Undergraduate Incomplete Grades
Please visit the Undergraduate Catalog for the full policy detailing eligibility for incomplete grades.
Students must complete the course and the faculty must submit the grade change no later than the grading deadline of the following like term (i.e., an incomplete grade from the fall must be changed to a final, quality grade before the grading deadline for the following fall), or the incomplete grade will be changed to a final grade of F (failure). The University deadline to change an incomplete grade is the maximum amount of time allowed: Instructors are free to establish an earlier deadline, and students are bound by that agreement. Students planning to graduate before this deadline must complete courses and receive grades before graduating. Incomplete grades remaining at the time of degree conferral will be changed to final grades of F (failure). Students who took incomplete grades in Fall 2015 are eligible for grade conversion at the end of Fall 2016. Faculty and students will be notified of this policy at the time an incomplete grade is given and again at the beginning of the last term in which the work can be completed. Schools will be notified as a matter of course in routine end-of-term reporting.
Northwestern undergraduate students may request an incomplete grade of Y only in a course in which they have substantially completed the work, including any requirements of attendance or engagement. The university minimally requires that more than 50% of the course requirements must be complete in order for the course to be “substantially completed." Students must also be passing the course based on the materials submitted thus far to be eligible for an incomplete Y grade.