Last updated 5.6.20
In response to COVID-19 and its impacts to CU Boulder and the March 26 update from Provost Moore, the College of Engineering and Applied Science supports students having the option to change the grading basis of individual classes from “letter grade” to “pass/fail” this semester.
Undergraduate and graduate students will have the opportunity to make any changes via Buff Portal through May 11, the extended grace period. Students should check course grades in Canvas (or other course management systems, like Moodle) and/or consult with course instructors before changing a course to pass/fail PF) grading.
The PF grading basis is an “overlay” to an underlying letter grade that an instructor assigns to a course. Grades of D- up to A convert to pass (whereas a failing grade is an F). If students choose PF grading on a course that is a prerequisite for a subsequent course, there is a way to identify the underlying letter grade to determine if a student meets the minimum grade required to enroll in the subsequent course. Courses chosen for PF grading basis will satisfy the prerequisite as long as the minimum underlying letter grade is earned.
Spring 2020 Pass/Fail FAQ
To comply with a new requirement from the Colorado Department of Higher Education to identify any pass (P) grade awarded in Spring 2020 representing a grade of C- or higher,
CU Boulder has also added a new P+ grade to the student option grading basis.
- For student option classes taken pass/fail (P/F), final grades of C- or above as input by faculty will be systematically converted to a P+, whereas grades of D+, D and D- will convert to the standard P grade.
- Classes that are only graded on a pass/fail basis remain unchanged, and will not include the P+ option.
- Transcript notations are being developed to explain these Spring 2020 academic record changes. The P+ grade was developed for Spring 2020 only.
Check with your academic advisor, who can help you determine if and how these classes apply towards your CU Boulder engineering degree program.
After final grades are submitted in May 2020, we will determine IUT and Pre-Engineering admission eligibility by using the underlying course grade to verify minimum grade requirements for admission are met. CU Boulder Cumulative and Technical GPAs will be calculated based on grades on the CU transcript.
The pass/fail option will be available for graduate students Courses for which students will receive a pass (P) grade will count towards the Degree. A pass (P) grade corresponds to a D- or above. Note that graduate students are usually required to get a B- or better to be considered passing. The Graduate School is making an exception for this term only and allowing P grades to meet the degree requirements where a B- or C (for doctoral and master's degrees respectively) would normally have been required.
Yes. However, if this class is a prerequisite for another course (whether for the BS or the MS), the underlying minimum grade still needs to clear the minimum grade level. But otherwise, a P grade is fine on the transcript.
No, the limit is being waived for spring 2020 only.
Yes, the actual grade does exist and will be used in some cases to determine eligibility such as for Intra-University Transfer (IUT) purposes, prerequisite requirements, etc. However, what shows on your transcript and other systems is P or F.
Even if you've taken a class pass/fail, your underlying letter grade associated with your pass is available on Canvas, from the Registrar's Office, or through your academic advisor.
If you are currently repeating a class now and wishing to use it for grade replacement, you
cannot do so if you change the grading to Pass/Fail. See the
grade replacement policy for more information. In the future, you can invoke grade replacement on a course you had as pass/fail if your grade was fail. This means if you fail a class now, you can use grade replacement on it in a future semester.
Students can take their senior design/capstone class pass/fail. There should already be mechanisms (peer review, regular meetings with customers/TAs/instructors, milestone project reports, etc.) in place to ensure that all students continue to contribute to the creation and completion of their projects. There should be no ABET-related concerns with this as well since ABET accreditation depends on the meeting of student outcomes, some of which can be tied to performance in senior design with respect to certain criteria and rubrics but NOT on the final grades of students in those classes.
In CEAS, our normal policies require you to receive a letter grade if a course is a prerequisite. However, you may take it as pass/fail for spring 2020. If your underlying letter grade doesn’t meet the requirement grade set by your degree program, you’ll need to retake the class.
If a student needs to use one of the pass/fail courses as a prerequisite in a later course, an advisor can look up the underlying letter grade to see if that grade meets the minimum grade threshold to be able to enroll in that course.
Academic advisors will monitor grades, and those using degree audits will make any adjustments as needed.
Classes which are pass do not affect the student’s GPA and therefore do not change academic standing. Fail grades do affect the student’s GPA negatively and may impact academic standing.
