GRADFORMS How to: Petition to Late Add Drop or Audit

Students have the ability to add courses through the second Friday of the semester/session. Students wishing to add a course after the published deadline must submit a petition (Faculty Rule 3335-9-17.1).

Similarly, students are permitted to drop a course through the tenth Friday of the semester (the fifth Friday of an autumn or spring session, or equivalent summer deadline). Students requesting to drop after the prescribed deadline have the option to petition the Graduate School (Faculty Rule 3335-8-32).

If the student is requesting to add a course after the deadline, their petition is subject to the terms of Faculty Rule: “Petitions will be approved only on the basis of clearly documented clerical error or unusual and extenuating circumstances beyond the student’s control.”

If the student is request to drop a course after the deadline, their petition is subject to the terms of Faculty Rule: “Reasons not acceptable include (but are not limited to) the student’s performance in the course(s), lack of preparation for the course(s), or dissatisfaction with the subject matter offered in the course(s).”

If the student is requesting a change with a backdated effective date for the change (such as a backdated drop), they will need to specify the date they are asking to use in their “Reason” for the petition, and they will need to explain why they are asking to use that date and what circumstances they experienced that would warrant the backdated date, making sure they can provide documentation of said circumstances.

If the change(s) the student is requesting could result in a reassessment of their tuition and fees, the student should check with Buckeye Link (buckeyelink@osu.edu, (614) 292-0300) as to what the implications of this registration may be prior to submitting their petition. Students should make sure they are aware of the potential financial consequences of the change(s) they are requesting.

If the student has been dropped for non-payment from their course(s) and wishes to be reenrolled for the term, they must submit course add petitions for each of the courses from which they were dropped – they may not selectively submit petitions for courses. These petitions may be submitted as a petition group for the term.

1. Student initiates and submits the form online via gradforms.osu.edu
2. Graduate School initial check
3. All approvers approve/deny form (See step 9 for approver list by form type)
4. Graduate School approves/denies form
5. Graduate School completes the form

Step 1: Students will need to log into gradforms.osu.edu and choose Enrollment Forms.

• Graduation and Examination Forms include the following forms:
  • Application for Candidacy Exam, Application for Final Examination, Application to Graduate, Application for Professional Examination, Committee and Examination Petition, Delay of Final Document, Minors& Interdisciplinary Specializations, Report on Candidacy, Report on Final Document, Report on Final Examination, Report on Professional Exam, and Report on Transcript Designation
• Enrollment Forms include the following forms:
  • Combined Degree Program, Dual Degree Program, Late Course Petition, Transfer of Graduate Credit, and Transfer of Graduate Program

Step 2: After the student has selected "View Enrollment Forms"  a list of all available enrollment forms will populate. 

Step 3: Student will choose the "+ Create New Late Course Petition Form" button from the list of all available enrollment forms.

Step 4: The student will then fill in the correct term, their advisor’s name.#, and the course(s) information. The advisor name.# information will automatically populate a dropdown list.

• Fields on Form Petition Form
  • Select Action- This dropdown menu contains the following options: Add Course, Change Audit Courses to Grade Course, Change Grade Course to Audit Course, and Drop Course. Please note, credit to audit and audit to credit are the only available grading basis changes; we cannot change a course graded as A-E to S/U, or S/U to A-E.
  • Course Number- The four digit number immediately following the subject; e. g. SUBJECT xxxx, with “xxxx” being the course number.
  • Class Number- The four or five digit number found in parenthesis after the course number.
  • Subject- The department of the course; e.g. ANIMSCI, EDUTL, MATH, PHYSICS
  • Credit Hours- The number of credit hours for the course; please note that, unless a course is set up as a variable hour course, we can only add the course for the number of hours for which it is available, and variable hour courses can only be added for hours within the available range.
  • Instructor name.#- The course instructor’s last name and their dot number (their OSU email).
  • Reason- A detailed explanation of both your request and why this request was not made prior to the published university deadline.

Step 5: After the student selects Save and Continue" they will need to review their application. If the student needs to make adjustments to their online application they should hit the "Edit" button. If the student has an attachment they will click on the "Add Attachment" button. If the petition is ready to submit the student will choose "Submit Application".

**Note: If the student’s explanation is lengthy they are welcome to upload their statement as an attachment.

We require a statement from the course instructor, addressing attendance and participation (or lack thereof) in the course, as well as your current academic status in the course; this should be uploaded here. Examples of additional (optional) documentation may include emails, visa documentation (if delayed entry), an obituary, or any other documentation that supports your petition. Do not upload medical documentation here; medical documentation can be emailed from your OSU email address to Grad-SchoolPetitions@osu.edu.

After all attachments have been added and the student is ready to submit their petition they will click on the "Submit Application" button. Once the student submits their application they will see a screen displaying the text "You have successfully submitted the Late Course Petition".

Step 6: Once the student submits their petition it will be routed to the Graduate School for the initial Grad School Check.

"View" allows the approver to only look at the form and not make any approve/deny choices.

"Start" allows the approver to review the request and add the instructor’s name.#, save, send, or cancel the application.

Step 7: After selecting the "Start" button the Graduate School will review the application and confirm the course/instructor information. (For petitions to add a course, we require the departmental chair’s approval. The Graduate School will input this information during the initial check.) After the instructor’s name.# has been verified the Graduate School representative will hit the "Send" button.

**Note: If a student has submitted more than one petition for the same term we can view all petitions as a group by clicking on the Actions dropdown menu. This feature is helpful when trying to best understand what the student’s end goal will be, especially when reviewing a petition to add/drop courses.

After the Graduate School has assigned all approvers for the petition the history will look similar to the screenshot below.

**Note: The history section for the petition below is for an add and also a drop. If the student only submitted one petition they will only show history for one form.

Step 8: The approver will need to select the "View" button.

Step 9: The Petition Form requires approvals based on the form they are trying to submit. After all approvers have approved/denied the form it will come to the Graduate School for final review.

• Add- Department Chair, Advisor, and Instructor
• Drop- Advisor and Instructor
• Audit- Advisor and Instructor

Step 10: After all approvers have approved/denied the Petition Form it will populate on the Graduate School’s task list.

Step 11: After the Graduate School has posted an approval status we will update the student’s record accordingly and complete the petition form on GradForms. The change(s) will likely require a change ticket be processed by the Registrar’s Office and this may take several business days to reflect on the student’s record in SIS. (Screenshots of the Approved Form and the History Tab are on the next page)

Search Forms: The Search Forms tab allows programs to filter through their student forms. Approvers have the ability to search by student information, academic plan, approval status, and form type. All fields do not need to be filled in order to search on GradForms.

Download Excel Spreadsheet: After searching for forms you will have the option to download an Excel spreadsheet of your students and their forms. To download a spreadsheet click on the Actions button and choose Download Excel.