Credit Overload Petition

Credit Overload Petition

A Credit Overload Petition is used to increase a student’s credit limit during any academic session for Fall/Spring for more than 19 credits. Chemistry students can register for up to 20 credits without a credit overload petition.

The Credit Overload Petition will become available for Fall 2025 on April 28th after enrollment appointments have concluded for all returning students. 

Eligibility

In order to qualify for a credit overload, the student must:

• Have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.3.
• Not have any outstanding incomplete (INCs) grades
• Have completed a full semester and have an established UMass GPA. If you have not yet completed a full semester (both first-year and transfer), you must wait until your first semester grades are viewable in SPIRE.

Important Notes:

You are advised to add the courses that may be most important to your academic plan now in case they are full by the time a decision regarding your petition is made. You will receive the Academic Dean’s response to your UMass email. Please email cnsstudentsuccess [at] umass [dot] edu if you had any technical issues and are concerned about whether the form went through. Do not resend unless instructed to do so, multiple forms slow down the processing of your request.

Additional Considerations:

• If approved for a credit overload, students are not allowed to register for the extra courses via SPIRE until enrollment appointments have concluded for all returning students (late April for fall semester and late November for spring semester).
• No overloads over 25 credits will be allowed.
• Exceptions to the policy (GPA, credits, etc.) may be considered with an advisor’s written recommendation.
• Credit overloads will not be approved for the current semester for work done previously (fall, winter, spring, summer).
• The end of add/drop is the deadline to petition for a credit overload for each semester.