Some colleges and universities offer academic renewal to students who want to remove a semester or semesters from their transcripts where they performed poorly. The policies surrounding this option differ from school to school, so students interested in this option should speak with their academic advisors to find out what they need to do. Students who are currently performing poorly but think they might want to petition for academic renewal in the future should make an appointment with an advisor because renewal can be contingent on a variety of factors.
When a school offers academic renewal, it may completely remove the semester in question from the student’s transcript or make a note on the transcript stating that the student applied for renewal and that these courses should be ignored. In some cases, every class in the semester must be dropped, even if the student did well, while in others, every course with a D or lower in the semester or semesters in question will be struck.
Academic renewal is sometimes designed for students who have been out of school for a long time and want to return. Some schools require students to be out of school for a certain amount of time before applying for renewal, while others allow current students to petition for renewal after a certain amount of time has passed. Students may be limited to only one application for academic renewal, and semesters must be consecutive if they want to strike multiple semesters from their record. This is intended to deter students from keeping a skewed academic record and then attempting to correct it later.
A school may also allow a student to retake a course or take an exam that covers the subject material in order to have a failing grade erased. This option is usually only available for classes in which a student received a D or lower, so students who are unhappy with a C cannot use it to improve their grade point average.
To be eligible for academic renewal, a student may need to demonstrate that his or her grade point average is below a certain threshold. Once the renewal application has been approved, the average will be recalculated to remove the classes where the student did poorly. This can sometimes make a big difference for students with a low grade point average.