Grade Forgiveness Rule

Ohio State offers an academic policy called the Grade Forgiveness Rule. Under this rule, students can petition to complete a second attempt at a course and, once completed, remove the grade of the first attempt from their OSU GPA calculation. You must submit a grade forgiveness petition to utilize this rule. Forgiveness is not applied automatically.

Petition Deadline

You need to submit a grade forgiveness petition when you are enrolled in your second attempt in the course. The deadline to submit a grade forgiveness petition is set by which session your second attempt is taking place.

AU24 Full Term - October 25th

AU24 1st Term - September 20th

AU24 2nd Term - November 15th

Forget to submit a petition for the current term by the deadline?

You will need to contact your academic advisor first. You will then submit a personal statement to eng-advisor@osu.edu (copying your advisor in the email) as part of your petition.

Rule Parameters

You must submit a grade forgiveness petition by the university deadline. For full-semester courses, this deadline is the 10th Friday of the term in which the student is enrolled in the second attempt of a course. Courses with shorter-session meeting patterns have a prorated deadline. The Office of the University Registrar publishes a summary of important dates and deadlines every term.

You can only apply grade forgiveness to up to three (3) courses during your undergraduate career. Be strategic about which courses you petition for grade forgiveness. Once a grade forgiveness petition is approved and you earn a final grade in the second attempt, you cannot cancel your petition. Once you have completed a degree at OSU, grade forgiveness cannot be applied to any grades earned prior to graduating.

Forgiveness only impacts the OSU cumulative GPA calculation. All grades remain on the student's transcript. If your grade forgiveness petition is approved, the first attempt grade and credit hours will be removed from the OSU GPA upon completion of the second attempt.

The first attempt is always the "forgiven" grade and is removed from your OSU GPA calculation. If the grade you earn on your second attempt is lower, it is still used in your OSU GPA. Also, if you use grade forgiveness on a passing grade (D or higher) and then earn a failing grade in your second attempt, the failing grade is used in your OSU GPA and you forfeit your passing credit from your first attempt.

Approved Course Equivalencies for Grade Forgiveness

Some departments offer the option of taking a different class as an equivalent to apply grade forgiveness to your original class:

MECHENG 2010: forgiven with MECHENG 2010 or MECHENG 2040

Courses Eligible for Grade Forgiveness

To be eligible to apply grade forgiveness to a course:

• You must meet the requisites to enroll in the course again. Pay attention to the course requisites and any exclusionary clauses in the course description. This may involve enrolling and retaking the course prior to moving on to the next course in the sequence. For example, students who wish to use grade forgiveness on a math course must retake it before enrolling in the next course in the sequence.Review these guidelines if you plan to use grade forgiveness on a math course.
• You may not use grade forgiveness multiple times on the same course. Grade forgiveness can only be applied to the first attempt in a course.
• The first attempt of the course must be graded at OSU. Effective SU19, coursework taken outside of The Ohio State University, including EM and transfer credit, is not counted as an attempt for the purposes of the grade forgiveness rule. Once the student has invoked the rule, the second grade will be used to replace the first, even if the second grade earned is lower. Students who passed the course the first time and fail it the second will lose credit for the course. Both courses remain on the academic record.
• The second attempt must be completed at OSU. If you complete your second attempt in the course at another institution, you can never use grade forgiveness on that course at Ohio State. Always complete your second attempt for a course you want to forgive by enrolling in it at Ohio State.
• If you are seeking to repeat a high-demand course in which you have already earned a passing grade, you may not receive permission to repeat it until students who need to complete their first attempt at the course have had a chance to enroll. For critical demand courses, students who enroll in a second attempt may be unenrolled to allow students who require a first attempt to enroll. Then, after these students have been enrolled, remaining seats will be made available to students intending to complete a second attempt.
• You can use grade forgiveness on a course in which the final grade was impacted by a decision by the Committee on Academic Misconduct. The course must still meet all other eligibility requirements for grade forgiveness.

Advising Considerations

Before using grade forgiveness, keep in mind these considerations:

• Always talk with your academic advisor prior to enrolling in the second attempt of a course to ensure you are eligible to use forgiveness and meet all rule requirements and deadlines.
• Academic standing is not retroactively reviewed once a first attempt grade is removed from the GPA calculation due to forgiveness.
• If you withdraw from your second attempt, the grade forgiveness petition is canceled and forgiveness is not applied. The withdrawn attempt does not count toward the maximum of three courses for forgiveness.

Advisor FAQs

• Once a student has completed a degree, grade forgiveness cannot be applied to any grades during the student's graduation term or earlier.
• Grade forgiveness is only open to undergraduate students.