Academic Catalog

Retro-credits are a system designed for new students who have enrolled in high-school foreign-language courses beyond the first-semester course.

Retro-credit is ungraded credit for the coursework pre-requisite to the course in which the student is enrolled, contingent upon the student having received a "B" or better in the course. For example, if a student took 4 years of high-school Spanish, s/he could be eligible to take SPA 303 and earn 16 units, contingent on receiving a "B" in the SPA 303 course.

Students must apply for retro-credit during pre-registration, summer registration (for incoming students), or during the first four weeks of the semester in which they enroll in a foreign language class. Retro-credit may only be applied for when the student is enrolling in their first university foreign-language course. Retro-credit may not be transferred to another university.

Placement is determined by the number of years of foreign-language study at the high-school level and/or by consultation with an advisor from the Global Languages and Cultures department during summer orientation.

When the student completes the university foreign-language course with a grade of "B" or better, s/he will receive the ungraded credit for the pre-requisites of the course.