Frequently Asked Questions

You must apply for graduation whether you're going to walk the stage or not. But before you do this make an appointment with your advisor to make sure you have all the requirements method once this is done.

Here's how to apply for graduation.
From our main page click info for students then click apply for graduation. Here you will find all the information regarding graduation click apply for graduation.

This page will give you the graduation deadlines and fees for a given semester these are non-refundable fees. That's why it's important to meet with your advisor to make sure you have the requirements met.

Click log in to SAIL from the main menu, click student records and finally click apply to graduate and follow the instructions.

Commencement is an exciting celebration to mark the completion of your degree. To find more information about Commencement dates, follow these steps. Go to Info For. Then click students. From here click apply to graduation. Now click “Commencement.” This will take you to the commencement page. Scroll down to find general graduation dates and the time your specific college will be walking. Click “Get More Information” under “Grad Regalia”. Here you will find information about what you should do before, during, and after commencement.

To graduate with honors, you must have at least 45 TAMU-CC hours and a TAMU-CC GPA of 3.5. Transfer credits do not factor in to the honors GPA calculation. There are three Honor’s categories each with their own cords and GPA requirements: Cum Laude yields a green cord and the GPA requirement is a 3.5-3.699. Magna Cum Laude yields a blue cord and has a GPA requirement of 3.7-3.899, and Summa Cum Laude yields a silver cord and has a GPA requirement of a 3.9 or higher. Honors cords are given out at the ceremony. If you do not attend the ceremony you can call the Provost’s office and have them shipped to you. More information can be found in our online catalog. From our main page, click Info For, Students, Course Catalog, then Undergraduate Programs. Scroll down to Graduation with Honors.

Scholastic probation and suspension are determined by your A&M Corpus GPA only. If your cumulative GPA falls below a 2.0 you are placed on scholastic probation. While on probation, if any semester or term GPA fall below a 2.0, you are placed on academic suspension. This means you cannot attend the fall or spring semester, whichever is next, and any intervening summer session. If you are suspended a second time you cannot attend for one year. A third suspension results in dismissal from the University.

To make the Dean’s List a semester GPA of 3.65 or better must be achieved with a least 12 standard letter graded hours. This honor is designated on the transcript for each semester it is achieved. Check with your Dean’s office to see if any ceremony or event will be held.

You may be required to be a full-time student or you may simply want to be. The question is what constitutes being full-time? Full-time is considered to be taking at least twelve hours in the fall or at least twelve hours in the spring. In the summer, full-time is considered to be taking at least 8 hours. Courses that start with a zero are developmental courses. These do not count for credit for your degree but do count toward your full-time status.

Sometimes you may want to take more than the maximum number of hours during a semester. Let’s look at what constitutes a maximum load.

The max load is set at 18 hours in the fall or 18 hours in the spring.

In the summer it is 7 hours for each session. Contact your academic advisor if you plan on taking more than this.

Your classification is determined by the number of hours you have earned.

• A Freshman has less than 30 hours.
• A Sophomore has 30 to 59 hours.
• A Junior as 60 to 89 hours
• A Senior has 90 hours or above.

As a student at A&M Corpus Christi, it is essential you know how to make a semester schedule. This is one of the biggest sources of frustration for students and advisors. The problem usually occurs when students try to make their semester schedule by logging in to SAIL. You will log onto SAIL to register and do many other things, but trying to make a schedule here only confuses students. Let’s look at the proper steps for making semester schedule.

1. Determine what you need to take.
2. Make a paper copy of your schedule.
3. Have your advisor review your schedule.

Now let’s look at each of these separately. You can determine what you need by looking at your Degree Planner. If you are a PSA student, look at your PSA plan. If you are a Dual Credit student, contact your advisor. Also, if you are a freshman or going to take a science class with a lab, watch the two videos below regarding needing a first-year seminar and registering for a lab safety seminar. Once you determine what you need, go to our online class schedule here. Select the term. Select the class prefix. Click view. Here you will find all the classes with that prefix for the semester. Pay attention to the Date column, some classes have different starting and ending dates. If a class is yellow in the availability column it is within 5 seats of being full. If a class is red it is full. When you find a class you want, write down the CRN, class prefix and number, days and times of the class. Pay particular attention to the pre-requisites in the notes column. Make sure you have the pre-requisites for the class met. It is also helpful to make a backup schedule. Once you have made your schedule and backup, have your advisor review them as soon as possible. You can find their contact information here.

All Full-Time First-Year students are required to take a First-Year Seminar. For more information about First-Year Seminars, go to Info For, Students, Course Catalog, University College and First-Year Learning Communities Program. Scroll down to First-Year Seminar. If you determine you need a First-Year Seminar, you most likely will take it as part of a learning community. Watch the next video to learn how to schedule a learning community.

Scheduling a learning community can be very frustrating if you don’t know how. However, it doesn’t have to be. Follow these steps. Go to fylcp.tamucc.edu. All learning communities have a first-year seminar. They can be classified as Dyads, Triads, or Tetrads depending on how many classes they have attached to them. Dyads have two, triads have three and tetrads have four. Make sure the learning community you register for does not have a class you have already taken. A quick way to do this is to find a class on the left you have not taken and start there. For example, if you haven’t taken History 1301 click here. It will list all the learning communities with this class. If you are one of these majors, you can click on your major to view learning communities specific to your major. You don’t have to take one of these but it is an option that is worth a try. Remember, make sure the learning community does not have a class you have already taken. One of the biggest problems students have with learning communities is they don’t register for every class in the learning community or they register for one class from one learning community and another class from a different learning community. You cannot do this. It will result in a pre-requisite error. You must register for every class in a learning community. Make sure you enter every learning community’s CRN before you submit. Notice that the learning communities are color coded. If a Learning Community is red, it is full. If it is yellow, it is at least 5 seats away from being full. If it is green, at least 6 seats or more are available. If all the learning communities have courses you have already taken, then contact your advisor about getting into a free-standing first year seminar.

One of the most common problems with registering, involves the lab safety seminar. Many students don’t know they must register for it when taking a science class with a lab. As a result, they get a pre-requisite test score error and don’t know why. This is most likely caused by logging onto SAIL to make your schedule. Let’s look at the proper way to find and register for this. I will use Biology as an example. When you look at the online schedule you can see Biology is a class that requires a lecture and lab. What may not be clear is you must also register for the lab safety seminar. You must look it up like you look-up any class with a specific prefix. Go back and select SMTE from the drop-down menu for the semester you are registering and click view. Now you can see your specific lab safety seminar and its corresponding CRN. Some specific Art and Theater class require this as well. Make sure you type in this CRN when registering. Otherwise you will get a pre-requisite test score error.

Before you register make sure you don’t have holds. These will prevent you from registering. Here’s how to find your holds and remove them. Login to sail. Click student. Click student records. Go to View Holds. If you have no holds, your screen will look like this. If you do have holds, they must be removed before you can register or order transcripts. Common Holds include the following: Admissions hold, you need to go to the admissions office, this is commonly used for final high school transcripts, final college transcripts and, other application requirements possibly, like your meningitis shot. The Business Office, you must go to the business office to take care of this. This is most commonly used for unpaid parking tickets, tuition, Camden payment, or various reasons. For any other holds, please see your Major Advisor.

Go here for an explanation of common holds and removing them.

Before you register, make sure you don’t have any holds and the classes on your mock schedule are not full. Once this is done, here is how you register for classes when the time comes.

Login to sail. Click student. Click registration. Go to add or drop classes, click the term you are registering for, Full Term.

Enter the crns or course registry numbers from the class schedule.

Click submit changes. Here is what your screen will look like without errors.

To have the best chance of getting the classes you want, you need to register as soon as possible.

1. From the SAIL page click, “How to register for classes”.
2. Click “Registration Schedules”.

• Make sure you look at the appropriate semester. Your registration date is determined by your credit hours. This includes the hours you have earned and the hours you are currently registered for.
• For example, if you have completed 24 hours and are currently taking 12 hours you will have 36 hours for registration purposes. You will then register as a Sophomore.
• However, if you belong to one of the following groups, you will be allowed to register on the first day.

Finding your academic advisor is simple. Follow these steps.

1. From the SAIL page click “find academic advisors” located on the right hand side of the page in the bulleted section under "Learn how to".
2. You will see a list of all the advisors, their phone numbers, office number, and who they advise.

Your degree plan is a listing of all the requirements necessary to receive your degree.

To access your plan:

• Click Login to Degree Planner.
• Then login using your Islander username and password.
  • Your degree plan is broken down into several components. These components are listed in your degree block.
  • The details of each component are listed separately below the degree block.
    • When a block or requirement is completed it is shown with a green check mark.
    • When it is being completed it is shown with a blue tilde (~)
    • when it is not complete it is show with a red box.

As a student at A&M – Corpus Christi your academic status is determined by your TAMUCC GPA.

1. The first step in calculating the GPA involves knowing how many hours each class is worth.
   • A quick way to find this is to look at the second number in the sequence. This is the class hours.
   • There are rare exceptions to this so you can look at the catalog description to get the confirmed class hours.
   • The total hours can then be calculated.
2. The next step is to find the point value for each grade earned.
   • A grade of A is worth four points.
   • A grade of B is worth three points and so on.
   • The grade points are calculated by multiplying the class hours and the designated point values.
   • The total grade points can then be calculated.
3. The total grade points are then divided by the total class hours to get the GPA.

One of the most popular questions academic advisors get is, “What semester GPA do I need to increase my overall GPA to 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, etc.” On the surface, this may seem completed. However, it is a very simple calculation. I will first show you how to calculate this by hand and then show you how this can be done automatically with our online GPA calculator.

You will first need to look at your online transcripts in SAIL. Determine whether you want to calculate this for your overall transcript GPA or your TAMU-CC GPA. Write down the total hours and total grade points. Place your current semester hours under your total hours. Add the two. This will give you your new total hours. Multiply the new total hours by your desired GPA. For example, if you want a GPA of 3.0, then multiply the new total hours by 3. This will give you your new total grade points. Subtract the old total grade points from the new total grade points. This will give you your new current semester grade points. Divide the new semester grade points by your current semester hours. This will give you your needed semester GPA to reach your desired overall GPA.

To calculate this automatically go to casa.tamucc.edu/gpa.php. Enter your current GPA and your completed hours. Enter your desired GPA and your current hours. Click calculate. Again, this will give you your needed semester GPA to reach your desired overall GPA.

If you took two years of the same foreign language in High School then you have met our foreign language requirement for every college except Liberal Arts. If it is not showing in Degree Planner, contact your academic advisor.

Most majors in the College of Liberal Arts require two semesters of a single foreign language regardless of what you did in high school.

Check your degree planner. If it reads, CLA Foreign Language requirement then you need to have two college semesters of a single foreign language. This is also true if you didn’t take two years foreign language in high school and your major is not in the College of Liberal Arts.

To add a minor, major or change your major go to the advisor who handles that minor or major. You can find their contact information here: find advisor.

You will see a list of all the advisors and who they advise.

• A pre-requisite is a class that must be taken prior to registering for a class.
  • For example, PSYC 2301 must be taken and passed before registering for PSYC 2314.
• A co-requisite is a class that must be taken currently with another class or lab.
  • For example, learning communities will always have at least one co-requisite class.
• Four-hour science classes will require a co-requisite lab and safety seminar.
  • Always check the notes column on our online schedule to find pre and co-requisites.

Many times, students throughout college change their contact information, but fail to update this information on their SAIL account.

It is important to keep this information up to date so you can receive notices from the school, like when class is being cancelled due to bad weather.

To update your contact information, start at the SAIL page and log into SAIL using your Islander username and password.

From here click Personal information. Now you can update various personal information.

A syllabus is a detailed summary of a course and its requirements. It contains general expectations along with assignments, due dates, and how the final grade is calculated. You can also find the instructor’s contact information. It is imperative that you review this as soon as possible to plot out your semester.

Here is how to find it. If you have already enrolled for the course and have access to it through Canvas, log on. Once your logged in, your screen should look somewhat like this. Go to the right-hand side of the screen under “MY COURSES” and choose the course you want to see the syllabus for. Courses that have black text are inaccessible, courses in color are accessible. Now go the toolbar on the left-hand side of the screen, here is where you can find your professor’s syllabus. Click Syllabus.

This will take you to a new page, this sometimes has the syllabus showing automatically, although other times you may have to download it. Some professors also use this space to show other important and relevant information for class or may have an additional shortened syllabus.

There are several ways to determine how many credits a class is worth. Typically, the second number in the sequence represents the number of credit hours.

HIST 1301

You can find this number in our online catalog under course descriptions. You can find it on degree planner by clicking on a class that has not been taken or simply look here if you are enrolled in the class or if you have already taken it. Finally, you can find this number by looking at our online class schedule.

Note(Spring 2021): Drops are not currently being done in-person. Please download the form and submit it remotely. Go here to get the form.

Starting in the fall of 2007, students cannot drop more than 6 classes during their college careers. This includes any course a transfer student has dropped at another institution of higher education. Only classes dropped after the Census date are counted in the 6-drop limit. Withdrawing from the University does not count toward the six-drop limit.

Before you consider dropping a class from your learning community, you should speak to your first-year seminar instructor. This is because you will still be required to fulfill any assignments from the course you are dropping that are tied to your remaining learning community courses. This could be a significant portion of your remaining grade in these classes.

If you are thinking about repeating a class, you need to know our repeat policy. Keep in mind, no grade can be removed from the transcript. They can only be excluded from calculating in the GPA. There are different scenarios depending upon where you took the class and what grade you earned. Let’s look at these scenarios.

If you take a class here and repeat it here, the highest grade earned will count and the lower will be excluded.

If you fail a class here or elsewhere and repeat and pass the class here, the passing grade will count and the failure will be excluded.

If you fail a class here and repeat and pass the class elsewhere, both grades will count.

If you pass a class elsewhere and repeat and pass the class here, the grade earned here will count, whether it’s higher or lower and the other will be excluded.

If your degree plan requires a higher grade, then you can have your academic advisor petition the Provost to get the higher grade to count in this last scenario. As a reminder, only your TAMUCC GPA will be used to determine your academic standing.

Withdrawing from the University means dropping all classes for the current session. This does not count toward the 6-drop rule.

The deadline for withdrawing is the day before the last day of classes during the fall or spring semesters, and the day before the final examinations during a summer session. You can find this information on the academic calendar.

We recommend talking to your academic advisor before withdrawing. You must fill-out Part A of the Withdrawal Pre-Authorization Form and submit it to the Registrar’s office. You can get this form on the registrar’s webpage. You will then be given a Part B. Once Part B is complete, you will be withdrawn.

A retroactive withdrawal involves dropping all classes for a given semester after grades have been posted and replacing those grades with W’s. This is granted only when a student has experienced circumstances of such serious and compelling nature that they could not reasonably have been expected to satisfactorily complete the semester.

Reasons for this may include, but are not limited to, hospitalization, incarceration, debilitating mental illness, or family crisis. Failure to academically perform due to bad habits, poor judgment, time management, failed relationships, roommate conflicts, or ignorance of policies would not generally qualify for a retroactive withdrawal.

To retroactively withdrawal, a student must request this action in writing to the Assistant Registrar through the Office of the University Registrar. The request must be accompanied by supporting documents showing why action was not taken through the regular withdrawal process for the academic period in question. The time limit for making this request is the end of the next long semester following the academic period in question.

Ordering transcripts is a simple process. Follow these steps:

Login to SAIL. Click Student, Student Records, Order Transcripts Online, Order Now. Please select your delivery method and follow the instructions. If you are sending your transcripts electronically, make sure you have the e-mail address of who you are sending to.

No, but contact the Registrar’s about reinstating your enrollment.

Here is their contact information http://registrar.tamucc.edu/Faculty_Staff/meet_registrar1.html

You do have to reapply after being out for a calendar year or more however.