Advisor Manual-D
Dean's List
Declaration of Major
Deficiency Points
Degree Audit
Dietetics
Distinction, Graduation with
Drop/Add Transactions
Dual Degrees
Dual Majors
Dual Registration at the University of Michigan
The Dean's List is a means of recognizing students who have excelled academically in a given semester. The criteria for inclusion on the Dean's List, as well as the form of recognition, vary according to the school or college.
School of Business Administration
The Dean's List is compiled for each semester in the calendar year. Inclusion requires a 3.75 HPA for students enrolled for 12 or more semester hours (full-time). Students who are registered for 6-11 hours must earn a 4.00 HPA. Students who are registered for fewer than six hours and students who receive marks of "I", "W", "X", "N", or "U" are not eligible.
College of Engineering
A student who achieves a term honor point average of at least 3.5, based on a program of 12 credits or more, is cited by the dean for distinguished scholarship and is included on the Dean's List of Honor Students.
College of Fine, Performing & Communication Arts
The Dean's List is compiled for fall & winter only. Inclusion requires a 3.75 HPA for students enrolled for 12 or more semester hours (full-time). Students who are registered for 6-11 hours must earn a 4.00 HPA. Students who are registered for fewer than six hours and students who receive marks of "I", "W", "X", "N", or "U" are not eligible.
College of Liberal Arts & Science
The Dean's List is compiled each fall and winter term and includes students who have earned a 3.60 HPA for those who registered for full-time programs of 12 credits or more which contribute to the Honor Point base. Students who are registered for between 6-11 hours must earn a 4.00. Students who receive marks of "I", "W", or "X" or grades of "N" or "U" are not eligible.
College of Nursing
Students who complete at least 12 semester hours in a given term at WSU are eligible for appointment to the Dean's List if they have earned an HPA of 3.75 or above for that term. The Honors List of the College of Nursing requires a minimum of 3.50.
College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
Pharmacy: a regular undergraduate student who achieves an HPA of 3.70 or more for at least 12 credits of coursework in a given semester is notified by the dean of his / her citation for distinguished scholarship and professional progress.
Health Sciences: a full-time student whose honor point average is 3.70 or above in a given term is eligible for citation for distinguished scholarship. A part-time student is eligible after each accumulation of 12 credits.
The Declaration of Major process applies only to students who plan to earn a degree in either CFPCA or Liberal Arts & Science. Students who plan to earn a degree in any other school or college of the University must apply to that college to be admitted.
Students may initiate the Declaration of Major at any point after the beginning of their first term assuming that the department does not have course prerequisites that they have not fulfilled and assuming that they are not on Academic Probation. In practice, it makes sense for a student to wait until he or she has completed one or two courses in the subject, a delay that should in no way preclude the student from establishing contact with the department. An exception to this rule is the department of Criminal Justice, which expects the completion of all General Education courses and at least Junior standing to declare the major.
The student initiates the process by making an appointment with the University Advising Center for a Degree Audit, then proceeds to the major department with a both a copy of the Audit and their academic transcript, and turns in the signed Declaration of Major form at the appropriate Dean's Office.
A Declaration of Major becomes void if, after declaring the major, the student changes to another college or curriculum. A lapse of time during which the student is not enrolled does not alter the validity of the original declaration although he or she should be reminded of the need to re-establish contact with the department.
Deficiency points, an arithmetic measure of the level of work a student must do to achieve a certain Grade Point Average, are most often used in reference to students who are on Academic Probation but the idea and similar calculations are applicable to any situation in which a student is trying to attain a GPA higher than the one he or she has. Neither the Undergraduate Bulletin nor any other publication of the university contains a reference to deficiency points so if the information here is not clear, ask a senior advisor to explain the details.
For students on academic probation, there are two methods of calculating deficiency points, defined as the number of semester hours of "B" work required to raise a Grade Point Average to 2.00. One method, suitable primarily for students who have not enrolled for more than a total of three or four terms, is to assign one of the following values to the grade for each course the student has completed: A = +2; B = +1; C = 0; D = -1; E = -2. Assigning the appropriate value to each grade for a student who is on probation will, upon adding the numbers, result in a negative number which will represent the number of hours of "B" work (or half that number of hours of "A" work) that the student must earn in order to raise the GPA to 2.00.
The other method of calculating deficiency points involves using the Honor Point Fraction and is described under Grade Point Average.
We must emphasize here and elsewhere that the calculation of deficiency points does not take into account the benefit that accrues by eliminating a prior grade as a result of repeating a course taken originally at Wayne State. In most cases, students are well-advised to repeat courses in which they have earned a low grade as long as they do so with a clear understanding of why they did not do well the first time.
A Degree Audit occurs whenever an advisor reviews a student's progress in meeting basic requirements for whatever program he or she is following. It is a formal requirement, however, for a student who wishes to initiate the Declaration of Major procedure in CFPCA or Liberal Arts & Science.
It is imperative that the advisor approach the audit with the understanding that the fact that credit hours earned at WSU or elsewhere appear on the WSU transcript under the heading of various subjects does not inevitably mean that those credits apply toward the minimum hours required to graduate. Second, the audit must be based only on what the student has actually completed and is not to include any work in progress nor should it acknowledge any verbal reports from the student concerning such matters as CLEP scores that are in the mail, "Incompletes" that are being made up, or coursework taken recently at another school. After completing the audit, the advisor should make three copies each of the transcript and audit: the original for the Department, one set for the student, and one set for the student's file.
For students obligated to fulfill General Education Requirements, it is helpful under Group Requirements to write in the course that the student has completed to meet that requirement (e.g. ANT 211 for Life Science) - so that he or she will more easily grasp and remember the restriction dictating that a given department may not be used for more than one Group Requirement.
All information should be included on the form - what degree, what major, through which term the audit is based on, the advisor's signature and date and the student's signature - in order to reduce the chance of some misunderstanding at some later date as to what information was conveyed by whom and at what point.
The Dietetics major cannot be declared in the same way as other majors in the College of Liberal Arts & Science. It is treated in the same way as an application to a professional program with a limited number of students admitted each year. An advisor may only place a student in Pre-Dietetics by completing the College and Program Approval form for submission to the Records Office. A degree audit is also completed for the student. The student provides the degree audit to the Dietetics program for their records and the major is declared internally by the department when the student is admitted to the program.
The university recognizes the top 20% of undergraduate students within each college graduating each term. To be eligible for consideration, students must have accumulated 60 or more credit hours in residence at WSU. The following distribution applies:
| Top 5% | Next 5% | Next 10% |
| Summa Cum Laude | Magna Cum Laude | Cum Laude |
The deadline for dropping classes to avoid being assessed tuition is the end of the second week of classes for the 15-week session and the end of the first week of classes for the spring session or the summer session.
The deadline for dropping classes without the instructor's authorization and to avoid the mark of "W" being assigned on the transcript is the end of the fourth week of classes for a 15-week session.
To avoid having to get the dean's signature in addition to the instructor's signature, one must drop the class by the end of the 12th week.
Finally, the university deadline to drop classes is the last day of regularly scheduled classes.
It is helpful to keep in mind three points.
- The deadlines above are those of the university: instructors may, and a number of them do, establish more exacting deadlines than those of the university.
- The deadlines do not mean that the student must have thought about adding or dropping prior to the deadline or that he or she had the Drop/Add form signed by the deadline: they mean that the student must turn in the form to the Registration Office, 2 West HNJ, by the deadline and that the form must have on it whatever signatures are required at that point.
- The deadlines are printed each term in the Schedule of Classes.
The last day to add classes occurs roughly two weeks after the start of the 15-week term. Spring and summer sessions post an earlier date. Check the Schedule of Classes each term for the exact ending date for registration.
See also Concurrent Degrees. To earn dual or concurrent degrees, a student must complete at least 150 semester hours, fulfill all university, college and departmental requirements, complete and submit two separate degree applications (the student pays for only one) and must receive both degrees at the same time.
Within either CFPCA or Liberal Arts & Sciences, a student may earn two degrees by declaring both majors, meeting the requirements of the college and each major, and earning at least 150 semester hours. If one degree is to be from CFPCA and the other from Liberal Arts & Sciences, the student must be reminded of the differences in General Education requirements between that college and the others and of the need to meet those of the latter group.
To pursue two degrees in each of two different colleges listed above, the student should be coded in the college that offers the more specialized of the two programs, the guideline being whether or not the program has a departmental curriculum code. If each program has a departmental curriculum code, the student should decide which degree is the primary one.
To pursue a degree in either CFPCA or Liberal Arts & Sciences and a second degree in a professional school or college, the student must first be accepted by and enroll in the professional school, then see an academic advisor for a Change of College on which the advisor must note clearly "CONCURRENT DEGREES: DO NOT CHANGE CODING," a message that informs Central Records that the student plans to declare a major in a college in which he or she is not coded, that the UAC approves for the dean's office, and that the student is to remain coded in the professional school.
See also Concurrent Major and Co-Major. A student may earn one degree with what is commonly referred to as a "double major" by completing requirements of the college and each department, including the Writing Intensive courses for each major, and earning a minimum of 120 hours. Complete the "College and Program Approval" form checking the box for "Dual Majors".
Please note that regardless of whether the student earns one degree with concurrent majors or earns two degrees, he or she must meet all college and departmental requirements. The basic requirements of Liberal Arts & Sciences exceed those of CFPCA and, for some requirements, are defined differently. If a student decides to graduate without one of the declared majors or if he/she would like to change one of the majors to a minor, the student must re-declare his/her major.
Dual Registration at the University of Michigan
A student enrolled at either Wayne State University or the University of Michigan may elect a course or courses in the other institution if the course fits his/her program but is not available in his/her home institution. The student must have written approval of the department chairperson in his/her major area in the home college and the approval of his/her dean. In the Colleges of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts and Liberal Arts and Sciences this dean's approval is obtained in the University Advising Center by an advising staff member signing the director's name followed by the staff member's initials on the appropriate form. The election must also be approved by the department which offers the course. Students desiring to participate in the Wayne State University-University of Michigan dual registration should obtain the necessary forms from Registration and Scheduling and pay the appropriate tuition at their home institution.