Grades

Grades

Candidates for the Ph.D. are required to receive more A-range than B-range grades in each year; no grade lower than B- can be counted toward the degree. More than one grade below B- indicates unsatisfactory progress in the program. Grades below a B are highly unusual for graduate students at UMass Amherst. If you find yourself receiving low grades in any course, you should speak with the GPD right away. For more on how grades affect your standing in the program, see section on Good Standing (pp. 20-22).

Incompletes

Students should avoid taking incompletes (INC). Incompletes damage your chances of receiving university and outside fellowships. Even worse, incompletes often cause students to fall further behind in their coursework and other requirements in the following semester. Incompletes must be completed before the end of the semester that follows the one in which the incomplete was taken, unless the professor sets an earlier deadline.

Unless an exception is made for medical, family, or other emergencies, students in Comparative Literature are not permitted to take more than one incomplete per semester. Students who take two or more incompletes in any given semester will be put under review if they do not clear their incompletes by the deadline, which is at the end of the following semester (see sections on Good Standing and the Review Period, pp. 20-22). 

In addition, students will not be permitted to take the comprehensive examinations if they have incompletes in courses being used to fulfill requirements. As in all cases, students having academic difficulties should see the GPD at their earliest opportunity.

Note: Often students take incompletes because they believe the extra time will allow them to write better seminar papers. Paradoxically, this is usually not the case; sometimes an extra week or two may be necessary to produce higher quality work, but any more time than that quickly becomes counterproductive. Perfectionism often hinders academic progress. Balancing several papers/deadlines and exams per semester is excellent training for academic life, where you will find yourself juggling far more responsibilities at once.

Credit for Prior Graduate Work 

Students in the Ph.D. Program with M.A. degrees from other programs or institutions may petition the Graduate Studies Committee for exemption from particular course requirements. The correspondence between coursework done elsewhere and the department’s curricular requirements must be close; credit is not awarded automatically. A student interested in receiving transfer credit should submit to the GPD a transcript with the courses in question and a copy of the syllabus. A copy of the papers written for the course may be required as well. These materials are reviewed by the GPD and Graduate Studies Committee. At most, two courses (six credits) completed for an earlier M.A. may count toward the Ph.D.

Credit for Independent Studies and Five College Courses

See the section entitled "Degree Requirements."