1. Terms and definitions

SGS: School of Graduate Studies which is the governing body for all graduate programs and regulations.

GAU: Graduate Academic Unit (GAU) is the individual academic unit (e.g., Psychology, Chemistry, Computer Science) responsible for the day-to-day administration of graduate student activities in their programs.

DoGs: Director of Graduate Studies is the person within the GAU responsible for the general direction and administration of a particular graduate program and the students in it, and who serves as the liaison between the GAU and the School of Graduate Studies.

Research-based programs: graduate programs at the Masters level that involve a thesis, report or major research essays; and all graduate programs at the PhD level that involve a thesis/dissertation.

Course-based programs: graduate programs that involve primarily only coursework

Graduate courses: graduate level courses are those numbered as 6000 or above. Upper level undergraduate courses are those numbered between 3000 and 5999, and are normally the only level of undergraduate courses considered for credit towards graduate programs.

Full-time status: students in course-based graduate programs are considered full-time if they are registered in the equivalent of three or more courses per term. For this purpose, term courses of 0 – 5 credit hours count as one course, while term courses of 6 – 11 credit hours are considered equivalent to two courses. With few exceptions, students in thesis-based programs require full-time status.

Part-Time status: Students in course-based graduate programs are considered part-time if registered in one or two courses per term. For this purpose, term courses of 0 – 5 credit hours count as one course, while term courses of 6 – 11 credit hours are considered equivalent to two courses.

Continuing status: status of research-based graduate students whose studies are still in progress but who have completed a requisite number of terms in their degree program (6 full-time terms for a Masters student and 9 full-time terms for a PhD student).