Good Academic Standing and Annual Student Evaluations
Policy as of March 3, 2022
During the ASFR process, students who are making satisfactory academic progress should be marked as in good academic standing. If a student is not making satisfactory academic progress, the student should be placed on advising alert. Advising alert is still considered good academic standing but signals that there are concerns about the student’s ability to remain in good academic standing for the next review period. The purpose of advising alert is to facilitate proactive academic support for the student and to ensure that the program and the Graduate School are working together to support their success.
The following are currently the minimum criteria for a student to be in good academic standing.
- All grades in classes that count towards the degree are a B- or above (or the program’s threshold for advancing in the curriculum, if higher than a B-). If classes in a program are credit/no credit, the student must have received credit for all classes that count towards the degree. The student has no unresolved Excused Incomplete’s (EIs) in spring, summer or fall 2021 courses that count towards the degree. A reminder that final incompletes (I) cannot count towards the degree.
- The student is completing non-course milestones (i.e., comprehensive exams, language requirements, prospectus defense, research progress, etc.) on the program’s typical timeline and is also taking courses as expected.
- GSAS will automatically place PhD students who are on extension into the advising alert category. GSAS will also automatically place Extended Master’s students into advising alert if they are requesting a third Extended Master’s semester.
Directors of Graduate Study will make these determinations in consultation with Department / Program faculty in a way that ensures consistency across students.
If a student does not meet these criteria or you have other reasons that you would like GSAS to provide consistent outreach during the academic year, please mark Advising Alert during the Annual Status and Funding Review (ASFR) process. This alert will appear in Workday and not on the student’s official transcript. Marking advising alert during the annual review process is not a replacement for submitting a CARE report. If you are unsure whether a student should be on advising alert or want to know more about this status, please reach out to the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Alyssa Canelli (acanelli@brandeis.edu).
In future semesters, we will also talk about adding a third category of Academic Probation for more serious concerns. The goal of this process is to make it easier for GSAS to partner with departments to support students who have advising alerts as well as for both departments and GSAS to easily see who these students are and check in with them more frequency. If your program has its own probation category, please make sure that the criteria and processes determining a student’s probation status are clearly outlined in your program’s Bulletin text. For now, please mark Advising Alert for these students. Please make sure that your program’s criteria for being in good academic standing are in your program’s Bulletin section as well.