Curriculum Petitions FAQ

All required Core and Elective courses for the degree must be taken for a letter grade. Students must obtain a “B” or better in courses taken for the degree.

I would like to take CSE 101 with the S/U grading option.
If you do this, then you cannot count it towards your elective requirement.

This is unusual and will be denied unless you make a very strong case. If you took a graduate level class elsewhere that you believe is equivalent to one of the program's core classes:

• Contact the instructor of the core class for them to assess the equivalence.
• For the other school's course, provide the transcript with your grade and provide a detailed course description (such as it's number, title, instructor, catalog description, syllabus, website, what textbook was used, etc.). The instructor may request other information as well.
• The instructor may give you an exam or other assessment.
• If the instructor supports waiving the class, then you may write a petition requesting to waive it. Include the transcript, detailed course description, and a support letter from the instructor. Give the petition to the Graduate Coordinator, who will forward it to the Curriculum Committee.
• If the petition is approved, it only waives the specific course, but not the units; you will need to take additional elective(s) to make up for the units.
• This is not transfer credit. Classes already used for a degree elsewhere cannot be double-counted for another degree here.
• In cases where there are two or more options of which core class to take, if you have already taken a course equivalent to one of the options, then use one of the other options.
• If you took a graduate level class elsewhere that is equivalent to one of the program's electives, then select a different class from the list of approved electives to satisfy the elective requirements. Again, credit will not be transferred and units will not be waived.

Please contact the Graduate Coordinator to inquire about using a class for the program's elective requirements that is not on the list of approved electives. In most cases, you should stick to the list of approved electives. However, courses may be discontinued, new courses may be introduced, and some courses may be helpful for your particular research. The course must be a graduate course (or in limited cases, an upper division course, but not a lower division course) and must be relevant to the scope of the program. As with other electives, you must take the course for a letter grade and must receive a "B" or better for it to be counted towards the program's requirements. The Graduate Coordinator will have you write a petition and will pass it on to the Curriculum Committee. Your petition should include the following information:

• Your name, PID, year you entered the program, and track (BISB or BMI).
• The quarter, instructor, course number, title, and description.
• Which elective category (BIO-1, BIO-2, etc.) it best fits, and why.
• Course website link (or attach documents) including the course description, syllabus, textbook / readings, basis for grading (homework, exams, projects, labs, etc.), and detailed list of topics. Sometimes this is all in the syllabus and sometimes it's split up (for example, the list of topics might be on a separate Calendar / Schedule / Modules page).
  • If the class website with this information is publicly available (not requiring Canvas or other login), then please send the link. Otherwise, print these documents to PDFs (if you have access) or request the syllabus from the instructor.
  • Canvas class websites: Most Canvas sites are restricted to students in the class and are taken down at the end of the quarter. Please print the syllabus and other documents to PDFs or request them from the instructor.
  • Most class websites are not available in advance, and many class websites are taken down at the end of the quarter. If the website is not available, you'll need to request the documents from the instructor. Info from a past offering of the course is acceptable, provided the course will be similar.
• One-time only courses and new courses are often offered as "special topics" courses (BENG 207, CSE 291, DSC 291, MATH 295, PHYS 239, ...). The generic catalog description of a special topics course is not sufficient, since these course numbers are used for multiple unrelated courses (e.g., there are typically 6-10 unrelated classes numbered CSE 291 each quarter). We need information on the specific instance of the course. The instructor will typically provide a course description, syllabus, course website, etc.

Example:

Bad examples:

This is insufficient because it is the generic description of a special topics class. Many unrelated classes are offered as BENG 207. You need to provide information on the specific special topics class requested.

This is not a biology course and cannot be used to satisfy the Biology elective.

This is a lower division course and cannot be counted as an elective for graduate program requirements.

A core class / the colloquium / the Student Research Talks conflicts with my weekly lab meeting.
Required courses take precedence over lab meetings. You will need to miss the portions of the lab meetings that conflict with your required classes.

I would like to take elective X but it conflicts with a core class.
The core classes are required. You will have to choose a different elective or take a future offering of the elective.

I would like to take elective X but it conflicts with the colloquium (BNFO 281 for the BISB track, MED 262 for the BMI track).
The Curriculum Committee is receptive to petitions to substitute a quarter of MED 262 for BNFO 281 or vice-versa, in the same quarter.

I would like to take elective X but it conflicts with the Student Research Talks (BNFO 283).
The Curriculum Committee is receptive to petitions to resolve the conflict by deferring one quarter of BNFO 283, most likely to fall quarter of your third year. You will still be required to complete 6 quarters of BNFO 283.

Note that these sample petitions are for a conflict involving an approved elective. If you want to use a class as an elective that is not on the approved electives list, and that class has a conflict with the colloquium or Student Research Talks, please combine both issues into the same petition.

Extension on rotation project reports
The one-page rotation proposal, the five-page rotation project report, and the Rotation Mentor's evaluation of the student, are all mandatory program requirements and are needed to assign your grade in BNFO 298. These must be submitted by the deadlines or your grade in BNFO 298 will be in jeopardy. We do not expect that every short rotation will achieve an important research result; the results will often be preliminary or exploratory. For further questions, please contact the Graduate Coordinator or the BNFO 298 instructor.

I want to skip one (or more) rotation(s) because I already know which lab I will join.
Doing three rotations in different labs is a program requirement and will not normally be waived.

I want to drop a class but I will fall under 12 units, so I'd like to increase rotation units.
Rotation (BNFO 298) is always 4 units. If dropping a class would put you below the 12 units full-time enrollment requirement, you should discuss your situation with your academic advisor and try to find an alternate class, if feasible. In limited circumstances, if you cannot resolve the situation with regular classes, you may enroll in Graduate Research (BNFO 299) with your Rotation Mentor as the instructor (in addition to staying enrolled in BNFO 298). You must first get the consent of your Rotation Mentor. You must put additional effort into the project to justify the additional BNFO 299 units, and your Rotation Mentor must vouch for this additional effort by sending an email to the BNFO 298 instructor. Note that this will not change the number of rotations you need to do.

Currently, sites offering "MOOCs" are not accredited, do not provide standard A-F letter grades, and the courses do not count for college credit. There is no basis on which to award credit for them or to use them to waive or substitute for curricular requirements. The situation may change in the future.

I accidentally selected S/U grading when registering.

Can I change the grading option to letter grades?
See How to Change a Grading Option. The deadline to fix this yourself on WebReg is usually in Week 2 of the same quarter as the class. It may differ in the summer. Do not delay; please fix it by this deadline. There is also a procedure for Weeks 3-4, but we do not know if it is likely to succeed.

Petitions to change the grading option later in the quarter (and to change the grade if it's after the quarter) are handled centrally on campus (not by the BISB program) and are usually denied. Inattentiveness to deadlines or rules, having to take an additional class to make up for it, etc., are not regarded as valid justifications. The only potential grounds for approval are situations beyond the student's control, such as technical problems with Tritonlink or a medical emergency, and it would have to be clearly shown and documented how this prevented the student from being able to follow campus procedures. If such circumstances truly apply in your situation, contact the Graduate Coordinator to discuss a petition to GEPA + EPC. Otherwise, do not pursue this, as it will be rejected and will delay resolution of the situation.

Do I have to repeat the class for a letter grade?
This usually is not an option for resolving the matter. You cannot repeat a class unless you received a D, F, or U grade, and even then, you have to take it with the same grading option; see How to Repeat a Class. Certain classes (such as seminars, research, and TAships) are designed to be taken multiple times, but that's a different situation.

Can the class still count towards my requirements?
If you took an elective or “4th core option” on S/U grades, just take another available option instead for letter grades.

If you accidentally took a core class on S/U grades and got an “S”:

• Submit a petition to the BISB Curriculum Committee requesting to count the class towards your requirements despite the “S” grade.
• You must explain the circumstances, and you must include a letter from the course instructor stating the specific letter grade you would have received had you taken it on letter grades.
• Note that even if the petition is approved, it will not change the grade on your transcript.
• If the petition is not approved, see the Grades FAQ.