Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) offers academic forgiveness to provide students an opportunity to exclude a portion of their academic history that has negatively impacted their overall GPA calculation. The sole purpose of this policy is to increase opportunities for credential attainment for students.
How Academic Forgiveness works
Students pursing a certificate or an associate's degree with a grade point average (GPA) below 2.0, may request up to twelve (12) credits of GRCC coursework, in which they earned below a "C", to be excluded from the computation of the minimum 2.0 GPA required for graduation. However, forgiven grades shall remain on the student's transcript with a notation of their exclusion from the GPA computation. Students may complete additional 12 courses until their GPA has reached the minimum 2.0 GPA requirement.
Academic forgiveness may be granted only once. Academic forgiveness applies to a student's cumulative GPA on their transcript and does not apply to financial aid policies regarding Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). There is no guarantee that academic forgiveness will be recognized by any other college or university.
This policy may not be used to assist a student in attaining academic honors.
Programs with secondary requirements reserve the right to consider forgiven grades when evaluating whether students meet program eligibility. Students pursuing a secondary application program are advised to consult with the Program Director regarding specific program admissions requirements with respect to forgiven grades.
Procedures and Requirements
Procedures and requirements of students seeking academic forgiveness:
- Academic forgiveness exists for the purpose of assisting students that have shown academic improvement to obtain a credential from GRCC.
- Students with a 2.0 GPA and may not apply for academic forgiveness.
- Students must be registered for classes at the time of applying for academic forgiveness and near completion of their program prior to applying for academic forgiveness.
- Degrees, minimum of 42 college credits earned
- Certificates, prior to completion semester
- Students may not request courses to be forgiven that may be replaced by repeating the course.
- The following exception applies:
- the course is no longer required for their declared academic program
- and they are eligible to graduate in their declared program once forgiveness is approved.
- The following exception applies:
- Students must certify that they plan to earn their credential from GRCC, and be declared in that academic program.
- Students may only apply for academic forgiveness once.
- Grand Rapids Community College will continue to consider all grades for purposes of satisfactory academic progress for financial aid calculations.
- Students must understand that academic forgiveness may result in impacts to their satisfactory academic progress for financial aid calculation: completion of credits
- Students request academic forgiveness by submitting the webform on the Office of the Registrar webpage.
- Students will receive an email confirmation once their request has been reviewed. If approved, academic forgiveness will not be reversed.
Next Steps
Once approved and enrolled in your final courses for your program, please Apply to Graduate.