Pictured | Gail Dukes | General Studies / Minors in African American Studies, Sociology, and Women's and Gender Studies | South Bend, Indiana (hometown)

Admission to General Studies

Students must apply separately for admission to the General Studies program. Students should have completed at least 30 credits of undergraduate coursework and must attend an information session before applying for admission. Applications for admission to the program are available on our website and from the General Studies office, Wiekamp 3115.

If admission is approved on or before the pass/fail deadline (as published on the IU South Bend Academic Calendar), a student's current courses will be considered as course work taken after their admission to the General Studies Degree Program. Applications received after the campus pass/fail deadline will be considered for admission for the following semester. 

General Studies Academic Forgiveness

The academic forgiveness policy avoids placing an excessive burden on you if you have previously made an unsatisfactory start at Indiana University. The policy is not intended to enable you to stay in school if you have chronically poor academic performance or to raise false expectations if you are not making progress toward your degree.

If you have successfully completed 12 credit hours in the General Studies Degree Program (with a minimum GPA of 2.0), you may request to use one or both of the following policies:

• At your option, grades of D or F earned at Indiana University five years or more before you were admitted to the General Studies Degree Program may be deleted from our internal record. The cumulative GPA on the Indiana University transcript will not change.
• You may request forgiveness of an unsatisfactory semester (or 12 credit hour period of part-time work) at Indiana University if the semester (or 12 credit hour period) is within a five-year period before your admission to the General Studies Degree Program. Although all Indiana University courses remain on your permanent record, we can exclude all credits you attempted and grade points you earned during this unsatisfactory semester/12 credit hours when computing your Bachelor of General Studies GPA.
  
  If you exercise this option, none of the grades and credits you earned during the unsatisfactory semester/12 credit hours are applicable to your general studies degree. Therefore, you are advised to consult with your general studies advisor about this policy's advisability.

Important: Although the options above allow unsatisfactory grades to be removed from our internal record, the grades remain on the official record maintained by the Office of the Registrar. The internal gpa will be reflected on your final transcript as your Degree GPA.

If you want to use the General Studies Academic Forgiveness Policy, please call 520-4214 to schedule an appointment with your academic advisor.

Minors and Certificates

Students are strongly encouraged to complete minors and/or certificates in consultation with a faculty advisor in the specific academic area as part of their Bachelor of General Studies degree. Minors and certificates are listed on their official transcript.

Internships

Students are encouraged to include internships as part of their Bachelor of General Studies degree. Internships provide students with the opportunity to advance in their current job settings. Students may also explore a potential career field, learn job skills, develop the habits of mind valued by employers, and integrate classroom content with real-life experiences. Professional level experiences and challenges improve marketability upon graduation. Students may use up to 12 credits of internship toward their Bachelor of General Studies degree. Internship applications are accepted on a rolling basis, to include no more than nine credits at a single organization. 

Photo credit | Teresa Sheppard