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- LSA Academic Policies and Procedures
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- Academic Integrity
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- Course Credit and Contact Hours
- Course Sequencing
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- Credit Load
- Credit Overloads
- Dean's Recommendation Forms
- Distinction Levels
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- Final Exams
- Grade Changes
- Grade Grievance Process
- Grade Point Average
- Graded and Non-Graded Coursework
- Grades and Grading
- Honors and Awards
- Incompletes
- LSA and Non-LSA Credit
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- Registration
- Repeating a Course
- Residency Requirements
- Returning Students
- Student Records and FERPA
- Term Withdrawal
- Test Credit and Language Credit
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- Waitlists and Overrides
- LSA Commitment to Academic Freedom
- LSA First-Semester Grade Covering Pilot
- Dates and Deadlines
- Academic Integrity
- Engaged Learning
- STEM
- Business
- What Will You Do with an LSA Degree?
On this page:
- When incomplete grades are used
- The process for incomplete grades
- New transcript notations for 2026
- Who to contact
When incomplete grades are used
A grade of I (Incomplete) is a temporary grade given when a student has not completed the work in a course. Instructors should only give incomplete grades when:
- the student has extenuating non-academic circumstances that prohibit them from completing their course (such as serious illness, car accident, death of a family member),
- the remaining amount of work in the course is small (such as a final exam or paper),
- the student's standing in the course is at least a C-
- the instructor is willing to support the student in the completion of remaining course requirements
Incompletes should not be used:
- to allow a student to retake the course in a future term
- as a substitute for a failing grade or withdrawal
The process for incomplete grades
Incomplete grades are only assigned if students request them from their instructor.
If the instructor agrees, LSA recommends the student and instructor have a written agreement so that both parties understand:
- the reasons for the "I" grade
- the work that needs to be completed
- the timeline
When the course ends, at first, the transcript will show an "I."
Students must complete required work by the end of the 4th week of the next full term of enrollment.
- If the student completes the work by the deadline, the instructor will submit a grade change with the student's final grade.
- If the student doesn't complete the work, the I grade will lapse to an E (earning no credit and calculated in the GPA as 0 honor points).
- For students taking a course pass/fail, an unfinished Incomplete will lapse to a grade of F, which has no impact on GPA.
- On transcripts for courses taken before Fall 2026, you may see notations like ILE (Incomplete Lapsed to E) or ILF (Incomplete Lapsed to F).
- Students can submit an “Incomplete Time Extension” (available in MyAdvising) and submit a new date.
- The form is reviewed by the instructor and the Office of Student Academic Affairs.
- Extensions cannot go beyond the end of the next full term of enrollment.
New transcript notations for 2026
Prior to Fall 2026, incomplete grades that were changed to final grades included an I in the transcript, such as "IB+", to indicate a student had an incomplete but completed the work within the deadline and ultimately earned a B+.
Beginning in Fall 2026:
- Once all required coursework for a course with an Incomplete is completed, only the final letter grade (e.g., “B+”) will appear on the transcript.
- The initial “I” designation will no longer be displayed once the final grade is posted.
This change applies to all courses taken in Fall 2026 or later. Courses completed before Fall 2026 will follow the previous transcript notation.
