SPRING 2020: Policy Modifications and FAQs

If you have an Expected Graduation Term (EGT) of Spring 2020 or Summer 2020, you will be given an extension through Fall 2020 if:

1. You request it and
2. Provide a course plan that includes at least 7 units for the Fall 2020 semester

Deadline to drop from the Spring 2020 degree list: Fri, June 19.

Deadline to drop from the Summer 2020 degree list: Fri, Sept 11. 

How: Submit an EGT change request and program plan for your Fall 2020 courses to lspetitions@berkeley.edu.

If you have an EGT of Fall 2020 or Spring 2021, requests to extend EGTs will not be automatic, but will be reviewed. Please submit your request per the instructions above or make an appointment with an L&S College Adviser to review your academic plan. 

As previously stated, P grades can satisfy major requirements, including pre-requisites. 

If, however, your intended major requires a particular grade in a course or requires a particular GPA in order to declare the major, please review the major department's website to see if they have included information about how they will respond to the P/NP default grading of Spring 2020. 

If you have additional questions, please contact your intended major department. (Please review the major department's website for contact instructions during the shelter-in-place order.)

Veteran students should check in with the Cal Veterans office for a full understanding about options related to their veteran status.

The Law School Admissions Counsel (LSAC) issued an update on March 31, 2020 noting a fairly wide consensus across schools:

"How will schools view Pass/Fail grades?

Law schools are fully aware of and understand that many undergraduate schools are going to some version of a pass/fail grading system for Spring 2020. In fact, many law schools are making the same decision for their current students. Law schools will be understanding of the situation and will not penalize any applicant for having Pass/Fail grades. LSAC will place a letter in the CAS report of every applicant enrolled during Spring 2020, to remind law schools going forward that the semester was one in which many schools changed their grading systems in light of the COVID-19 pandemic."

If you have concerns about a particular law program you wish to apply to, we recommend checking their admission pages and contacting their admissions representatives with further questions.

UC Berkeley's Career Center has developed a Pre-Health COVID-19 Resource* page that provides updates about medical and health professional programs admissions. While there has not been a consensus across all programs and the situation remains fluid, multiple California medical schools have signed a joint statement stating that their schools will "accept pass/fail grades, without prejudice, for courses taken during the COVID-19 pandemic."

*Edit: resource has since been removed. Please see Career Center counselor for more support.

If you have concerns about a particular med/health-professional program you wish to apply to, we recommend checking their admission pages and contacting their admissions representatives with further questions.

Graduate schools are well aware of the trend of P/NP happening at many higher education institutions and student concerns about it. UC Berkeley has released the following statement:

UC Berkeley evaluates applicants for admission to its graduate and professional schools holistically, meaning that we consider an applicant’s combination of personal accomplishments, letters of recommendation, personal statements, academic record, and test scores in making our admissions decisions. Such a review will take into account the significant disruptions of COVID-19 when reviewing students’ transcripts and other admissions materials from Spring 2020. We understand that many institutions across the country instituted P/NP grading policies during that semester. Thus, we will not penalize students for the adoption of P/NP and other grading options during this unprecedented period, whether the choices were made by institutions or by individual students. Our admissions evaluation will focus primarily on a student’s academic performance prior to this period, and if applicable, following this period. What is most important is that applicants demonstrate that they pursued a challenging curriculum that was relevant to their plan for graduate or professional school.

If you have concerns about a graduate program you wish to apply to, we recommend checking their admission pages and contacting their admissions representatives with further questions.

UC Berkeley has made the decision to continue remote delivery of instruction in place of face-to-face classes through Summer Sessions 2020. Departments have been asked to work with instructors to identify courses that cannot be delivered remotely and cancel them on the Online Schedule of Classes by April 10th.

We are sure you have many questions. We encourage you to use Summer Sessions' COVID-19 Information Page*  to keep updated on information related to Summer Sessions itself. We will update this page as more information related to academics becomes available. 

*link no longer active after Summer 2020

We are sure you have many questions about what Fall semester will look like. Here is a statement from a recent email sent to students from the Vice Chancellors: 

"In-person vs. remote instruction decisions

We will not cancel the fall semester. We are working closely with our local public health officials to determine when we will resume in-person instruction. At this time we don’t have an estimated date. Some or all instruction for all or part of Academic Year 2020-2021 may be delivered via remote instruction. We do not know exactly when these decisions will be made because the public health picture remains uncertain. We are monitoring the situation closely and will make a decision about the fall semester as soon as there is enough information to do so. The health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff will always be our top priority.

Given the uncertainty the world faces, some students may not be able to safely travel to campus. We plan to continue to offer remote instruction as an option for Fall 2020, even if classes are held in-person. 

We’re making every effort to minimize disruptions to our educational mission and recognize that many students are eager to return to campus as soon as possible. When we do resume in-person instruction, it will likely be a phased approach with certain types of classes considered more appropriate to resume in-person than others. We will also likely make changes within classrooms and laboratories to observe publ ic health directives and guidance such as increased hand washing, avoiding sharing equipment when possible, and recommendations on facial coverings and/or physical distancing. Decisions about broadly offering Passed/Not Passed (P/NP) or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) grading for fall semester will be made by the Academic Senate and will take into account the situation at the time. We appreciate your patience as we weigh these factors and gather more information about what the situation may be like in the fall."

L&S Advising appreciates that this uncertainty is challenging. While we are unable to provide additional insight into what may happen with Fall 2020 semester, we will continue to update this page as more information becomes available.