Registration
Undergraduate full-time status is 12 or more units. Part-time status is 11 or fewer units.
Students electing to enroll for fewer than 16 units in any semester during their course of study at Occidental must be aware they may not be making normal academic progress and must accept the consequences of a possible delayed graduation date. Only by submission of a petition for special consideration to the Student Progress Committee and under the most unusual circumstances may students seek to reduce their academic load to fewer than 12 units. Students may submit a petition for special consideration to be part time through the last day to drop classes. After that date students may only drop late from a class and the enrollment status will not change.
Normally, students are limited to 18 units of enrollment per semester. However, students with at least 32 units and whose overall grade point average is at least 3.0 may enroll in up to 20 units on a space-available basis on or after the first day of classes. The deadline for adding classes applies.
Other students may seek approval to enroll in an overload by submission to the Student Progress Committee a petition for special consideration. To be considered, petitions must be submitted prior to the deadline for adding 4-unit classes. In general, overload petitions from students in their first year at Occidental or with an overall grade point average of less than 2.7 will not be approved.
Clearance
The Students Accounts Office and the registrar must approve each student’s enrollment. Any student intending to register for the semester must be current in their payments or otherwise have made arrangements with the Student Accounts Office to pay their bill. If no courses have been added to a student’s schedule by the 4-unit add deadline, the student may be denied credit for the semester’s work. Students who do not complete clearance by the deadline posted on the academic calendar (p. ) will incur a fee. Successfully completing Clearance is a declaration by the student of their enrollment for the semester. If a student must leave (withdraw from) the College at any point during the semester after completing Clearance, grades of ‘W’ will appear on a student’s transcript for that semester. Failure to successfully complete Clearance by the census date of a semester will result in the student being denied enrollment for the semester.
Adding
Students may add classes online through the four-unit add deadline (see academic calendar). Alternatively, students may file a completed Schedule Adjustment Form with the Office of the Registrar. Some 1- and 2-unit courses have a later deadline for adding, as noted in the online academic calendar. Students adding a course after the corresponding deadline will be assessed a late add fee. Late adds require permission of the instructor and the academic adviser. No courses may be added after the last day of classes.
Students are responsible for verifying that they have, in fact, enrolled in all classes for which they expect to receive credit. Instructors cannot officially add students to the class roster. Course schedule information can be reviewed online through the myOxy student portal.
Dropping
Students may drop a course without a recorded grade through the sixth week of the semester. The exact drop deadline is published in the online academic calendar. To drop a class, students must submit a properly completed Schedule Adjustment Form (available in the Office of the Registrar and online) to the registrar by the deadline. Students may not drop FYS courses unless they are withdrawing from the college.
Students are responsible for making sure that they have dropped classes that they are not attending. They will receive a grade of F in any such class not dropped. Course schedule information can be reviewed online through the myOxy student portal.
Late Drop
A student looking to drop a course after the drop deadline (starting at the seventh week) is required to submit a Late Drop Form to the Office of the Registrar. Late Drops may be filed through the last day of classes. No courses may be late dropped after the last day of classes. Any course dropped after the sixth week of the semester will be noted as a "W" on the transcript. “W” grades are not calculated in the grade point average.
Students should be aware that dropping from classes may put them behind normal progress toward completion of the Bachelor of Arts degree and may have significant consequences for financial aid, major completion, and academic standing. Such decisions should be discussed with an academic adviser and, where appropriate, with the Financial Aid Office.
See the academic calendar for specific drop and late drop deadlines. Unless a course is officially dropped, a grade of "F" may be incurred.