To: USC Students
From: Frank Chang, University Registrar
Date: May 18, 2020
Subject: Electing Grade Options for Spring 2020
I would like to commend you for your hard work and perseverance this semester. You have shown incredible resilience throughout this very challenging time. Now that you have completed your final examinations, I would like to provide you with instructions for electing grade options for spring 2020 courses that were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. You will be able to elect grade options beginning Wednesday, May 20 on Web Registration.
From May 20 through May 27, you should review your final grades in OASIS and then carefully consider the grade option you wish to elect for each course in Web Registration. Use your discretion to keep the grade assigned by your professor, or change it to one of the grade options. If you are a graduate student, verify with your academic advisor that you can elect the Pass grade or No Record option. You should have already received this information from your advisor.
Please note that you will only have one opportunity to change the grade option for each course, but you have from May 20 to May 27 to make a decision. We will not allow any grade option changes after May 27 for courses that ran from Jan. 13-May 13, 2020.
Below are a few points for you to consider as you plan the grade option for each course:
- Undergraduate students who wish to change to Pass must have a “C-“ Letter grade or higher.
- Graduate students who wish to change to Pass must have a “B” Letter grade or higher.
- Students who kept a course with the Pass/No Pass grade option may keep the Pass grade or elect the No Record mark.
- A mark of No Record will remove a course and the grade from your official USC transcript, but you will see the course on your STARS report and in OASIS.
Below you will find the most common grading scenarios and the procedure for each scenario:
| Grade Scenario | Procedure to Follow |
| I want to change the Letter grade for my course to Pass/No Pass or No Record. | Use Web Registration to change grade options to Pass/No Pass or No Record, unless you have a restriction that blocks registration. If Web Registration reports that you have a restriction, you should resolve the restriction before attempting to change grade options. |
| I want to change the Pass/No Pass option for my course to No Record. | Use Web Registration to change the course to No Record. |
| I want to change a UW (Unwithdrawn) grade to Pass/No Pass or No Record. | Use Web Registration to change the course to Pass/No Pass or No Record. |
| I want to change a Credit/No Credit grade to No Record. | Contact OneStop using our contact form if you would like to elect No Record. |
| I have a final grade of Pass and want to change it to a Letter grade. | Submit a petition inquiry to change from Pass to a Letter grade using our contact form. |
| I withdrew from a course between March 13 and March 30, 2020 and would like to elect a No Record mark. | Contact your academic advisor. If the advisor supports your request for No Record, the advisor should contact OneStop using our contact form. |
| I received a mark of IN (Incomplete) for a course in Spring 2020 and want to elect Pass/No Pass or No Record. | Complete the pending work and inform your instructor of your desired grade option at the time you submit the work. The instructor will send your final grade option to the Grades Department. |
| I am a Limited Status student and want to change the Letter grade for my course. | Contact OneStop using our contact form. |
| I audited a course and want to elect No Record. | Audited courses do not appear on the transcript. No further action is needed. |
| I have a grade of MG (Missing Grade) and want to change it to Pass/No Pass or No Record. | Your instructor must submit a final grade with your grade option to the Registrar’s Office. A mark of MG that was assigned due to an academic integrity violation may not be changed to Pass/No Pass or No Record. |
If you have additional questions about grade options, please visit the Academic FAQs page, which contains answers to many grading questions. If you do not find the answer to your question on the FAQs page, you can contact us at registrar@usc.edu.