Fei Tian College

Certain courses have course or other requirements that must be satisfied prior to registration. Prerequisites are intended to ensure that a student has sufficient preparation for a course.

Students are expected to attend all classes for each of their courses.

An absence from class may be excused at the instructor’s discretion for reason of personal or family emergency, injury, jury duty, participation in a College-sponsored activity (which is any activity on or off campus, which is initiated, approved, or supervised by the College), or any other reason for good cause.

Students may request an excused absence from class by submitting a completed excused absence form to the Office of Student Affairs in advance of any absence or, if doing so in advance is infeasible, immediately upon their return to class. The form requires the signature of each instructor whose class will be missed. If informed, the Office of Student Affairs will notify faculty of student absence when students are unable to contact their instructors due to an unexpected emergency.

Whether an absence is excused or unexcused, students are responsible for obtaining information and assignments covered during the class periods missed. Instructors will make reasonable arrangements to accommodate excused absences with an opportunity to make up the work missed.

After two unexcused absences in a course, each additional unexcused absence, at the discretion of the instructor, normally results in a reduction of 5 points (on a 100-point scale) of the student’s final grade. Instructors are permitted to issue a grade of “IA” (Insufficient Attendance) if a student has exceeded a threshold of unexcused absences.

Students are expected to arrive on time for each class period. Habitual tardiness to class could result in a reduction of the student’s final grade, as follows:

• Arriving to class up to 15 minutes late counts as one late occurrence;
• Arriving to class more than 15 minutes late counts as one absence;
• Three late occurrences count as one absence.

Conscientious completion and on-time submission of all required assignments is expected in all courses. In fairness to the course instructor and the students who complete their work on time, any assignment submitted late will be assessed a penalty (e.g., a reduction of the assignment grade by 30 percent for every 24 hours it is late) unless stipulated otherwise by the instructor.

Students are expected to be present for exams and should plan their schedules to accommodate the scheduled exam times. Whether an examination will be rescheduled to accommodate travel or other plans is up to the discretion of each department.

Subject to approvals by the course instructor and the department offering the course, certain courses may be audited. (Studio, applied music, and intership/practicum courses may not be audited.)

The privileges of an auditor are limited to registering in, paying tuition and fees for, and attending classes. The auditor does not complete assignments or take examinations. The auditor will receive no credit for the course, and it will not fulfill any academic requirements, but the course will appear on the student’s transcript with the grade “AUD” (Audit).

Students wishing to audit a course should check with their academic advisor. Auditors must notify the Office of the Registrar of their special registration status in the course before the end of the Course Selection Period. All students who register for six credits or more are eligible to audit courses of up to one half of the total paid credits.

Most courses can be completed only once for credit (non-repeatable-for-credit courses), whereas some courses have been designed to be repeated a specific number of times for additional credit (repeatable-for-credit courses).

Courses generally may be attempted once more than their limit. In this case, the student cannot earn credit for the last attempt, but GPA calculation will omit the student’s lowest grade in the course.

Example 1: LAS100 may be completed only once for credit. Alice completes this course once, earning a “C.” She then takes the course a second time, earning an “A.” She earns no additional credit from the second attempt, but GPA calculation uses only her “A” and disregards the “C.”

Example 2: CCD101R may be completed only twice for credit. Ben attempts this course twice, earning a “B” and an “F.” He then takes the course a third time, earning an “A.” The first and third attempts yield credit. GPA calculation uses only his “A” and “B” and disregards the “F.”

The transcript will include each course attempt. An attempt resulting in a grade of “W” (Withdrawal) represents an uncompleted attempt and does not count toward the course’s repeat limit.

When a student attempts a course that is nominally the same as one the student previously attempted, but where the course content is substantially different, the new attempt does not count as a repeat. Examples include a second independent study on a different topic and repeating a major instrument course on a different instrument.

Students may not register for a course for which they received transfer credit.

The course identification code at FTC consists of a three-letter prefix, a three-digit number, and, in some cases, a one-letter suffix.

Examples:

BMS101 Introduction to Bio-medical Science

BMS101L Introduction to Bio-medical Science Lab

DAN101R Fundamental Dance, with repeating requirements

Course Prefixes

Course prefixes identify the subject area for their courses, such as general courses and courses uniquely offered under a major, a concentration, or a specialty.

Examples:

HUM Humanities

CHM Chemistry subjects

ACC Accountancy subjects

ART General Art courses for multiple disciplines or programs

The department offering a course may change the third letter in the course prefix to further specify the type of course.

Examples:

ARH Art History

ARF Art Fundamentals and Skills

First Digit

As a general rule, the first digit reflects the level of difficulty of the course content or the year in which it is commonly taken.

Undergraduate Course Leveling Convention

Number	Level	Notes
0xx	Developmental and remedial	No degree credit
1xx	Introductory level (freshman year)	Survey, foundation, and introductory courses, normally with no prerequisites and designed primarily for students with no prior background
2xx	Intermediate level (sophomore/junior year)	Normally designed for sophomores and above but in some cases open to freshman majors in the department
3xx	Upper-intermediate level (junior year)	Designed primarily as courses for juniors; prerequisites are normally required, and these courses are prerequisites for advanced courses
4xx	Advanced level (senior year)	Designed primarily for juniors and seniors; also includes specialized courses such as research, capstone, and thesis

Graduate Course Leveling Convention

Number	Level	Notes
0xx	Orientation and basic	No degree credit
5xx	First-level graduate	Courses primarily for graduate students and qualified undergraduate students with permission
6xx	Second-level graduate	Generally for master’s and clinical doctorate only
7xx	Third-level graduate	Master’s- and doctoral-level courses; includes master’s thesis
8xx	Clinical/research/readings	Includes comprehensive exam preparation
9xx	Doctoral research and dissertation	Includes comprehensive exam preparation

2nd Digits (x2x)

Conventionally further identifies course topics and depth, at the discretion of departments

Course Topic Convention (for all program levels)

Number	Topics
x0x, x1x	Introductory, fundamentals, principles or theories
x2x, x3x	Prominent skills or tools, and important fields or subfields of specialization
x4x	Broad background, knowledge, application, emerging fields, seminar courses
x48 ~ x49	Seminar courses
x5x	Independent studies, directed studies, projects, thesis, capstones
x6x	Internships, practicum, co-ops, capstones
x7x	Breath: related fields
x8x, x9x	Dissertation & Research

3rd Digits (xx3)

Sequence number of the courses, usually from 1 to 9, with 0 reserved for foundational courses.

Suffix Convention

A single letter suffix is used to give additional information about the course.

Suffix Letters

Letters	Conventions
A, B, C	Different parts of course sequence, where A usually stands for courses offered in the spring semester and B for courses in the fall semester
G	General Education version of a course
L	Lab courses
R	Courses that must be repeated in order to satisfy graduation requirements

Suffix Digits

Conventionally placed at the end of the course code separated by a hyphen to identify Course Section Number when student enrollment requires different course sections (class times), e.g. -1, -2.