Continued enrollment at JMU depends upon an undergraduate student's ability to maintain satisfactory academic progress toward attaining a degree. The university measures this ability by the student's cumulative grade point average. To assist students in maintaining satisfactory progress, JMU has adopted academic standards designed to provide early identification of students who are experiencing academic difficulty and to provide timely intervention through academic support programs.

Academic Good Standing

Undergraduate students who maintain a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.0 are considered to be in academic good standing and are eligible for continued enrollment at JMU.

Academic Probation

Academic probation is an indication of serious academic difficulty and applies whenever a student's cumulative grade point average falls below 2.0. Students who are placed on academic probation at the end of the fall semester may enroll for the spring semester; however, students on academic probation will be restricted to a course load of no more than 12 credit hours each semester until their cumulative grade point average has improved sufficiently enough to remove them from academic probation. The university might also require students on academic probation to confer regularly with their academic advisers and to participate in the Educational Skills Development Programs.

Academic Suspension

A student will be placed on academic suspension if that student's cumulative grade point average is below the minimum required for continued enrollment. (These requirements are set forth in the following table.) Students who take less than nine credit hours in their first semester at JMU will not be reviewed for academic standing that semester.  As a rule, academic suspension will be invoked at the end of spring semester (and summer session for students who attend summer session); however, in exceptional cases where academic performance is persistently unsatisfactory, or in cases where students fail to meet reinstatement conditions, the institution may choose to suspend students at the end of fall semester. If you are suspended at the end of fall semester you must submit an Intent to Enroll form by April 1 to return for summer session. The form is available in the Office of the Registrar or online.

Suspended students who wish to rectify their academic deficiencies may enroll in the immediately following summer session. If the student uses a summer session to raise his or her cumulative grade point average to at least the minimum required for continued enrollment on academic probation, then that student will be eligible to enroll for the fall semester under the restrictions described under academic probation. Students unable to raise their grade point average to the minimum required conditions for continued enrollment will be academically suspended and ineligible for continued enrollment at JMU.

¹Total Number of Hours for Standing includes all hours attempted at JMU plus 1. Credit hours transferred to JMU 2. Credit hours earned by departmental exam and AP credit and 3. Credit hours for courses taken on a credit/no credit basis (whether the final grade was CR or NC). For instance, in the example below a student has attempted 60 credit hours at JMU and received 30 credits for transfer work and 2 hours of no credit work. The hours attempted plus the no credit and transfer hours place this student in the 92 credit hour category, even though the total number of hours earned is equal to 82. With a cumulative GPA of 1.991, the student is subject to suspension.

Academic Dismissal

A student who is suspended a third time will be permanently dismissed from the university. No appeal of this dismissal will be considered, nor will students dismissed for academic deficiency be allowed to exercise the transfer equivalent option.

Semester Honors Lists

To qualify for the honor of being placed on the President's List, a student must earn a grade point average of 3.900 or above and carry a course load of at least twelve graded credit hours (i.e., exclusive of credit hours taken on a credit/no credit basis).

To qualify for the Dean's list, a student must meet the President's List requirement for course load and earn a grade point average of 3.500-3.899.