Detailed instructions can be found on the Registrar's website.

For May graduation, you can begin the graduation application in MyMadison on October 1st. For December graduation, the application is available May 1st. It is important you begin your application AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE to be sure you meet all graduation requirements! 

You should first take your application to any minor departments that need to approve it. Once you have the appropriate signatures for minors, hand it with your current degree progress report to your advisor. (DO NOT JUST LEAVE IT UNDER THE DOOR OR IN A MAIL BOX. MAKE SURE THE ADVISOR RECEIVES THE FORM.) They will look it over closely and sign it if the requirements will be met in time. You should then take it to the Biology office. Please give your advisor at least a day or two to look it over.

You must have 40 credit hours of approved BIO courses, all of the required cognates, and 120 credits total in order to graduate. Of the 40 hours of biology, 20 must be at the 300 or 400 level. Of those 300- and 400-level courses, three must be laboratory courses and one must be on the list of organismal courses. Courses on both lists will count towards both requirements. It is important that your Degree Progress Report shows that these requirements are met. If this is not the case, discuss it with your advisor and it may be necessary to contact the Biology Academic Coordinator (Bioscience 1028F) to obtain special paperwork.

You must contact the JMU Registrar (Student Success Center room 5300, (540) 568-6281) to make special arrangements. There are several variables that are involved and each case is handled individually. The Biology Department does not play a role in the approval of this policy.

This is the stated policy from the JMU Registrar:

All graduation requirements must be met in the semester for which you have applied to graduate. Students may not participate in the December commencement if their requirements will be met in the coming spring semester, nor may students who will complete their requirements in the coming fall semester participate in the previous May commencement. Students are permitted to participate in the May ceremony if all requirements for graduation will be completed during the subsequent summer session, but the diploma will not be awarded until the end of the summer term and will be given an August confer date.

No. As long as you have a 2.0 or greater GPA in all BIO courses that could be applied to the major you can graduate. (You cannot take more hrs than required and only use the high grades.) However, to be used as prerequisites, a grade of C- or better much be earned in chemistry and core biology courses. See the catalog for details. Cognate courses are not used in the calculation of your BIO GPA.