Academic Restart and Grade Amnesty Policy
Mount Wachusett Community College offers two options for restarting at the college for students who have not attended MWCC for a minimum of two academic years. These options are available upon readmission to MWCC. These options are for academic standing only and do not impact federal financial aid (Satisfactory Academic Progress) requirements or previous financial balances with the College; students planning to use Financial Aid will need to follow the Financial Aid Appeal Process. These options also do not impact standing with the Dean of Students Office. If a student has been suspended through the student conduct process or has one or more holds on their student account, the student will need to satisfactorily complete the conduct process and/or reconcile those outstanding holds before being eligible for either the Academic Restart or Grade Amnesty policies. These options are not applicable for students who have been expelled from the college. Students considering these options should discuss them with an Admissions staff member at the time of readmission.
Academic Restart Option: This option is for students who were on academic suspension at the time they discontinued attendance at the college. This option allows for academically suspended students to be re-admitted to the college, without an academic appeal, for one semester of review. Normal academic progress standards will apply thereafter. This option refers only to academic performance and does not impact Satisfactory Academic Progress standards required to receive financial aid; students wanting to use Financial Aid will need to file a Financial Aid appeal. Such readmission will be at the discretion of the Dean of Admissions.
Grade Amnesty Option: This option is for students who earned an overall Grade Point Average (GPA) below 2.0. The student must have at least 9 credits of classes with grades of C- or less to be eligible for grade amnesty. Grade Amnesty can only apply for classes not required in the student’s current program. Within their first year of returning to the College, students may request that the course grades of “C-“ or less that they earned prior to returning to the College be excluded from the calculation of their GPA (provided those courses were not used previously to earn a degree or certificate). These classes and grades will remain on the student’s transcript with a notation that they have grade amnesty, which means they are excluded from the GPA calculation. It is important to note that federal financial aid regulations on calculating GPA for Satisfactory Academic Progress will still apply. All grades of “C” or higher are not eligible for exclusion. Students may request this option only once during their history at MWCC with the approval of the Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs.
If a student wishes to repeat ENG 098 they should review The David Wyman Developmental Education Repeat Policy.