Program requirements are established based on the Graduate Catalog active at the time of the student's initial acceptance and matriculation (first registration). All credits presented for the master's degree must have been earned within seven calendar years of the date of the degree. All credits presented for the doctoral degree must have been earned within ten years of the date of the degree.
Students in all graduate programs must maintain enrollment totaling 6 hrs (or more) over all consecutive three semester periods (including summers). In other words, the total enrollment of the current term plus the two terms preceding it must add to 6 hrs or more at all times. The status of all students will be checked by the midpoint of each term for compliance with the continuous enrollment requirement. Any student whose enrollment is out of compliance will receive a registration hold preventing all current and future registration. Those students will be notified by an e-mail message sent to their official GSU e-mail account.
To resume their programs, students with continuous enrollment holds must file for reentry by the published deadline and must enroll at a level sufficient to satisfy the continuous enrollment criterion. That is, their enrollment in the reentry term plus the two terms preceding it must total to 6 hrs or more. The maximum required enrollment level for the reentry term is 6 hours. For more information on the reentry process, see section 3400.
For purposes of financial aid and compliance with Federal regulations, graduates students may receive aid for a maximum of 90 hours unless they are receiving a graduate assistantship. Ph.D. students are exempted from the Satisfactory Academic Progress process. Students receiving financial aid and receiving graduate assistantships may be subject to reduced financial aid awards.
Graduate students must assume full responsibility for knowledge of the rules and regulations of the college, the university, and those departmental requirements concerning their individual curricula. Enrollment in a graduate program in the College of Arts and Sciences constitutes students' acknowledgement that they are obligated to comply with all academic and administrative regulations and degree requirements.
It is the responsibility of the student to know and to satisfy any and all conditions that pertain to admission and to the satisfactory completion of degree requirements. Students may obtain advisement from the appropriate graduate faculty adviser or from the director of graduate studies of their departments. Advisors are also available in Graduate Services in order to assist with admissions and other administrative actions related to admission and graduation.
Courses numbered 6000 and above are open only to graduate students. Each graduate course will carry three semester hours of academic credit unless otherwise indicated. Twenty-five semester hours is the maximum student load per semester; eighteen semester hours is considered to be the normal load for graduate students with graduate assistantships in the College of Arts and Sciences, while nine semester hours is the load for defining a full-residence semester for most financial aid and loans. Students who wish to register for more than twenty-five hours of course work must obtain the approval of the department director of graduate studies.
Under one of the following conditions, an undergraduate student may be permitted to take a graduate course:
(This approval process does not apply to postbaccalaureate students. Postbaccalaureate students wishing to take graduate courses must be admitted as non-degree seeking students. See www.cas.gsu.edu/grad_non-degree_transient_admission.html for additional information.)
A maximum of six semester hours of approved graduate credit from other institutions may be accepted toward a master's degree program and a maximum of 30 semester hours may be accepted toward a doctoral degree. Transfer credit must be approved no later than the end of the second semester in Full Status. Transferred credits will be included in the time limitations placed on credits applicable to graduate degrees. For the policy concerning application of work taken at other institutions in the doctoral program, see the departmental requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree.
Please note that the acceptance of transfer credit is not automatic; it must be approved and documented by the departmental director of graduate studies and the appropriate associate dean.
Course 6999 in any department that offers graduate work is designed only to assist the graduate student with a particular curriculum problem. Credit of one to a maximum of four semester hours may be earned. To be eligible, a student must have Full Status and must have the approvals of the instructor, the chair of the department, and the appropriate associate dean of the college. Application forms for Course 6999 may be obtained from either the academic department or the Dean's Office and must be submitted for approval prior to the close of registration for the semester in which the credit is to be earned. Registration for Course 6999 will be permitted only when an alternative course is not available.
Most departments that offer graduate degrees also offer Course 8999, Research, for which credit from one to a maximum of 15 hours per semester may be earned. In some departments, 8999 may be taken to a maximum of 25 hours per semester. These courses generally are acceptable to reach minimal continuous enrollment standards.
All undergraduates, graduate students, and post-docs involved in empirical research at Georgia State University are required to undertake Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR) education and training as part of their requirements for graduation or employment. As part of this educational requirement, web-based training thru the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) has been made available to meet this requirement. More information on the university’s RCR training requirement can be found at www.gsu.edu/research/research_integrity.html.