Grade Replacement

Starting in Fall 2010, all undergraduate students have the option to repeat courses in which they earned a C- or below and use the new grade to replace the grade they earned in the first attempt. To see all of the requirements and limitations of this policy, carefully review the policy information below.

  • How do I obtain approval to replace a course grade?

    Students should first meet with their Academic Advisor by appointment or Express Advising to review the grade replacement policy. Students must complete the Grade Replacement form during the first half of the term in which the course is being repeated and then email the completed form to Gies Records (records@business.illinois.edu), who will confirm approval. The Advisor and the student will complete this form together if decided it's the best course of action.

    Late Appeal for missing the Grade Replacement Deadline: https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/963033

    Deadlines for each semester are listed in Gies Groups and also on the website for the Office of the Registrar.

  • Grade Replacement Policy

    1. Undergraduate students may repeat courses for grade replacement according to the following set criteria. If these conditions are not met, the general policy governing repeated courses applies.

    • Students may repeat for grade replacement up to a total of 4 distinct courses, not to exceed a maximum of 10 semester hours, taken at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
    • A course in which an academic integrity violation has been officially reported may not be repeated for grade replacement.
    • A course may be repeated for grade replacement only once.
    • Courses may be repeated for grade replacement only in those cases in which students received grades of C-, D+, D, D-, or F on the first attempt.
    • Variable credit courses must be taken for the same number of credit hours when repeated for grade replacement. Special topics courses must be taken for the same topic when repeated for grade replacement. You cannot take a cross-listed section of the original course.
    • The grade modes in original and repeated courses must be identical. Meaning, if you took the course for a letter grade the first time, you must take it for a letter grade the second time. You cannot take it Credit/No Credit.
    • A student who has been awarded a degree from the University of Illinois may not subsequently repeat a course from that degree program for the purposes of grade replacement.
    • If the original course was taken at UIUC, you must take the exact course at UIUC. You cannot take an equivalent course off campus and transfer the credit in for grade replacement.

    2. When a student repeats a course for grade replacement, the transcript is affected as follows:

    • Both course enrollments and corresponding grades appear on the official transcript.
    • The first course enrollment on the student's transcript will be permanently identified as a course that has been repeated for grade replacement.
    • Where a course has been repeated for grade replacement, the course credit earned will be counted only once toward degree and program requirements. In the event that the student should fail the course on the second attempt, the student does not forfeit the original credit.
    • When a course has been repeated for grade replacement, only the grade received in the second enrollment for the course will count in the student's grade point average. In the event that the student should fail the course on the second attempt, while having earned a passing grade in the first attempt, the general policy governing course repeats applies: all grades received, passed, or failed will be counted in the graduation average.

    View the Campus Grade Replacement Policy here.