Academic Renewal Policy

Students who are returning to Iowa State University to pursue an undergraduate degree after an extended absence may request permission to remove one or more of their complete academic terms from future degree and GPA considerations.

1. Eligibility. To be eligible for academic renewal consideration, students must meet these requirements:
a. Students must not have enrolled at Iowa State University for five or more consecutive years.

b. Students must not have graduated from Iowa State University.

c. Students must currently be in good academic standing. (If the student was previously dismissed, he or she must be reinstated.)

2. Conditions. Academic renewal is based on the following conditions:

a. All courses and credits that were taken during the chosen terms will be removed from consideration for GPA and degree requirements. Students may not combine courses from multiple terms to comprise the semester(s) or quarter(s) dropped. Degree requirements met during the dropped terms will ordinarily have to be repeated.

b. Renewal may be applied only to academic terms completed prior to the students’ extended absence.

c. All courses and grades for the chosen terms will remain on the students’ academic record.

d. Designated repeats, drops and P/NP options will be reinstated for the terms dropped.

e. Students who have used all of their drop options will be given one extra drop.

f. Students may be granted only one academic renewal.

To be eligible for a degree after academic renewal is granted, students must complete a minimum of 24 credit hours at Iowa State University.

3. Procedures.

a. Students should discuss their desire to pursue academic renewal with an adviser in the college they wish to enter.

b. The student must complete the Academic Renewal Petition form available from www.iastate.edu/~registrar/forms.

c. After the form is signed by the student and academic adviser, it is submitted to the Records area in the Office of the Registrar, 214 Enrollment Services Center.