{"id":13076,"date":"2017-07-06T10:55:29","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T14:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/academics\/academic-resources\/registar\/exams-grades-papers-course-evaluations\/jd-passfail-policy\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T13:52:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:52:32","slug":"jd-passfail-policy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/academics\/academic-resources\/registrar\/academic-honors\/jd-passfail-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Pass\/Fail Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The pass\/fail option is intended to encourage students to be adventurous in their course selection and not be deterred from taking a course out of concern for their GPAs.\u00a0 J.D. students who have completed their first year are permitted to take a maximum of 7 credits pass\/fail in elective courses that are available on a pass\/fail basis.\u00a0 Mandatory pass\/fail courses (e.g., upperclass Week One courses) and the pass\/fail components of experiential learning offerings (field placements in practicum courses and externships) do not count against the 7-credit pass\/fail limit.\u00a0 In other words, the 7-credit ceiling applies only to classroom courses that students elect to take on a pass\/fail basis.\u00a0 Note that courses taken on a mandatory pass\/fail basis in an approved study-abroad program or at another ABA-approved law school (e.g., while the student is a visiting student) also do not count against the 7-credit ceiling.<\/p>\n<h2>Eligible Students<\/h2>\n<p>Upperclass J.D. students are eligible to use the pass\/fail option for upperclass electives at the Law Center and at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies, and for cross-listed Law Center graduate (LL.M.) courses that are available for pass\/fail.\u00a0 The pass\/fail option is not available to LL.M. students.\u00a0 Students sign up for the pass\/fail option online and receive instructions on how to do so from the Office of the Registrar.<\/p>\n<h2>Non-Eligible Courses<\/h2>\n<p>The following courses are not eligible for the pass\/fail option:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Courses in the required first-year program, including the first-year elective;<\/li>\n<li>Any course that meets the Professional Responsibility requirement;<\/li>\n<li>Upperclass legal writing requirement seminars;<\/li>\n<li>Supervised Research projects;<\/li>\n<li>Clinics;<\/li>\n<li>Law Center graduate (LL.M.) courses that are not cross-listed;<\/li>\n<li>Courses for which the faculty member has elected not to make the pass\/fail option available, as indicated in the &#8220;Course Requirements&#8221; for the course in the <a href=\"https:\/\/curriculum.law.georgetown.edu\/course-search\/\">Curriculum Guide<\/a>; and<\/li>\n<li>For students pursuing a J.D.\/LL.M. joint degree, any courses that are considered &#8220;specialization credits&#8221; pursuant to the LL.M. degree requirements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Other Restrictions<\/h2>\n<p>Students may exercise the option to take an otherwise graded course on a pass\/fail basis only once a semester.\u00a0 This does not apply to mandatory pass\/fail courses, which do not count against the 7-credit pass\/fail limit (i.e., students may only elect to take one course pass\/fail in a semester but may take any number of mandatory pass\/fail courses in the same semester).<\/p>\n<h2>Grading<\/h2>\n<p>By the end of the fourth week (second week of Summer session), a student who wishes to use the pass\/fail option must designate to the Office of the Registrar: (1) the course; and (2) the grade the student hopes to receive in the course (this is referred to as the &#8220;target&#8221; grade). Students are encouraged to speak to an Academic Advisor about selecting a target grade. No changes to the pass\/fail designation or target grade will be permitted after the deadline.<\/p>\n<p>If the student earns the target grade or above, the actual grade will appear on the student&#8217;s transcript and will be included in calculating his or her cumulative grade point average.\u00a0 If the student earns a grade below the target but a grade of at least a C, a pass will appear on the transcript.\u00a0 If a student earns a grade of C- or lower, the actual grade will appear on the transcript and will be included in calculating his or her cumulative grade point average.\u00a0 Whether a student receives a pass or the grade, the academic credits associated with the course will count against the 7-credit pass\/fail limit.\u00a0 If a student withdraws from a course taken on a pass\/fail basis, the academic credits associated with the course will still count against the 7-credit pass\/fail limit. Faculty are not informed of who is taking their course on a pass\/fail basis, and students should not inform them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The pass\/fail option is intended to encourage students to be adventurous in their course selection and not be deterred from taking a course out of concern for their GPAs.\u00a0 J.D. students who have completed their first year are permitted to take a maximum of 7 credits pass\/fail in elective courses that are available on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"parent":13067,"menu_order":41,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13076","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13076"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26789,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13076\/revisions\/26789"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}