Grading

Undergraduate journalism courses employ intermediate grading, meaning that instructors may use grades of A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, and F.
Specific grade requirements for Medill students are as follows:
  • Minimum grade point averages of 2.0 or better for all non-journalism courses taken for a letter grade and 2.25 or better for all journalism courses must be achieved.
  • Students may earn grades of C- in no more than 1/5 of the courses taken at Northwestern and offered for graduation.
  • All X and Y grades (incompletes), unless made up satisfactorily by the end of the subsequent semester, shall be counted as grades of F. (Further clarification about X and Y grades can be found in the NU undergraduate catalog and http://www.registrar.northwestern.edu/nucatalog/).
  • Students who earn below a C- in journalism classes (that is, D’s or F’s) must retake the class until they have earned a C- or better
  • The journalism grade point average shall reflect the grades of all journalism courses attempted (including Fs).
  • When courses are repeated, both the previous grade and the subsequent grade are computed in the grade point average. One course does not substitute for another.
  • Students who do not meet the minimum grade requirements are placed on academic probation.  Continued poor performance will result in further academic disciplinary action, including academic probation, suspension or expulsion.
  • Students enrolled full-time who earn a GPA of 3.7 or higher will be placed on the Dean’s list for the quarter.
Students must earn the following to be eligible for the Journalism Residency program:
  1. A minimum 2.25 grade point average in these courses: Reporting and Writing, Multimedia Storytelling, Visual Journalism, Enterprise Reporting, and the JR prerequisite courses
  2. A C or better in Enterprise Reporting in Diverse Communities and the JR prerequisite courses

Medill students are required to take these courses for letter grades (A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, F):
  • All journalism courses (except for Journalism Residency and those which may from time to time be offered by the faculty under the Pass/No Credit (P/N) option)
  • All courses in the liberal arts and sciences concentration
  • All distribution requirements