Grades and GPA

You've finished your class, and now you just want to see what grade you got - find out how and when grades are posted and what they mean for you.

Grades will post to your academic record after your instructor enters them in Pathway after the term is over. After the term is over, grades post to student records once per day (not immediately after the instructor enters them). You can view your grades in Pathway as soon as they are posted. Grades that appear in Canvas are not official.

Grade Point Average (GPA)

Students' UMKC grade point average will include all classes taken at any UM System university. There are separate grade point averages for undergraduate, graduate, medicine, dentistry, law and pharmacy programs. The GPA Calculator demonstrates how your GPA is determined based on grades and credit hours.

Academic standing and ineligibility

Academic standing is assessed at the end of every term, whether the student is full time or part time for that term.

  • A summer session is considered the same as a semester for the purpose of determining academic actions.
  • Students are notified of academic actions via their UMKC e-mail address.
  • Once a student is placed on academic notice, they have two semesters to raise their cumulative GPA to the level required (2.0 for undergraduate students, 3.0 for graduate students).
  • During those two semesters, the student’s term GPA must be at least 2.0 for undergraduate students and 3.0 for graduate students to be allowed to continue. (Note: some academic units may have higher GPA requirements.)

View your grades

There are two ways to access your grades in Pathway - either through the Student Center or Academic Records. Follow these steps to view your grades.

  1. Log on to Pathway.
  2. Select Academic Records
  3. Select My Grades

Special Grading Situations

A student must obtain the consent of the instructor in order to audit a course. Courses that ordinarily may not be audited are studio courses in art, performance courses in the Department of Communication and Journalism and laboratory courses in the sciences. A student registered in a course for audit is expected to attend class. Therefore, an auditor may be administratively withdrawn from a course when, in the judgment of the instructor and upon approval by the dean, the attendance record justifies such action.

Change from audit to credit

Students may change status in a course from audit to credit during the first week of the term provided they have approval of the faculty and academic unit. This change must be initiated in the advising office of the appropriate academic unit and must be completed in the UMKC Registrar's Office or UMKC Central using an Add/Drop form.

Change from credit to audit

Students may change their status in a course from credit to audit any time prior to the end of the fourth week of any fall or spring semester, or prior to the end of the second week of any summer session. This change must be initiated in the advising office and must be completed in the UMKC Registrar's Office or UMKC Central using an Add/Drop form.

Sophomores, juniors and seniors in good standing may elect to take one course per semester on a credit/no credit (CR/NC) basis. The credit/no credit option may not be used for courses in the major or the minor or for courses taken to fulfill the general degree requirements. Students may not elect this option when they are repeating a course.

The credit/no credit option must be elected at the time of initial registration for a term and cannot be changed subsequently. Students must make a grade of C- or better to earn credit; D and F grades receive no credit. Grades of CR or NC do not earn grade points and they do not affect the grade point average. Courses elected on this option are subject to regular academic regulations, including course load, withdrawal, etc.

The credit/no credit option is not available for students pursuing a bachelor of liberal arts degree or for graduate students.

An instructor may assign the grade of I (incomplete) to students who have been unable to complete the work of the course because of illness or serious reasons beyond their control. An incomplete grade is appropriate only when enough work in the course has been completed for students to finish the remaining work without re-enrolling in the course or attending additional classes.

The work must be completed within one calendar year or the incomplete grade will automatically lapse to an F. Students should not re-enroll in a class for which they earned an incomplete.

Undergraduates

When undergraduate students repeat courses, both attempts are automatically calculated in the cumulative GPA, but students can request to have only the grade for the final attempt used in calculating their GPA.

The course repeat policy will not automatically be applied to a student’s GPA. After completing a retaken course, a student must submit a request for GPA adjustment form to his/her academic advisor.

GPA recalculation information

The recalculation of a student's GPA is reflected only in the calculation of that student's current cumulative GPA and will not retroactively affect calculations for dean’s list, graduation and honors, eligibility for financial aid and veterans’ benefits and scholarships, athletic eligibility, discounts for insurance or any other area.

  • Courses in which academic dishonesty was involved are not eligible for GPA recalculation.
  • A student’s GPA can only be recalculated if the original and the repeated course are taken at UMKC or another UM System school.
  • The original course and the repeated course must be a direct equivalent.
  • Students may repeat a single course for GPA calculation twice (for a total of three completions). Please note that financial aid may not be available on a third completion if a passing grade was earned.
  • All courses must be taken Fall 2007 or later.
  • Repeated courses may not be taken on a CR/NC basis.
  • Original grades cannot be replaced with a 'W', 'WF', 'I', or 'T.'
  • No more than 15 semester hours can be dropped from the calculation of a student's GPA by repeating course work.
  • Requests approved for GPA recalculation will prefix the original grade with an "R." Transcripts will note that such grades are excluded from GPA calculations.
  • Courses cannot be repeated for credit towards the degree unless specifically noted.
  • The course repeat option is not available when requested for a term that was a part of a previous degree award.
  • Once the GPA recalculation has been recorded, the action cannot be rescinded.

Refer to the appropriate school or college section of the undergraduate catalog for information on specific rules for course repeats. Some academic units may have more stringent requirements on course repeats.

Request for GPA Adjustment form (PDF)

Graduates

Whenever students repeat a graduate-credit course, they must submit a course repeat form to the Registration and Records Office no later than the fourth week of the term. Students seeking graduate degrees are limited to repeating no more than 20 percent of the credits applicable toward a graduate degree.

If approved by the school, department or Interdisciplinary Ph.D. supervisory committee, students may repeat a course once to improve their GPA or satisfy the program requirements.

The second grade received will be used to calculate the GPA for satisfying degree requirements.

Access forms for graduate students

Courses numbered 300 to 499 are upper division junior- and senior-level courses and may be taken for graduate credit.

Graduate students who enroll in such courses have the option of designating them, at the time of enrollment, as being "not for graduate credit." If the student chooses this option, the grade will not be included in the student's graduate GPA and the course may not be included on the graduate or Ph.D. program/plan of study and will not count toward a graduate degree.

In order for a 300- or 400-level course to be accepted for graduate credit, students will be expected to do supplementary work (additional reading, projects, papers and contact hours with the instructor) and to demonstrate graduate-level competency and achievement in the subject.

Students must also take the course for graduate credit and complete it with a grade of B- (2.7) or better.

The total number of acceptable 300- to 400-level courses to be applied to requirements for a graduate degree may not exceed 40 percent of the total number of courses applied to graduate or non-interdisciplinary doctoral-degree requirements or one-third of the total number of courses on the approved Interdisciplinary Ph.D. plan of study.

Courses at the 100-level and 200-level are not available for graduate credit and will not be applied toward the number of hours required for a graduate degree.