Degree Regulations

In this section

• Undergraduate Degree Requirements
• Credit Residence Requirements
• Coursework Done Out of Residence
• Credit Validation

Undergraduate Degree Requirements

All undergraduate degree programs include the General Education Foundations (GEF), require a minimum grade point average of 2.0 or higher, and require a minimum of 120 credit hours. In addition, the various colleges and schools may determine their own specific graduation requirements, which may include additional course or credit requirements, minimum course grades, and grade point averages higher than a 2.0.

Every undergraduate degree program at WVU requires that students satisfactorily complete the General Education Foundations. For General Education Foundations definitions, please see the list of approved GEF courses. All undergraduate students at WVU are also required to fulfill a Capstone course. Please note that transfer courses do not fulfill the Capstone requirements. Capstone courses can never be transferred from another institution, including courses taken while studying abroad.

Students entering WVU as an undergraduate student with fewer than 24 hours must also earn a passing grade in a First Year Seminar course in their first semester at WVU. Those who do not pass the course must re-enroll for subsequent semesters until they earn a passing grade.

First Year Seminar (FYS) Waiver or Exemption Policy

Transfer and Non-Traditional Students

Transfer students who have earned 24 or more hours at another institution will have the first-year seminar course (FYS) waived regardless of college (course number indicator of 191). Transfer students who earned credit for a freshman seminar course with similar learning outcomes at another regionally accredited institution can have the course approved as their FYS through the transfer equivalency process. Students who enroll at WVU more than four years after high school graduation, or who have been absent from the institution for more than four years, may have the FYS waived by their college or school. 

Note: Students granted a waiver will need to make up the credit hour allocated to the FYS in the Course Program of Study.

Dual Enrolled High School Students

Students enrolling as first-time freshmen who are not four years out of high school are not eligible to have the FYS waived regardless of earned credits.

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Credit Residence Requirements

In order to meet residency requirements at West Virginia University locations for a bachelor's degree, students must complete a minimum of 90 total credit hours in residence or 30 of the final 36 credit hours in residence to earn a WVU degree. Individual colleges, schools, or departments may have additional residence requirements as part of their degree or major requirements. Students should consult their respective academic unit with questions regarding specific degree or major residence requirements. Coursework taken at other WVU system campuses, WVU administered credit by examination, placement credit, study abroad credit, military credit and experiential learning credit will not interrupt the final 30 credit hours in residence if earned during this period.

Academic units have discretion to require that up to 9 credits of upper-division coursework in the major, including the Capstone course, be taken in residence in the WVU system. Accredited programs may have higher residency requirements.

In order to meet residency requirements at WVU Potomac State College for an associate’s degree, students who have completed all undergraduate work in another West Virginia public higher education system must complete at least 18 hours of work at WVU Potomac State College; 8 of the last 16 hours must be on campus, or complete the final 15 credit hours of work at PSC. Transfer students whose undergraduate work has been completed outside of the West Virginia public higher education system must complete a minimum of 45 total credit hours in residence or complete the final 15 credit hours of work in residence at PSC. Student’s may also be required to earn up to 8 credit hours in residence for major fields.

Note: Resident credit hours are not synonymous with West Virginia State residency definitions for tuition purposes.

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Coursework Done Out of Residence Policy

Definitions

Transfer students are West Virginia University students who have completed post-secondary coursework at a regionally accredited college or university after graduation from high school, but before registering at WVU.  Courses brought to WVU upon original matriculation are called transfer work. 

Transient students are current West Virginia University students who temporarily matriculate at another accredited institution to take courses to be recorded on their WVU transcript or who return to the University after an absence of one calendar year or less. Courses brought in to WVU from another institution are called transient work.  Transient work includes:

• Military credit validated by the American Council on Education (ACE).
• Collegiate work approved through the appropriate workflow and completed at another regionally accredited institution in the United States.
• Collegiate work approved through the appropriate workflow and completed at colleges and universities outside of the United States which are accredited or approved by the Ministry of Education (or other appropriate governmental agency) of the country in which they are located.

Rules Governing Transfer Work

• Transfer students must have earned a 2.0 GPA in baccalaureate-level work at their institution of origin to be eligible for admission to the West Virginia University system. Individual programs may require a higher transfer GPA and/or other prerequisites for admittance as noted in the University catalog. More information can be found on the WVU Undergraduate Admissions website. 
• Any remedial courses, or courses taken from a non-regionally accredited institution, that have been included in the grade point average of the institution of origin will be removed before consideration for admission to the West Virginia University system.
• Transfer students who have fewer than twenty-four transferable credit hours must also meet freshman admission standards. 
• Upon matriculation to WVU, transfer students holding an Associate of Arts (A.A.), Associate of Science (A.S.), or an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S) degree from a regionally accredited institution shall be deemed as having satisfied the WVU general education requirement.
• When applying transfer coursework to the WVU system transcript, all credit and grades earned at a regionally or internationally accredited institution will transfer to West Virginia University.
• Transfer credit is adherent to WVU policies. This includes, but is not limited to, repeated coursework policies and D/F repeat calculations. If you have questions on how this will impact your standing at WVU, please contact transfercredit@mail.wvu.edu.

Rules Governing Transient Work

• Approved transient courses will be assigned a WVU subject code, course number, grade, and credits and will be recorded on the student’s transcript.  Unapproved transient courses will be assigned credits and a grade of CR, but will not be translated into an equivalent WVU course. These courses will be designated as NOEQ 1NT and will not fulfill any requirements.
• Only students with a 2.0 GPA will be approved to take course(s) in transient. Students who have matriculated at WVU may take a maximum of eighteen (18) credit hours in transient, no more than nine (9) hours of which may be used to fulfill the major requirements indicated in the university catalog. Transient courses taken prior to fall of 2019 are exempt from the 18/9 restriction, as are courses taken through education abroad, the military, or at other WVU system campuses.

• Students who are advised by the Center for Learning, Advising, and Student Services (CLASS), may take up to the maximum allowable hours in transient. Once a major is declared, the new college can decide to allow or deny further transient work at the Dean’s discretion.

• Courses taken in transient and approved by the student’s college are recorded on the transcript and must be accepted by all WVU degree programs.

• Transient work may violate the Credit Residency Requirement and render the student ineligible for graduation.
• Courses completed for a grade other than W (Withdraw) in residence may not be repeated at another school for degree credit via the transient process.
• Students must have completed the required WVU prerequisites to take a course for transient credit or receive WVU credit for a course.
• Undergraduate transfer/transient coursework taken prior to the completion of a baccalaureate degree will not be posted to the student’s academic record towards another degree in the WVU system.  Undergraduate transfer/transient work taken after completion of a baccalaureate degree may be posted to the academic record towards a second degree in the WVU system.
• A student with extraordinary documented circumstances may appeal a decision regarding transfer or transient credit to the appropriate dean.

Procedures

• Prospective domestic and international transfer students will work through the TERR system to have their coursework reviewed and evaluated.  Determining course equivalencies, retroactive evaluation of NOEQ courses, and requesting an appeal will follow the appropriate workflow.  Once transfer coursework has posted to the WVU transcript, students will work with their departmental adviser to select courses for their first semester at West Virginia University and have their advising hold lifted.
• Transient students should work closely with their adviser before they take a course at another institution with the intent of posting the course to their WVU transcript.  Detailed instructions for initiating the transient request process can be found on the transfer and transient resource page.
  • The transient process should be completed before registering and paying tuition at another institution. Requesting approval for retroactive transient work is strongly discouraged and is done at the student’s own risk.
  • Students should meet with their adviser to discuss the appropriateness of the courses they are planning to transfer and to be informed of the policies governing transient credits.
  • Requests for transient credit must be submitted through the transient application, found on the transfer and transient resource page, and approved by the advisor and appropriate dean.
  • If the course(s) a student plans to take at another domestic or international institution is not already articulated in the TESS system, the student is responsible for submitting all necessary information required for review through the TERR portal accessible via the transfer and transient resource page.

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Credit Validation

Students seeking to complete an undergraduate degree after a significant break in enrollment may be asked to retake certain upper-division courses in their major to validate their subject knowledge (or otherwise demonstrate mastery). This requirement to re-enroll or demonstrate subject mastery in a course is at the discretion of the department chair and dean.

Courses completed in or articulated by the West Virginia University system up to seven years previous must be accepted by the student's program unless a specific accreditation policy invalidates the course. Courses completed more than seven years previous may be excluded from the major at the discretion of the program.

All prior coursework completed at WVU will be factored into the student's institutional GPA.  Coursework deemed to be insufficient to meet current course standards may be treated as elective credit but will not satisfy major requirements (as allowed by the student's academic major).  Transfer coursework will be evaluated per the University's Transfer Policy.

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In this section:

• Awarding Degrees
• Double Majors
• Dual Degrees
• Second Degrees
• Reverse Transfer
• Diploma Retention Policy

• Awarding Degrees
• Honorary Diplomas Awarded Posthumously

Awarding Degrees

All degrees are conferred by the WVU Board of Governors as recommended by the faculties of the various colleges and schools. A degree is granted at the end of the semester or summer term in which a student completes all the requirements for that degree, provided the student has submitted an application for graduation at their major department’s academic dean’s office and the dean has certified completion of all degree requirements.

A student becomes eligible to graduate when they complete the requirements of the University, college or school, and major degree program according to the Undergraduate Catalog in effect at the time the student first entered WVU. With the consent of the student's advisor and dean, a student may choose to meet the conditions published in a later catalog.  If a student entered WVU more than seven years previously, the student must complete the requirements in a catalog that is no more than seven years old.  

Students must observe any program changes that are enacted by the West Virginia University Faculty Senate, West Virginia University Board of Governors, the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, or by local, state, or federal law.

WVU policy dictates that, in view of their professional responsibilities to the general public, the faculty of a professional school may recommend to the president of the University, in writing, that a student be removed from its rolls. The recommendation of the faculty must indicate that the student is not fit to meet the qualifications and responsibilities of the profession.

A diploma or a transcript will not be issued to any student until payment of all tuition, fees, and other indebtedness to any unit of the University is made. Once a degree is awarded, no changes to the degree and final transcript are permitted.

Honorary Diplomas Awarded Posthumously

West Virginia University honors the memory of deceased students who did not have the opportunity to complete their degree by awarding a posthumous honorary diploma. After approval of the Dean of the student's college, the diploma can be awarded to a student who has made progress toward a WVU degree.

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Double Majors

The double major is the awarding of one degree with two majors offered by one college/school. For instance, a student who completes majors in English and History earns one B.A. degree. A student who completes multiple majors with the same degree designation offered by different colleges/schools will be awarded dual degrees. The completion of double or multiple majors must lead to the same degree and can only be achieved simultaneously. Students must be accepted into each major and fulfill all requirements of each major in addition to satisfying all University requirements. Students who complete multiple majors within one degree will be awarded one degree, and the transcript will list the degree and each major.

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Dual Degrees

The dual degree is the concurrent awarding of two distinct baccalaureate degrees (i.e. B.A., B.S., B.S.E., B.S.J., B.S.B.A.). Dual degrees will not be awarded when a student is completing a double major in the same college/school. Students pursuing two majors in different degree programs are expected to have the full range of skills, competencies, and experiences as students graduating from each of the programs independently. Therefore, students must be admitted into each degree program and fulfill all requirements for each degree. Students should pay particular attention to GEF requirements for each degree. Simultaneous completion of dual baccalaureate degrees from different colleges or schools requires students to complete all college, program, and major requirements in order to earn both degrees.

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Second Degrees

Some students decide to continue their undergraduate studies after receiving their first bachelor’s degree. Students who attempt to earn dual baccalaureate degrees from WVU but do not fully complete requirements for both degrees simultaneously will become second degree candidates. Students who have previously earned a bachelor’s degree, whether from WVU or another institution, must complete a minimum of 30 hours beyond the first degree. Second degree candidates must meet all requirements for their degree program, major, college/school and the University, including residence requirements. General Education Foundations (GEF) requirements, however, are generally considered satisfied by completion of the first undergraduate degree. In the event that courses taken for the first bachelor’s degree are required courses for the second degree program, the college or school granting the second degree may approve course substitutions. In no circumstance may the coursework in the second degree program be fewer than 30 credit hours after the conferral of the first degree.

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Reverse Transfer

Students who are admitted to a professional program in their last year of bachelor’s degree coursework may request reverse transfer of professional coursework to fulfill the requirements of the bachelor’s degree at WVU. Students are required to complete at least 90 hours of the three-year curriculum at WVU with no more than 30 credits transferring in from a regionally accredited professional program. Examples of professional programs may include but are not limited to: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Dental Science, etc.

Diploma Retention Policy

Diplomas retained by or returned to the Office of the University Registrar will only be held for a period of two years from the date of degree conferral. This includes diplomas that are retained in the office for financial holds, that have been returned to sender. After two years, any request for a diploma by the student will incur fees and fall under all policies associated with ordering a replacement diploma.

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In this section:

• Graduation
• Graduation with Honors 

Graduation

In order to graduate, a student is required to complete an application for graduation the semester or summer term in which they expect to graduate. If a student is uncertain about graduation requirements, the student should meet with their academic advisor for guidance.

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Graduation with Honors

WVU recognizes distinguished academic achievement by awarding degrees cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude. This distinction can be awarded on initial baccalaureates and specified entry-level professional degrees. Students who received academic forgiveness are not eligible to graduate with honors.  All eligible candidates for a baccalaureate with a GPA of 3.8 or higher graduate summa cum laude. Those with a grade point average of less than 3.8, but equal to or above 3.6, graduate magna cum laude. Those with a GPA of less than 3.6, but equal to or above 3.4, graduate cum laude. All calculations for Latin Honors will be based on the overall GPA.

The GPA for honors consideration is based on WVU baccalaureate-level college work attempted through the final semester.  This calculation includes baccalaureate-level college work transferred to WVU from higher education institutions attended. Credit hours earned with a grade of P or S are not considered in the determination. However, failing grades, are computed as hours attempted. Students must meet residency requirements at WVU to be considered for graduation with honors.

The GPA for honors consideration for entry-level professional degrees is based on professional-level work attempted through the last semester. This calculation includes professional-level college work transferred to WVU from higher education institutions attended. Credit hours earned with a grade of P or S are not considered in the determination.

Students entering and completing a second baccalaureate program, following completion of the initial degree, are not eligible to receive the honors designation.

The grade point average through the penultimate semester will be used for notations in the commencement programs.

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