Academic Guidelines

Academic Standards of Progress

The college maintains a system for monitoring academic progress to identify students experiencing academic difficulty. The college will intervene in a student’s academic life when circumstances warrant, will limit enrollment and course selection if considered necessary, and may employ additional interventions that foster and encourage academic success. Assessment begins after the student attempts six credit hours.

Note: Students receiving financial aid also must comply with the Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy for Financial Aid Recipients.

The college’s academic standings and interventions are:

1. Good Standing: Cumulative 2.0 GPA or greater and cumulative 50 percent or higher course completion rate. Intervention: Congratulatory statement to the student.
2. Early Alert: Students who do not meet a cumulative 2.0 GPA or a cumulative 50 percent course completion rate any time after attempting six credit hours. Intervention: Students are notified of their academic standing and encouraged to meet with a counselor.
3. Warning: Early alert moves to warning when students do not meet the cumulative 2.0 GPA or cumulative 50 percent course completion rate during the subsequent semester of enrollment. Students must follow the requirements of a performance improvement plan and will remain on Warning as long as the semester GPA is 2.0 or greater and the semester completion rate is 50 percent or higher. Intervention: Registration hold applied. Students must meet with a counselor and develop a plan for improvement in order to register.
4. Suspension: Warning moves to suspension when students on warning do not meet the standard of a semester 2.0 GPA or semester 50 percent course completion rate during the subsequent semester of enrollment. Students are suspended for the next fall or spring semester and the accompanying summer. Intervention: Registration hold applied. Students are notified that they are suspended and may not enroll in any ACC credit courses for the indicated period.
5. Probation: Suspension moves to probation after the suspension period. Students will remain on probation as long as the semester GPA is 2.0 or greater and the semester course completion rate is 50 percent or higher. Students not meeting semester requirements will be suspended for the next fall or spring semester and the accompanying summer. Intervention: Registration hold applied. Students are notified they must meet with a counselor to develop and follow a plan for improvement and to register for courses.
6. Review: Students may contact a counselor to request a review of their status.

Note: A student’s academic status returns to good standing at any point that the student meets the cumulative 2.0 GPA and 50 percent completion rate standard.

Advanced Placement

Austin Community College provides students the opportunity to earn credit by advanced placement through the College Level Examination Program (CLEP), College Board Advanced Placement (AP), Certified Professional Secretary exam (CPS), credit by institutional examination and credit for military courses. Credit from these programs, exclusive of credit by institutional examination, may not exceed 30 semester hours. The credit is validated and an official transcript issued only upon completion of regular coursework at ACC. See the ACC catalog for details.

Attendance

Regular and punctual class and laboratory attendance is expected of all students. If attendance is unsatisfactory, the instructor may withdraw students from class. (Other reasons for instructor-initiated withdrawals might be students’ failure to comply with course policies or meet objectives.)

The college will notify students of the action taken by the instructor. Instructor-initiated withdrawals count toward state limits on course withdrawals (See Six-Withdrawals Limit).

If students desire readmission, they should submit a written appeal to the instructor within five business days. The instructor’s response is due five business days following the appeal. Students may re-appeal the instructor’s decision to the department chair, then division dean. The dean’s decision is final.
During the appeals process, students may attend class, submit assignments, and take tests for grading unless there are established course or program guidelines that would prohibit their returning to class.

Auditing Courses

Students who wish to audit a course (register for a course without receiving credit) must do so only on the last day of regular registration or the last day of the add/drop period for the semester in which they plan to attend. Registration is subject to availability of space. Admissions requirements (except TSI) as well as all other rules and regulations of the college apply to the auditing student. Tuition and fees for auditing are the same as those rates charged to students enrolled for credit. Early College Start students may not use the tuition and fee waiver to audit classes.