Registration Information and Procedures

The basic requirement for enrollment in a given course is a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in a relevant field of science or engineering. Although those with management backgrounds may enroll in graduate management courses, no prior management study is required. Persons who have been admitted to graduate study at WPI are given first priority in course registration. Persons not holding a bachelor’s degree, but who might qualify through training or experience, may be allowed to enroll on either a credit or audit basis with permission of the instructor. Registration for graduate courses is on a space-available basis for nonadmitted students.

Graduate students are expected to enroll in graduate courses or thesis credit on the registration days designated in the WPI academic calendar. Registration on days not designated will result in additional fees (see Tuition and Fees, page 17). Registration is not complete until tuition has been paid in full.

Enrollment in a course or courses, and satisfactory completion of those courses, does not constitute acceptance as a candidate for the master’s degree nor admission to graduate study. For students seeking advanced degrees, or graduate certficates, formal admission to a graduate program is required.

Graduate Student Classifications

Degree-Seeking Student Registration

Graduate students must be registered for the semester in which degree requirements are completed. For master of science programs requiring a thesis, the student must register for a minimum of 1 semester credit hour. For a Ph.D. program, the student must register for a minimum of 3 semester credit hours.

Students seeking degrees not requiring a thesis are not required to maintain continuous registration.

Non-degree Student Course Registration

Nondegree-seeking students register for courses in the same manner as all other students. However, degree-seeking students have preference in registering for courses with limited enrollments.

Audit Registration

Students primarily interested in the content of a particular course may register as auditors. Audit registration receives no credit and receives no grade. Audit registration is controlled in limited enrollment courses. Thesis and project work cannot be taken with audit registration.

Audit registrants are encouraged to participate in the courses, but typically do not submit written work for evaluation. Often professors will accept written work of audit registrants, but this is left to the discretion of the instructor.

A student may change from credit to audit registration, but may not change from audit to regular credit registration. To change to audit registration for any graduate course, the student must complete an audit form (available in the Registrar’s Office) within the first three weeks of class. No tuition or fees will be returned to students who change to audit registration.

Definition of Full-Time and Part-Time Status

If a student is registered for 9 or more credits, the student is deemed to be a fulltime student for that semester. If a student needs fewer than 9 academic credits to complete degree requirements, registration for the number of credits required for completion of the degree gives the student full-time status. A student pursuing a master’s degree, whose Plan of Study shows completion of all degree requirements within a single two-year period, retains full-time status so long as the student complies with that Plan of Study. A student officially enrolled in a graduate internship program has full-time status during the internship period. If a student has completed the minimum number of credits required for a degree, and is certified by the department or program to be working full-time toward the degree, enrollment in 1 credit of dissertation research for a student seeking the doctorate establishes full time status. The exception to this rule is during a doctoral candidate’s final semester in which the student must be registered for a minimum of 3 credits. For students seeking a master’s degree, 1 credit of thesis research establishes the student’s full-time status with department certification. For the purposes of this rule, the semesters are fall and spring.

Summer Semester

The Summer Session schedule will be available on the web by January of the same calendar year. Most graduate summer courses meet in the evening hours from mid-May through the end of June. Graduate Computer Science classes run through mid-July. Many graduate students work on their research during Summer Session. For information on summer registration, (Summer Programs) call 508-831-5999.

Transcripts

WPI will issue one transcript of record to a student without charge. Additional transcripts are issued upon receipt of a fee of $4 per copy.

Course Change Policies

Course change (Add/Drop) without penalty may occur through the 4th day of the semester, not including weekends. On days 5-10 of the semester, not including weekends, add and drop is permitted with a $100 dollar late fee per class. No add/drops are allowed after day 10.

Withdrawal Policies

Because the university makes a financial commitment at the time a course is scheduled for instruction, no tuition and fees paid by the student* will be refunded after day 10 of the semester, not including weekends. A grade of W will be issued until the end of the 10th week of the semester.

Withdrawal after the 10th week must be petitioned to the Registrar’s Office. Notice to the instructor or discontinuance of attendance does not constitute withdrawal. Such notice must be submitted in writing to the Registrar’s Office. Incomplete grades are transitional grades and must be changed by the instructor within 12 months. If coursework is not made up by this time, the grade automatically becomes an F.

Military Leave of Absence

WPI graduate students who are called to active duty by the United States military shall receive a 100% refund for the uncompleted semester at the date of the notice. If such students have a loan obligation to WPI they will be granted an inschool deferment status during the period of active duty service, not to exceed a total of three years. To initiate the process to be classified “on leave for military service,” a student must indicate in writing that he/ she is requesting school deferment status while being called to active duty. A copy of the official call to active duty notice from the military must be included with this request and be submitted to the Registrar’s Office.

If the student has paid a tuition bill with proceeds from either a subsidized or an unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loan and has received a refund for either or both of the loans, the student shall be responsible for any overpayment of funds. It is therefore necessary for the student to contact the lender(s) upon withdrawal.

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Last modified: August 03, 2007 16:00:50