Registration Policies and Information

Add/Drop/Withdraw Courses

All registration changes must be accomplished either through the Scripps Portal or using the change in registration form by the deadline indicated in the current academic calendar. Also, refer to the add/drop procedures for deadlines and required approvals. Students must petition to the Committee on Academic Review for exceptions to published registration deadlines; repeated petitions for exceptions to published deadlines are not likely to be approved. Registration and petition forms are available in the Registrar’s Office and on the Registrar web page.

Adding Courses

• Students may add courses through the Scripps Portal during the first 10 instructional days of a semester. Registration for some courses, e.g., senior thesis, independent study, and independent internship, require specialized forms as do requests for pass/fail or audit grading statuses.
• Students who fail to register for any courses by the add deadline are subject to administrative withdrawal.

Dropping Courses/Withdrawal

• A student may drop most courses via the Scripps Portal during the first seven weeks of the semester, and no record of that course is made on the transcript. However, students must petition to the Committee on Academic Review to drop Writing 50 or any of the three Core courses.
• After the last day to drop courses, a course withdrawal form is required and a grade of W will appear on the transcript; no course withdrawal forms will be accepted after the last day of classes before reading days and final examinations begin except in cases of emergency by petition to the Committee on Academic Review.

Pass/Fail

• A maximum of one course per semester may be taken pass/fail with a maximum of four pass courses counting toward the 32-course degree requirement.
• Work must be C (not including C–) or above in quality to receive a P pass/fail grades are not calculated into the cumulative grade point average.
• The decision by the student to take a course pass/fail must be made and recorded in the Registrar’s Office by the last day to drop classes without academic penalty; a change in registration form must be submitted.
• Courses used to meet any general requirement or courses in the major(s) or minor(s) may not be taken pass/fail.

Auditing Courses

• Regularly enrolled students may register for a course as an auditor on a space-available basis during the first ten instructional days of the semester. Students must use a change in registration form to add an audited course; instructor and academic adviser approval signatures are required.
• Students may not change the grading option from an audit to letter or pass/fail grading after the last day to add classes.
• Students may not change credit enrollments from letter or pass/fail grading to an audit after the last day to drop classes. Students must use a change in registration form to change the grading option; instructor and academic adviser approval signatures are required.
• Audited courses do not earn credit and may not be used to meet any degree requirement (general education, major or minor), and do not meet prerequisite requirements for a higher level course.
• A grade of “AU” is recorded for successfully audited courses.
• Instructors have the option of dropping auditors who attend fewer than half of the class meetings, and such dropped courses will not appear on student transcripts.
• Regularly enrolled students pay no additional fees to audit courses.
• A student who audits a class may not subsequently enroll for credit (letter grade or pass/fail) for the same class with the same instructor.

Scripps students may not receive credit for courses taken in the intercollegiate Self-Instructional Language Program (SILP), because this program has not been evaluated by Scripps faculty.

Members of the Claremont community may enroll in Scripps courses as Auditors (see the Enrollment and Special Programs  section for information).

Credit Differences for Non-Scripps Courses

Because we are a consortium with multiple schools sharing a schedule, you may notice that some schools offer different amounts of credit. Please be aware of the following conversions that will happen automatically when you register for these courses:

Harvey Mudd: Courses listed as semester units, so a 3- or 4-credit Harvey Mudd course will appear on your schedule as 1.0 Scripps credit.
Similarly, 2 Harvey Mudd credits = .5 Scripps Credit, and 1 Harvey Mudd credit = .25 Scripps credit.

Cross-Registration at The Claremont Colleges

Credit for courses completed at any of The Claremont Colleges while enrolled at Scripps is considered resident credit and is transcripted as such. Scripps students are welcome to register for courses offered throughout the consortium as long as they meet the requirements for the course and adhere to Scripps policies as detailed below.

Students may cross-register without the express permission of the adviser if off-campus courses fall within the guidelines below. Students are normally expected to enroll on the home campus for courses offered at more than one of The Claremont Colleges. Cross-registration may be limited or prohibited in certain courses. Priority in course registrations generally is granted to home-campus students.

1. First-year students usually register for their entire first-semester program at Scripps. Second-semester, they may register for one course at one of the other Claremont Colleges.
2. Sophomores may register for one course per semester at one of the other Claremont Colleges.
3. Juniors and seniors may register for up to one half of their courses in each semester at another of The Claremont Colleges.
4. Cross-registration for courses in excess of those outlined above must have explicit permission of the student’s adviser. There is no additional tuition for enrolling in courses at the other Claremont Colleges.
5. Keck Science courses, courses in other joint or cooperative programs in which Scripps participates and Claremont Colleges Intercollegiate program courses (i.e., AA, AF, CH, KS) are considered as courses offered by the home campus.

Student misconduct or other violations may result in ineligibility to cross-register. See the Guide to Student Life for more information.

Student Disenrollment Policy

If a student fails to attend the first two meetings of a course (or one course meeting for courses meeting only one time per week) and the absences were not approved in advance by the instructor, the faculty member of record may ask the student’s Registrar to drop the student from the course. However, students will not automatically be dropped from a course they do not attend. The student may appeal to their home college for reinstatement into a dropped course when documented circumstances beyond the student’s control prevented the student from attending the course and communicating with the instructor before the add deadline.

Independent Study: Reading and Research

Independent study exists to provide opportunities for students to study in areas where a formal course is not offered. Enrollments in independent study may be petitioned by seniors, juniors, and second-semester sophomores who request supervision from a full-time faculty member within the discipline/department under which credit is being requested. The student is responsible for developing with the faculty supervisor a course syllabus, including methods of investigation, proposed readings to be covered, a timeline for completion, and appropriate papers or presentations. Petitions must also include a statement of learning objectives or outcomes for the study, as well as the evaluation and assessment by which the learning outcomes will be incorporated into the grade determination. Although independent study permits the student maximum freedom and independence in pursuing a subject of interest, frequent consultation with the faculty supervisor is encouraged.

Special petition forms to enroll in these courses are available in the Registrar’s Office and must be submitted by the deadline to add courses. Students may petition to enroll for half-course or full-course credit. A maximum of the equivalent to four course credits in independent study and/or internship will count toward degree requirements. Students thinking of integrating knowledge gained through an off-campus experience into an independent study should consult with the Registrar.

Internships

Internships are for the purpose of integrating relevant work experience into the students’ academic program. Students may register and receive course credit without petition for the following internships:

1. Internships attached to Scripps courses (e.g. the Psychology Department internship).
2. Internships fulfilled as part of an academic program at another Claremont College (e.g., the Public Policy Program at Pomona) or as part of an intercollegiate program at the Claremont Colleges (e.g., Intercollegiate Media Studies).
3. Credit-bearing and graded internships attached to off-campus study programs arranged through the Office of Study Abroad and Global Education.
4. Summer internships taken as part of a total program through another academic institution, subject to the same approval process accorded to other off-campus courses.

Students may also petition to the Committee on Academic Review to enroll in other internship opportunities on a pass/fail basis. All such petitions must be submitted in advance of the beginning of the internship. In order to earn academic credit, the internship must be supervised by a faculty member at one of The Claremont Colleges and must include a research paper or equivalent project as decided by this supervising faculty member. Course credit will be awarded upon successful completion of the internship and the accompanying research project or equivalent project. Full-course internships require a minimum of 120 hours; half-course internships require a minimum of 60 hours. Course credit for internships approved by this petition process shall be limited to the equivalent of two full courses.
Approved independent internships completed during the summer are recorded on the Scripps transcript in the summer session. Academic assignments must be completed by the first Monday in October of the subsequent fall term. Approved independent internships completed during the fall or spring semester follow standard semester grading deadlines.

Quarter Credit (.25) Course Limits

Scripps students may earn .25 course credit for registering and participating in physical education activities, including intercollegiate athletic team sports, but official enrollment is not required for participation. Students may earn up to a total of 1.0 Scripps course credit (four .25-credit enrollments with passing grades) exclusively for physical education, including intercollegiate and intramural athletic team sports. Some physical education activities have additional fees and registration requirements; see the current schedule of courses for current fee information.

A number of quarter-credit courses are offered for which Scripps students may cross-register, including dance, foreign languages, music, and theatre. Scripps students may earn up to a total of 1.0 Scripps course credit (four .25-credit enrollments with passing grades) exclusively for quarter-credit enrollments other than physical education.

Scripps students may not earn more than 2.0 credits total for quarter-credit enrollments at The Claremont Colleges. Transfer credit will not be accepted for any similar activity enrollments at other colleges and universities.

Physical Education

Physical Education activities for which students register and receive a grade of Pass will receive .25 course credit. A total of one course of Physical Education credit may be counted toward graduation. A wide variety of activities are offered each semester, in cooperation with Claremont McKenna College and Harvey Mudd College. Check the Scripps portal for current offerings in Physical Education. 

In addition to physical education classes, intercollegiate sports, club sports, and intramural sports are offered. See here for additional information about these opportunities.

Leave of Absence

See the Enrollment and Special Programs  section of the Catalog for information about Leave of Absence.

Withdrawing from the College

See the Enrollment and Special Programs  section of the Catalog for information about Withdrawing from the College.