Returning Students

Policy on "Old" Graduation Requirements and Credit

Brigham Young University is committed to providing its students with an excellent university education consisting of a broad general education that includes religious education and a strong major education. Programs of the university change and develop in the continuing effort to make learning and experience as valuable as possible. Development, growth, and improvement are expected parts both of our lives and our institutions. It is because of the commitment to a superb education that the university's programs develop and improve and that students are expected to meet the current standards of the university when they graduate, even though they may have begun their studies long ago under quite different expectations.

Students who complete a baccalaureate degree within eight academic years of enrollment at BYU qualify for graduation by meeting those religion, university, and General Education requirements in effect when they initially enrolled, even though there may have been changes in General Education and religion requirements since that time.

In addition, students who complete baccalaureate degrees within eight academic years of enrollment at BYU qualify for graduation by meeting those major education requirements in effect when they officially declared the major with which they graduated even though such declaration was made at some point following their original enrollment. (A student officially declares a major one of two ways: [1] by indicating the choice of major on part A of the university's Admission, Scholarship, and Housing Application or [2] by submitting a Change of Major Form to a college advisement center at a subsequent time.)

Students who have not graduated within eight years of their initial enrollment at BYU will be required to meet with the dean and department chair in the area in which they are majoring to determine graduation requirements and the use of credit previously earned. Where General Education or major requirements have changed or where credit previously earned was in an area of substantial change, students may be required to do additional work to meet graduation requirements.

This means that credit earned more than eight years before admission or readmission (including transfer credit) will be accepted to meet General Education or major graduation requirements at the discretion of the university.

Students who return to the university after an extended absence should contact the Graduation Evaluation Office (B-150 ASB (801) 422-4218) and confer with their college advisement center counselors and department advisors immediately upon returning to the university, both for advice and help concerning graduation requirements and for evaluation of their credit. In many instances it will prove possible to negotiate a schedule of classes that will allow the student to move toward a degree without lost effort.