Academic Policies

To officially change your college, major, minor and/or concentration use the Declarations and Inter-College Transfer Tool. To use the tool you must be a current, degree-seeking undergraduate student and have never applied for degree conferral/graduation. Refer to DePaul Central​ for more information and a video tutorial.

At a minimum, the following general conditions must be met:

1. The student must be currently enrolled at DePaul or be absent from DePaul for no more than two consecutive quarters, excluding summer sessions, be in good academic standing and have a minimum 2.00 DePaul GPA.
2. The student must have earned a minimum of 12 quarter hours as a degree-seeking student at DePaul and those hours must be posted on the official DePaul transcript.

The College of Communication Advising Office will meet with students before they have officially declared in our College. Please visit Appointments for information on how to schedule an advising meeting.

All students are expected to enroll in courses according to the deadlines posted in the University Academic Calendar. Exceptions to the enrollment deadline are rarely approved. If a student believes he or she has an extenuating circumstance that warrants consideration of an exception, the student may submit an appeal to CMNadvising@depaul.edu following the appropriate steps as outlined in the 'Late Add Policy' section below. Please note, if approved, these expectations are only granted once in a student’s academic career.​

A student may object to a grade for one or more of the following reasons:

1. The methods or criteria for evaluating academic performance made explicit by the instructor at the beginning of the course, usually in a course syllabus or as subsequently modified with the majority consent of the students, were not actually applied in determining the grade.
2. The grade was determined or influenced by criteria other than those explained by the instructor or by criteria not relevant to academic performance.
3. The instructor applied predetermined criteria unfairly, which may include but not be limited to the following items:
• A. The instructor's evaluation of academic performance so exceeded the reasonable limits of the instructor's discretion as not to be acceptable to the instructor's peers.
• B. Predetermined criteria were not explained at the beginning of the quarter or semester.

Please refer to the Undergraduate Student Handbook and the College of Communication Grade Challenge Form to consider if your concerns meet the grade challenge criteria.

If you have questions about a grade challenge, please contact Professor Daniel Makagon, chair of the Grade Challenge Review Board.

1. The student must ensure that there are no registration holds that will prevent enrollment.
2. The instructor of the course must email CMNadvising@depaul.edu indicating that the student has permission to be added to the class after the deadline. There must be no open sections of the course available, and students will only be added if they need that particular course in that particular quarter to graduate. Also include the five-digit course number, the student’s ID number, and verification that the student has been attending all class meetings.
3. The student must email CMNadvising@depaul.edu with a statement regarding why the course could not be added by the deadline.
4. The College of Communication Special Exceptions Committee will review the request and process the add if the above conditions are met. The student will be notified via email. This exception can only be granted once in a student’s career.

This policy exists to assist students who have extenuating circumstances that prevented them from dropping a class before the deadline outlined on the academic calendar. Students are allowed one medical/personal administrative withdrawal and one college office administrative withdrawal during their academic career. Submitting an appeal for a retroactive withdrawal does not guarantee approval.

If a student feels they have an extenuating circumstance that warrants consideration of an exception, students need to complete the retroactive withdrawal form with appropriate documentation and submit the petition to CMNadvising@depaul.edu. The College of Communication Special Exceptions Committee meets once a month to review these cases and will email the student with a final decision. The deadline for submitting an appeal is the end of the following term in which you are appealing.

For medical and personal appeals, please visit the Dean of Students Office.​

The College of Communication follows the transfer credit regulations as outlined in the Undergraduate Student Handbook. For students wishing to complete courses at another university or community college, you must complete the transfer credit approval form and submit it to CMNAdvising@depaul.edu before enrolling in the course.  A student who has received approval to complete courses outside of DePaul, is required to request an official transcript once the final grades are posted. The transcript can be mailed to the Office of Admission at 1 E. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60604, or can be sent electronically to electronictranscripts@depaul.edu​

Wait list is a feature available for some classes in Campus Connect. If a class is full but has a wait list option, you can add yourself to the queue. When you add yourself to the wait list, you are given a position number. As seats open up, wait listed students are automatically enrolled based on their number. The lower the number, the higher the priority.

For more information on how the wait list works, see DePaul Central.​