Credit/No Credit Courses

Certain courses are offered on a Credit/No Credit basis. A student electing one of these courses receives a grade of CT (Credit) or NC (No Credit). A grade of NC is defined as failure to complete the course satisfactorily according to criteria to be announced by the instructor at the beginning of the term. Such a course will be counted, if the grade is CT, toward the minimum of thirty-five needed for graduation. A course with grade of CT or NC may not be used to satisfy a General Education requirement. If approved previously, a Credit/No Credit course may be counted toward the Major Requirement.

Courses under this system carry no grade units and are not used in establishing a cumulative average. If a student receives a grade of NC, the course is recorded as such, and no increase in course count is achieved.⁵ As in regularly graded courses, there can be a temporary standing of Incomplete.

⁵Students should note that, although a grade of NC does not affect the Dartmouth grade point average, certain outside agencies may count such grades as E’s and will recalculate the student’s grade point average to reflect this. Check their website for waivers related to COVID-19.

While endorsing the system here indicated, the Faculty believes it necessary to ensure that students have on their records an adequate number of regular letter grades. A limit has been set for each student of overall eight final standings of CT, NC, NR, and E (the last standing only when assigned in an NRO course). Accordingly, the degree of use of ‘Credit/No Credit’ courses affects the election of courses under NRO and vice-versa. (If a student never uses the Non-Recording Option or does so but always regains the eligibility temporarily invested, that student may accordingly elect as many as eight Credit/No Credit courses.)

The concept of essentially non-graded courses was developed mainly to offer an improved way of dealing with subject matter that is intrinsically ill-suited for grading. It may be applied, however, to any area when an instructor desires, provided in every case that the authorization of the Department or Program offering the course has been obtained sufficiently in advance. An individual course may accordingly be offered in different terms as a regularly graded course or in the fashion described here. The Registrar’s Office website, including a link on the Timetable of Class Meetings lists the Credit/No Credit courses for the given term. No change in either direction may be made after publication of the published list and no individual student may be graded in a fashion different from the announced pattern.

In a given term all sections of a course offered that term in two or more sections must be offered under the same pattern: all must be regularly graded, or all must be Credit/No Credit (with the pattern having been earlier announced, as indicated previously).

Students should be sure to recognize the differences between a Credit/No Credit course and a course taken under the Non-Recording Option, as described in the following section. A department or program sets the grading pattern for a Credit/No Credit course. A student may elect a CT/NC course but may not determine the grading mode. However, the student does have the option to choose the Non-Recording Option unless the course has been placed ‘out of bounds.’