ACADEMIC DEADLINES
You are responsible for meeting all academic and university deadlines.
You can view the university-wide Academic Calendar, which includes some deadlines that are not applicable to SCPD students, such as the term withdrawal deadline and per diem tuition refund deadline.
You should identify important relevant deadlines for each quarter in which you are enrolled:
NDO Students Important Dates and Deadlines:
- Financial Drop Deadline
- Exam Monitor Deadline
- Grading Basis Deadline
- Withdrawal Deadline
- Incomplete Deadline
Changes to Your Course Schedule
You should check your course’s schedule on the official course website and your mystanfordconnection account before classes start. Course schedules may change at any time at the discretion of the course teaching team. We reserve the right to cancel a course; if that occurs we will suggest alternative courses or provide a full tuition refund.
Changing Courses
In order to transfer to a different course, submit a written request to scpd-gradstudents@stanford.edu. You may only transfer courses up to the first week of instruction. If you request to transfer courses after the first week of instruction, approval of the course transfer is at the discretion of the academic department.
Dropping a Course
To drop a course, you can either request a drop through your mystanfordconnection account, or email a drop request to scpd-gradstudents@stanford.edu by 5p.m. PST (PDT) of the financial drop deadline. Courses will be removed from your transcript and a refund issued, minus the charge of $100 per dropped course and any assessed non-refundable fees.
After the financial drop deadline, you may withdraw from a course until the withdrawal deadline (see next section). Please be sure that you are familiar with the financial drop deadline and other academic deadlines.
Withdrawing from Courses
Stanford University Policy: After the drop deadline, you may withdraw from a course through the withdrawal deadline published in the academic calendar, which is usually the end of the seventh week of instruction (during fall, winter, and spring quarters), or the end of the fifth week of instruction (during summer quarter). To withdraw from a course, you must submit an email request to scpd-gradstudents@stanford.edu prior to the university withdrawal deadline. For further information you should refer to the Office of the Registrar's policy on course withdrawal.
Please note: Withdrawn courses are not eligible for any refund and a ‘W’ will appear on your official Stanford transcript.
Incomplete Course Policy
Stanford University Policy:
An incomplete grade ‘I’ is restricted to cases in which the student has satisfactorily completed a substantial part of the course work. No credit will be given until the course is completed and a passing grade received. When a final grade is received, any reference to the initial incomplete grade ‘I’ is removed. The decision to award an incomplete is at the sole discretion of the teaching team.
Stanford Center for Professional Development Request for Incomplete Policy:
- To request an incomplete, contact your course teaching team in writing. The approval of an incomplete request is entirely at the discretion of the course teaching team and is solely based on the amount of work completed to date. An incomplete grade is not an opportunity to restart the course to earn a better grade. If your request for an incomplete is approved, you must notify via email at scpd-gradstudents@stanford.edu.
- You will have up to one academic year to return and complete your course. Notify SCPD of your readiness to resume the course and contact the teaching team to establish a learning plan for successfully completing the course. It will not be necessary for you to re-enroll in the course; you will be granted viewing access to the course via Canvas by the course teaching team during the next quarter you choose to complete the course.
- Under no circumstances should you enroll again in the same course through the Stanford Online website.
- You will not need to pay tuition or fees again to resume the course.
We recommend that you keep all incomplete grade approval correspondence from the course teaching team.
- Upon resuming your incomplete course, you will no longer be allowed to withdraw from the course and you must receive an adequate letter grade to receive credit.
- For further information please read the Registrar's policy on incomplete, changed and repeat grades.
Repeated Courses
Most graduate courses may not be repeated for credit. The few graduate courses that may be repeated for credit will be noted in the Stanford Bulletin. Under the general University grading system, when a course which may not be repeated for credit is retaken, the following special rules apply:
- You may retake any course on your transcript, regardless of grade earned, and have the original grade, for completed courses only, replaced by the notation 'RP' (repeated course). When retaking a course, you must enroll in it for the same number of units originally taken. When the grade for the second enrollment in the course has been reported, the units and grade points for the second course count in the cumulative grade point average in place of the grade and units for the first enrollment in the course. Because the notation 'RP' can only replace grades for completed courses, the notation 'W' cannot be replaced by the notation 'RP' in any event.
- As with all requests to enroll in a course, permission to retake a course depends on department approval. Permission to retake a course for a third time requires additional approvals and may not be granted. Please reach out to scpd-gradstudents@stanford.edu for details. You may not retake the same course for a third time unless you received a 'NC' (no credit) or 'NP' (not passed) when it was originally taken and completed the second time. When a student completes a course for the third time, grades and units for both the second and third completions count in the cumulative grade point average. The notation 'W' is not counted toward the three-retake maximum.
Tuition Refund Policy
The Stanford Center for Professional Development will provide a refund minus a $100 fee for every course dropped before the financial drop deadline.
Requests for refund of tuition and fees made after the financial drop deadline will not be approved, except under the following circumstances:
Medical emergency (prolonged hospitalization or major medical condition of student). Official signed documentation from a physician is required which states date originally seen, diagnosis, and prognosis and notes a specific inability to continue with a course or courses.
Death of a close family member. Close family is limited to spouse, domestic partner, children, parents and parents-in-law, parent surrogate, brothers and sisters, grandparents and grandchildren. Official documentation will be required (Death Certificate).
A call to active military duty (in the event of a national emergency such as in a time of war). Written documentation will be required.
Tuition will not be refunded after the financial drop deadline for other reasons, such as business travel, family emergency travel (other than #2 above), minor illness, injury, or workload increase.
If a refund is due and the original payment was by credit card, that same credit card account will be credited within 5 business days. If you made payment via wire transfer, a check will be issued as a refund within 10 business days of the wire transfer clearing. If the payment was made by company check, the company will be granted a refund by check.
Conduct and Honor Code
Conduct at Stanford is governed by several sets of policies.
The Fundamental Standard articulates the standard of conduct expected of all Stanford students, including those in the non-degree option (NDO) program. It states, Students at Stanford are expected to show both within and without the University such respect for order, morality, personal honor and the rights of others as is demanded of good citizens. Failure to do this will be sufficient cause for removal from the University. Read the Fundamental Standard.
The Honor Code is the university's statement on academic integrity. It articulates university expectations of students and faculty in establishing and maintaining the highest standards in academic work. Read the Honor Code.
The Community Standards Review Process is the set of policies and processes used to adjudicate concerns or allegations of NDO student misconduct, including violations of the Fundamental Standard or Honor Code. Read the Community Standards Review Process.
Updating Personal Information
You must note any updates to your personal information in the profile of your mystanfordconnection account as well as in the Axess system. If you change your legal name, you are required to submit official documentation for the change by emailing us at scpd-gradstudents@stanford.edu.