Graduate Courses for Undergrads

Senior-level undergraduate students have the option if they meet the qualifications and receive permission from their academic advisor and the instructor of the course to enroll in 500-level graduate courses during their enrollment as an undergraduate student. A GPA of 2.500 or above is required in order for an undergraduate student to take a graduate-level course. The necessary form to obtain permission to enroll in a graduate-level course is available at the Registrar’s Office. Seniors may not enroll in 600- or 700-level courses without specific permission from the Dean of Graduate Studies.

Credits earned in 500-level courses by undergraduate students may be applied towards a graduate degree at Mines only if:

1. The student gains admission to the Graduate School.
2. The student’s graduate committee agrees that these credits are a reasonable part of his or her graduate program.
3. The student provides proof that the courses in question were not counted towards those required for the Bachelor’s Degree. (This proof is obtained through the Registrar’s Office, generally in an email from directly to the Graduate Studies office.)
4. Graduate courses applied to a graduate degree may not count toward the eligibility for undergraduate financial aid. This may only be done if the student has been admitted to a combined BS/MS degree program and has received the appropriate prior approvals.

Certain graduate programs may allow Combined Program students to fulfill part of the requirements for their graduate degree by including up to six hours of specified course credits which were also used in fulfilling the requirements of their undergraduate degree. In order for a 500-level class taken while a student was an undergraduate to transfer to their graduate program transcript, several conditions must be met:

1. The student must have applied for, and been admitted to, a Combined Program through the Graduate Studies office before the census date of the semester in which the course was taken.
2. The student must note on the 500-level form that he or she is intending to use the course as part of his or her graduate program and that it is not to be counted towards his or her BS degree.
   IMPORTANT: This will allow the course to be coded as a graduate-level course in the system, and the student will not receive COF stipend money for the course.

If the student has not been accepted into a Combined Program by the census date of the semester in which he or she is taking the course, or does not note on the 500-level form that he or she intends to use the course towards a graduate degree, the course will be applied to the undergraduate transcript. It may still be eligible to be counted towards a graduate level degree if the student’s graduate committee evaluates it and decides that the credit is a reasonable part of the degree program, but it will remain on the undergraduate transcript.