Advanced Placement
Students admitted to the University may obtain advanced placement by any of several examinations. The University participates in the advanced placement program of the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB). Applicants who have taken the advanced placement examinations may submit the results to the Undergraduate Admission Office for consideration. The University may grant credit and advanced placement in a subject for students whose test scores are three or higher. Some departments require a minimum score of four.
Credit earned through advanced placement will be entered on the student's academic record as satisfactory credit but will not be computed in the grade point average. Students may earn no more than 24 semester hours of advanced placement credit.
College Level Examination Program (CLEP)
UTC recognizes and accepts credit derived from several of the subject area examinations of the College Level Examination Program or CLEP. The CLEP subject examinations measure achievement in a number of specific undergraduate courses. The Undergraduate Admission Office must receive the report of test scores directly from CLEP. Individual academic departments set standards for the acceptance of CLEP credits. Therefore, the required percentile grade for credit at UTC varies. Some departments accept no credit via CLEP.
Students may earn up to 15 elective hours for successfully passing CLEP general examinations. They may earn three hours of elective credit by successfully passing the CLEP general examination in English composition with a score of 530-610. Students may earn three hours of elective credit per exam by passing CLEP general examinations in mathematics, humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and history with a score of 421-500. These credits, however, will not satisfy UTC general education requirements.
Credit earned will be entered on the student's academic record but will not be computed in the grade point average.
Correspondence and Extension Credit
Up to one-fourth of the hours (excluding physical education) required for an undergraduate degree may be earned by correspondence or by a combination of correspondence and extension courses. The same limitations apply to hours in the major. All such courses must meet degree requirements at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Students may not use correspondence and/or extension courses within the last 24 hours of degree credit work unless the Petitions Committee grants advanced approval or the Department Head of the student's major department grants prior approval for the student to use one such course to be completed at another University of Tennessee campus.
The University of Tennessee correspondence program provides over 100 college credit courses that may satisfy degree requirements. The Office of Continuing Education provides catalogs of correspondence study offered through The University of Tennessee.
Credit by Special Examination (Undergraduate)
Any student admitted to the University is eligible to receive credit by special examination. Students may earn credit by special examination for courses offered in the catalog with the exception of the following:
- courses described as directed research, tutorial, or directed independent study;
- any course from which the student has been exempted by placement examination or which the student has presented for admission purposes;
- any course in any education teaching block; or
- courses in which the student received a grade.
Students must pay the published fee for each undergraduate semester hour of credit. Students seeking credit by special examination should use forms provided by the Records Office to request approval from the department under which the course is described in the Catalog. The department will grant or deny the request pursuant to the standards stated on the request form; the department shall deny the request if it determines that the student would realize substantial benefits from participating in the activities of the course.
The academic department will determine the method for designing, administering, and evaluating the special examination. In all cases, the examination must equal the scope and difficulty of a comprehensive final examination in that course. No student may repeat a special examination in a given course within one year.
Students will receive credit, recorded as S (Satisfactory) on the academic record, upon demonstrating the development of the abilities and attitudes of students who have taken the course and upon passing the examination with a minimum equivalent grade of C. Students earning less than a C grade equivalent receive NC (No Credit) on the academic record. Neither S nor NC grades will be used in computing the grade point average.
Military Service Credit
The University may grant credit for military science to students with six or more months of honorable active service in the armed services of the United States or in a service academy. Students may receive up to 30 semester hours of elective credit, including basic military service, from the Community College of the Air Force. University policy permits and encourages granting credit for appropriate educational experience in the armed services in accordance with their evaluation in the American Council on Education's 1986 Guide to the Evaluation of Education Experiences in the Armed Services or by the Commission on the Accreditation of Service Experiences evaluation service. Veterans requesting military service credit should submit a copy of their DD Form 214 to the Records Office for evaluation. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a member of Service Members Opportunity Colleges.
