determined.

Syllabus: A handout from your instructor, which may include some or all of the following: the purpose of the course; prerequisites and corequisites, if any; the instructor's name, office hours, and telephone number; a schedule of reading and/or homework assignments; a schedule of tests; the instructor's policy on accepting late work; and his or her grading policy. You should receive a syllabus from the instructor of each of your classes; if you miss the class period in which the syllabus is handed out, it is your responsibility to request one from the instructor and to find out how to make up any work you have missed.

Synonym Number: Each course section will have a unique identifying number called the synonym number. They will be listed after the course section numbers. Please write the synonym number on the registration form along with the department, course and section number.

Withdrawal: Once you have enrolled in a class, you are obligated financially and academically to complete the class or to complete an official withdrawal. Non-attendance of classes does not constitute an official withdrawal or drop. To withdraw from a course, please stop by the advising office for the appropriate form(s).