Credit Hours/GPI

Credit Hours

At Jefferson Community College, semester hours of credit are awarded by the “Carnegie Unit” method. A semester credit hour is normally granted for satisfactory completion of one 50-minute session of classroom instruction per week for a semester of not less than fifteen weeks. This basic measure may be adjusted proportionately to reflect modified academic calendars and formats of study. A semester credit hour is an academic unit earned for fifteen 50-minute sessions of classroom instruction or its equivalent with a normal expectation of two hours of outside study for each class session.

Semester and Cumulative Grade Point Index

Student achievement for a given semester is measured by the student’s grade point index. The quality of all work a student has done at the College through one or more semesters is indicated by the cumulative grade point index.

Academic indices for all purposes will be calculated by dividing the sum of the grade points by the sum of the credit hours carried including grades of F and Y.

The semester grade point index is determined as follows:

1. Allowing 4 points for an A, 3 points for a B, 2 points for a C, 1 point for a D, and 0 points for an F, multiply the number of points equivalent to the letter grade received in each course by the number of credit hours for the course to obtain the grade points earned in each course.
2. Add the grade points obtained in all courses taken during the semester.
3. Divide this sum of the grade points by the total number of credit hours of work. The quotient represents the grade point index for the semester.

The cumulative grade point index is determined in the same manner as the semester grade point index, except that all of the student’s work at the College is taken into account. The only exception is in cases of course repetition, when only the more recent grade will be used.