Did You Know?

Advising Tips, Reminders, and Policy Updates.

While students are ultimately responsible for meeting the requirements in effect in the catalog associated with their matriculation date, faculty advisors can be the most important connection students have with USM.

Please make note of the following common issues and share the information with your student advisees when appropriate.

Jump to: Registration Notes | Academic Policies | Pass/Fail Option | Repeated Courses | Grade Change Forms / Course Withdrawal Forms | Incompletes | Residence Requirement | Core Curriculum | COR-prefixed Course Waiver | Transfer Credits | Area "W" writing intensive requirement | Honors | Miscellaneous

Registration Notes
Included in Registration Notes are registration dates, information about new courses (often with accompanying course descriptions), new programs planned, procedures for telephone registration, the Greater Portland Alliance of Colleges and Universities, and semester academic calendar.

Academic Policies
The following University policies may be found in the Academic Policies section of the USM catalog.

Pass/Fail Option
"Students may independently exercise the pass/fail option up to the end of the automatic grade "W" period."

Repeated Courses
"Courses intended to repeat University of Southern Maine courses may be taken at other institutions; such courses will be accepted in accordance with the University's transfer policy. The transferred course accepted as a USM equivalent will receive USM credit but will not be calculated in the GPA; the original USM course that was repeated will remain on the student's transcript but will be removed from both the credit and GPA calculation."
FYI - Students must repeat a course with the same course (i.e., MAT 105D must be repeated with another MAT 105D course, not just any Area "D" course)

Grade Change Forms / Course Withdrawal Forms
Faculty, please be sure to fill out the remark section of each of these forms. Students should NOT handle or deliver these forms to the CAS Dean's Office once they have requested your approval.

Incompletes
Incomplete grades are usually assigned because of extraordinary circumstances. Generally, students have a minimal amount of coursework left to complete. The length of time allowed a student to complete this work is set by the faculty member. This period of time may range from a few days beyond the end of the semester, to a few weeks, or may allow a student until the end of the next semester to complete coursework. If the incomplete is not resolved by the end of the next semester, the Registrar will change the grade from "I" to "*I" and the grade will be counted as if it were an "F" in the student's GPA.

Residence Requirement
USM has a general residence requirement, and also a senior residence requirement.

• "For baccalaureate degrees at the University, a minimum of 30 credits including at least 9 credits in the major field, must be completed while registered in the school or college from which the degree is sought (15 hours for associate degree programs). A student may earn no more than six of these credit hours at another campus of the University of Maine System." 
• "Unless special permission is granted by the dean of the school or college concerned to pursue work elsewhere, the work or the senior or final year must be completed at this University." - The College of Arts and Sciences considers the 'senior or final year' as a student's last 30 credits

Transfer Credits

• Students must request prior approval to take courses at another institution using the new Prior Approval Request To Take Courses At Another Institution form. This form is available from the CAS Dean's Office, and must first be approved by the student's faculty advisor. The appropriate department chair(s) must also approve courses to be transferred if the student expects course equivalencies to satisfy major, minor, or Core curriculum requirements.
• Quarter system school equivalencies transferred in as 2.67 credits or more will satisfy 3 credit requirements.
• Quarter system school equivalencies transferred in as 3.0 or more for a 4 credit natural science requirement (Area K lecture with lab) will satisfy USM's Area K requirement as long as the lab is included in the course. Transfer Affairs states whether the lab was included in the course on the SQH4 screen on ISIS for that school's transfer credits. This information is also printed on the student's transcript.
• "Courses intended to repeat University of Southern Maine courses may be taken at other institutions; such courses will be accepted in accordance with the University's transfer policy. The transferred course accepted as a USM equivalent will receive USM credit but will not be calculated in the GPA; the original USM course that was repeated will remain on the student's transcript but will be removed from both the credit and GPA calculation."

Core Curriculum
Students should complete courses relevant to the Basic Competence requirements (Areas C - College Writing, D, Quantitative Decision-Making, and E - Skills of Analysis/Philosophy) in their first year, or by the time they have completed 30 credits. "These skills are fundamental tools that are relevant to all other courses that students take."

• Only one course with the same prefix as the student's major may also satisfy a Core curriculum requirement.
• "There can be no more than one overlap between the courses that count toward the student's major. "Overlap" is defined in terms of each course three-letter prefix (e.g., ENG, SOC, WST); that is, a student may take only one course toward the Core that has the prefix of the student's major. (The overlapping Core course may itself also count toward the major or it may just share a prefix with the major.)"
• Any 100-level PHI course can be repeated by taking any other 100-level PHI course in accordance with the University Repeat Course Policy.
• A prerequisite for COR-prefixed courses is the successful completion of both the basic competence English composition (C) and the skills of analysis (E) requirements.
• Courses taken to fulfill Areas F and G must be taken from different departments.
• Courses taken to fulfill Areas H and I must have different prefixes.
• Courses taken to fulfill Area J must be taken from different departments.
  Note: Geography and Anthropology courses are offered by the same department.
• Courses taken to fulfill the Area K Natural Science lecture and lab must appropriately correspond as noted in the catalog course description (i.e., BIO 101K - lecture, and BIO 102K - lab)
• Important Notice Regarding the Interdisciplinary Requirement (COR)
  Waiver of the Interdisciplinary requirement of the Core Curriculum, i.e., a COR course, is in effect for all undergraduate degree candidates (as of Spring 2003), as long as they maintain their matriculation status. This waiver of the Interdisciplinary requirement will also apply to those undergraduate degree students admitted to and who begin their degree studies during the 2003-2004 academic year.
• While this waiver also applies to undergraduate degree students who have not or do not receive passing grades in their COR courses, in order to replace the failing grade, the COR courses will need to be repeated according to the course repeat policy. Degree audits reflect this waiver of requirement by including a COR 100 course for 0.0 credits.
• Any course with a COR prefix can be repeated by taking any other course with a COR prefix in accordance with the University Repeat Course Policy.
• Courses taken to fulfill the COR-prefixed Interdisciplinary course may also satisfy the Core curriculum area indicated by the accompanying the course indicator after the course number (F - J).
• "W" requirement - Students admitted to USM as of the Fall 2000 must meet the Area "W" writing intensive requirement.
• Courses transferred as satisfying equivalent of a USM course we use to satisfy "W" (i.e., ENG 120H) may NOT necessarily meet that requirement. Transfer Affairs determines this by reviewing individual courses.
• Students whose catalogue year is 2000, but took ENG 120H, or ENG 150H at USM prior to fall 2000 are considered to have met the "W" requirement.

Miscellaneous

• On ISIS, check SQH9 to learn the GPA in the student’s major (by course prefix only), or to help determine honors in the student’s major.
• Honors classes meet certain Core requirements.
• Students who have completed a baccalaureate degree are NOT subject to USM’s Core curriculum requirements.

Web page updates - The CAS Dean's Office web resources include information about advising for faculty, staff and students. Please contact pedwards@usm.maine.edu if you have advising-related questions, or would like to request additional information or links be included here. Thanks for your help with these important advising issues!