Special Session Guidelines

The University of Colorado Boulder operates on a semester schedule and offers classes during the fall, spring and summer semesters (or “terms”). Classes that are not offered for the full length of a standard semester may be offered in special sessions created and maintained by the Office of the Registrar. To maximize classroom utilization and minimize conflicts for students, academic departments must adhere to the following guidelines for special session classes.

Special Session Scheduling & Departmental Guidelines

Special sessions, cumulatively, may not extend beyond the standard semester by more than two weeks, and may not overlap with the start or end dates of another term, per federal financial aid regulations.
Special session classes should be offered in a sequential fashion by a department to fit within the standard semester. For example, a department may offer one class that spans the 15-week semester, two 7-week classes or three 5-week accelerated classes. When calculating the number of days in a special session, breaks and scheduled university closings are excluded.
If two special session sections of the same course are offered within a given term (i.e., back-to-back sessions of the same math class), students who were enrolled in the first session and wish to retake it will need overrides to be added to the second session of the course.
Departments should review requisites with sequential special session classes in a given term. Options to facilitate sequential course registration within a term include assigning courses as corequisites (instead of prerequisites) and using electronic student-specific permissions for enrollment.
Contact hours for classes offered within special sessions must be maintained; compliance will be monitored by the Office of the Registrar. The general guideline for each Carnegie credit/unit is 750 instructional minutes (12.5 hours). As such, a 3-credit class must still be scheduled to meet for approximately 37.5 hours during the special session. Instructional time does not include periods of orientation, homework, vacation, holiday or grading periods.
Start and end dates for each special session class must be scheduled according to the actual start and end dates for each session. Session dates may not be padded or reduced for any reason. Compliance ensures fair drop/add and refund periods for students.
Special session classes should be scheduled in departmental-controlled classrooms. If taught in centrally scheduled classrooms, they must be offered during non-peak hours (not between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.) OR be scheduled across standard blocks of time throughout the entire semester to maximize efficient use of centralized space.
Faculty Course Questionnaires (FCQs) will be available for special session classes.
Final exams typically are administered on the last meeting day of the special session for a class. No common exams may be scheduled for special session classes.
Each special session has prorated add/drop (with and without W grades) and refund deadlines. Syllabi must include the specific academic and financial deadlines for each special session class offered.
Grading will open at the close of each special session, and instructors are expected to adhere to submitting grades by the deadlines set for each session.

Requests for dynamically dated sessions beyond the established special sessions (i.e., weekend CMCI classes) will be considered on an individual basis.

Student Guidelines & Considerations

Students are encouraged to register for special session classes prior to the start of a semester, along with other classes in which they intend to enroll (if applicable). This ensures they are billed and packaged for financial aid (if applicable) according to all credits of enrollment for a given semester, and are included in enrollment headcounts for the university and department.
Students may drop special session classes by the published deadlines, but such actions may result in an adjustment in their financial aid and/or enrollment status.*
Students who add special session classes late in the term may be subject to additional tuition and fees, and may not be eligible for additional financial aid.*
Special populations, including student athletes, students receiving military benefits and international students, may have special restrictions related to special session classes.
Completion of degree requirements in a special session that concludes prior to the end of the standard semester does not result in a degree being posted to a student’s record earlier than the standard conferral date.
Students seeking admission must follow standard admission processes and deadlines through either the Office of Admission or the Division of Continuing Education (for nondegree students).
Students who are discontinued due to no enrollment may register for special sessions offered later in the same term without having to reapply for admission, but they must contact the Office of the Registrar prior to registration.

* Dependent on student enrollment (full- or part-time) and residency status.

Drop/Add/Refund Rules

Definitions

Session Withdrawal: Student drops all Main Campus classes in a given term.
Drop: Student drops one or more Main Campus classes in a given term while remaining enrolled in others.
Course Withdrawal: Student is assigned a grade of W for dropped class(es).
Drop without a W Grade: Student is not assigned a grade of W for dropped class(es), and dropped classes no longer appear on transcript.

Refund Rules

Each session has its own period for dropping a class with and without a penalty. The dates and deadlines for each session, as well as the date a student drops or withdraws, determines whether they receive W grades and refunds.
Tuition is charged for drops with penalty. No tuition is charged for class drops that occur before the drop with penalty deadline for each session.
The partial tuition refund policy (60% and 40% refunds) only applies when students withdraw from all Main Campus classes in a given term. The regular (full) term deadline (not session deadlines) is used to calculate tuition refunds.
For students who only enroll in special session classes, the Office of Financial Aid will verify whether they plan to continue or withdraw from the university to determine aid eligibility and/or return of aid rules.