Academic Eligibility

To be eligible to enroll for the next term, students must:

• Complete 27 units for the term (note: E/I grades do not count as completed units)
• Complete 108 units for the year (previous three terms)
• Earn a minimum 1.9 GPA for the term

You can review this flowchart to help determine academic eligibility.

If you're concerned about not meeting requirements for academic eligibility, let's talk! Please schedule a meeting with your Associate Dean as soon as possible to discuss your concerns and options for the rest of the term.

Everyone's situation is different. Here are some things you might want to consider and talk through with your dean:

• Are there academic supports and resources you haven't yet utilized? Review the Academic Support Resources on the Deans' Advising Hub
• Meet with your faculty advisor or the registrar to discuss short- and long-term academic planning; how does your success and completion of this term's courses fit into that?
• Consult the faculty or TA in the course(s) you're worried about to discuss your grade and status in the course
• Change a class to P/F
• Consider dropping a class, if it will help you be successful in others
• Consider an underload (note: this will require a meeting with your dean and may have implications for financial aid, depending on the timing in the term)
• Discuss the possibility of taking a leave of absence to focus on health or personal/family concerns

Stop and consider

Do you want to continue at Caltech right now? Is that what's best for you right now?

If you are thinking about taking some time away from Caltech, you may want to discuss with your dean and/or review information about Time Away

If you decide you want to continue at Caltech, you'll need to be reinstated.

How? If this is your first ineligibility, you can petition directly to your dean for immediate reinstatement. (If this is your second or third ineligibility, please review the questions further down on this page.) The dean may opt to send your petition to UASH, or they may review your petition independently, in which case they will want to meet with you to discuss it.

The Reinstatement Petition

• Read through the whole petition before you start completing it. Take some time to stop and reflect. A thoughtful petition is always appreciated! You may find this Reflection Worksheet helpful to get you thinking (note that if you're reinstated, you'll be asked to complete this formally and submit to your dean at the start of the term).
• Consider reviewing the UASH Handbook section on reinstatement for additional information about the process.
• After you have completed the petition, send it to your advisor. A meeting to discuss it is a great idea. If time does not allow for a meeting, you will want to ask for their statement of support on the petition. Your advisor may raise some points you hadn't considered, or may have some suggestions about changes to your proposed courseload. Make any necessary edits at this point.
• Once your advisor has signed off on your petition, submit it to the deans.
• If the dean wants to send your petition to the UASH committee, you can ask them to review it first. (Note: if you make any changes, you'll need to send it to your advisor again - ideally with a brief note about what you've changed.)
• If the dean agrees to consider your petition themselves, they will ask you to schedule a meeting to discuss the petition, after which they will reinstate you or send the petition to UASH.

If you decide to take a leave, you will need to fill out the leave form

Please visit Time Away for additional information.

After your first or second ineligibility, you will be asked to participate in an Academic Success Plan with your dean this term.

What's an Academic Success Plan?

You'll be expected to participate in a series of meetings throughout the term.

• Week 1: meet with your dean and talk through your Reflection Worksheet (completed and emailed at least 24 hours prior to the meeting!)
• Week 2-4: meet with Occupational Therapy
• Week 6: meet with your dean after midterms; discuss question 3 on the Reflection Worksheet
• Week 9: meet with your dean prior to finals

Expectations for the term:

• Meet with your dean
• Follow up on Academic Success Plan
• At least one meeting with Occupational Therapy (time management, sleep management, motivation, organization)
• Consider an underload or registering with CASS if appropriate
• Reflect: are extracurriculars helping or hurting?

• If you have midterm warnings, this is a serious warning sign – you MUST meet with your dean!
• Remember your resources. Are you asking for help?
• As always, you can schedule a meeting with your Associate Dean to discuss your concerns

If the term ends and you are ineligible again, you will need to take two terms away. How could that leave be productive?

UASH expects students who have received a second ineligibility to take two terms away. This is time to reflect, regroup, and potentially address some of the things that led to your ineligibility. What you do with this time and whether or not it is a productive leave is up to you! You may want to review Time Away for some thoughts about how you spend your leave.

Things to Consider:

The UASH committee wants to reinstate students who are ready to return and successfully complete their degree. If they fear a student will receive a third ineligibility and be unable to complete their degree at Caltech, they may not reinstate them. What has changed since you were last enrolled? How have your actions during your time away shown that you can be successful at Caltech?

The Reinstatement Petition

• Read through the whole petition before you start completing it. Take some time to stop and reflect. A thoughtful petition is always appreciated! You may find this Reflection Worksheet helpful to get you thinking (note that if you're reinstated, you'll be asked to complete this formally and submit to your dean).
• Consider reviewing the UASH Handbook section on reinstatement for additional information about the process.
• Schedule a meeting with your class dean before submitting your petition. The dean can read a draft of your petition (please send it at least 24 hours ahead of the meeting!) and can advocate for you in the meeting if they understand what led to your prior ineligibilities.
• After you have completed the petition, send it to your advisor. A meeting to discuss it is a great idea. If time does not allow for a meeting, you will want to ask for their statement of support on the petition. Your advisor may raise some points you hadn't considered, or may have some suggestions about changes to your proposed courseload. Make any necessary edits at this point.
• Once your advisor has signed off on your petition, submit it to the registrar.
• If you are submitting an appeal following a denied petition, please schedule a meeting with your dean, who can review your appeal with you and advise you about your appearance before the committee.

Expectations if you're reinstated a second time:

• Meet with your dean
• Follow up on Academic Success Plan
• Ongoing meetings with Occupational Therapy (time management, sleep management, motivation, organization)
• Consider an underload or registering with CASS if appropriate
• Reflect:
  • Are extracurriculars helping or hurting?
  • What did you try after your first ineligibility that didn't work?
  • What has changed now?
  • How can you avoid this situation for a third time?

According to the Catalog, a third ineligibility leads to permanent dismissal. In practice, you can appeal to petition for reinstatement one more time. Factors that would increase chances of reinstatement for a third time:

• Take a break from Caltech (see Time Away)
• Do something constructive, e.g. get a job, take classes elsewhere
• Seek treatment for whatever sidelined you (if applicable)
• Examine your priorities: why are you here and what are you hoping to get out of your Caltech experience?
• Make sure something has changed before you petition again; this would be considered your last chance – something needs to be different this time.
• Meet with your dean:
  • to discuss your plans before your time away
  • to provide updates about how things are going while you're away
  • to discuss your petition, once you're ready