How to Fill Out and Submit the Grade Forgiveness Request Form

A grade forgiveness request form asks your registrar to exclude an earlier low grade from your cumulative GPA and count only the grade you earned when you retook the course. Both grades usually stay visible on your transcript; only the newer one factors into the calculation.¹ The form itself is short, often a single page. Submitting it correctly means confirming eligibility, pulling exact course details from your transcript, meeting your school’s deadline, and understanding what the adjustment does and doesn’t do downstream.

Confirm Eligibility Before You File

Rules differ by school, and filing when you don’t qualify costs you a semester of planning. Verify these points with your registrar or academic advisor before you register for the retake, not after.

Original grade threshold. The original grade almost always needs to be a C- or lower. Some institutions draw the line at anything below a C (2.0), which still lets a C- qualify.²³
Lifetime cap. Many universities limit you to three grade forgiveness requests across your undergraduate career, with no more than one repeat per course.⁴
Same institution. You usually have to retake the course at the school where you earned the original grade. Transfer credit from another college rarely qualifies.
Degree-seeking status. You need to be a currently enrolled, degree-seeking undergraduate. The window closes once your bachelor’s is awarded.¹
Course level. Some schools restrict forgiveness to lower-division courses. CU Denver limits it to 1000- and 2000-level classes.⁵

Programs like nursing, engineering, and education often impose stricter rules than the general university policy. A department may cap you at two attempts total or require advisor approval before you can even register for the repeat.⁶ Checking with your program’s advising office first is the simplest way to avoid paying tuition for a retake that can’t actually be forgiven.

What to Gather Before You Open the Form

Pull up an unofficial transcript. Every field has to match the registrar’s records exactly, and working from memory is where most errors come in.

Your Identifiers

The form asks for your full legal name as it appears in the student information system and your university-issued student ID. Use the name on file; nicknames or unupdated name changes will cause a mismatch.

Original Course Details

You need the exact course prefix and number (for example, PSY 101), the section number, the semester and year, and the grade you received. Registrars find the historical record by matching all of these fields, so a wrong section or term can get the request kicked back.

Repeated Course Details

Enter the same information for the second attempt: prefix, section, term, and final grade. If the repeat grade hasn’t been officially posted, wait until it shows on your transcript before submitting. Filing with a grade that isn’t in the system yet is a common reason for immediate rejection.²

Signature

Most forms require an electronic signature or a login through the university’s secure portal. Because grade forgiveness permanently amends an education record, schools authenticate the requester under FERPA, which is why a verified login is standard rather than a typed name.⁷

Where to Find the Form and When to Submit

Look for the form on your registrar’s website or inside the student portal. Some schools post a downloadable PDF; others use an online submission tool. At Baylor, the form lives inside the student records system and only becomes available during certain windows, sometimes opening about a month before the last class day of the term.⁶ If you can’t find it, the registrar’s office or your advisor can point you to the right link.

Timing is strict. Most institutions set a hard deadline tied to the term you repeated the course, commonly the last day of classes that semester.⁶ Missing it typically pushes your request to the next semester or kills it outright. Don’t assume a late filing can be applied retroactively.

Some schools route the form through an approver before it reaches the registrar. At UCF, a student’s request must be approved by the Director of Academic Success Coaching in their college before it goes to the registrar’s office.² If your school has a similar step, build in time so the approval chain doesn’t swallow your deadline.

What Happens After You Submit

Watch your university email for a confirmation receipt. Processing varies, but around three weeks is a reasonable expectation at many schools.⁸ Expect slower turnaround near finals and graduation. UCF warns students that grade forgiveness is a “lengthy process” and isn’t finalized until the second-attempt grades are fully posted.²

Once approved, both grades remain on your transcript, but only the second one counts toward your GPA. The original usually carries a notation; some schools mark it with an “E” for excluded or a similar code.⁹ The credit hours and grade points from the first attempt drop out of your cumulative GPA. Check your degree audit after processing to confirm the change actually posted. If your GPA hasn’t moved within a few weeks of the expected timeline, call the registrar’s office rather than waiting.

One point to understand before you file: most schools treat grade forgiveness as irrevocable once applied. The University of South Carolina’s policy is typical in that regard.¹

If Your Request Is Denied

Denials usually come down to a missed eligibility requirement: you exceeded the lifetime cap, the original grade was too high, or you missed the filing deadline. Some schools offer a formal appeal. At CU Denver, denied students can submit an online appeal to a Grade Forgiveness Appeal Committee that includes representatives from academic advising, the registrar, and the provost’s office. The committee issues a decision within seven days, and its ruling is final.¹⁰

Appeals that tend to succeed involve students who received incorrect advice from a university employee, have a documented reason for missing the deadline, or weren’t informed of the policy when registering for the repeat. Appeals asking to undo a previously granted forgiveness or seeking a retroactive withdrawal generally don’t go anywhere.¹⁰

Financial Aid Side Effects of the Retake

Grade forgiveness changes your GPA, but the retake itself can create aid complications the form won’t warn you about.

Under federal regulations, your enrollment for financial aid purposes can include a repeated course, but only one repetition of a course you previously passed. Passing means any grade from D through A.¹¹ If you failed the course, there’s no cap on how many retakes aid will cover. Retaking a class you passed with a D to aim for a B uses your one allowed repeat; a third attempt won’t be covered. If a repeat doesn’t qualify, your aid package may be recalculated on fewer credit hours, which can reduce your award mid-semester.

Repeated courses also count toward Satisfactory Academic Progress. Both attempts count against the maximum timeframe for degree completion, so students who repeat several courses may hit the credit-hour ceiling for continued aid sooner than expected.

Veterans using GI Bill benefits can retake a failed course without repaying benefits used on the first attempt. The VA treats a failing grade as progress toward graduation requirements even though no credit was earned, and GI Bill benefits will cover the retake.¹²

How Graduate and Professional Schools Treat Forgiven Grades

Your university may exclude the original grade from its own GPA, but graduate and professional admissions services often recalculate using every grade on your transcript.

The Law School Admission Council includes all grades and credits for repeated courses that still appear on the transcript, even when your school excluded the original from its calculation. LSAC only omits a forgiven grade if the transcript shows the grade has been completely removed, not merely marked or struck through.¹³ Because most policies keep both grades visible, LSAC generally counts both.

AMCAS requires medical school applicants to report every course they ever enrolled in, including all attempts at repeated courses, regardless of whether the original grade still appears on the transcript.¹⁴ Leaving out a forgiven grade will get your application returned for correction, with the resulting delays and fees. Both grades factor into the AMCAS GPA.¹⁵

Grade forgiveness is still worth pursuing. It raises your undergraduate GPA, keeps you in good academic standing, and helps with scholarship retention and degree progress. But if you’re applying to law or medical school, plan around the fact that admissions services will see and count the original grade.

1
University of South Carolina. Grade Forgiveness
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University of Central Florida. Grade Forgiveness
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Florida International University. Undergraduate Grade Forgiveness
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University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. Grade Forgiveness
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University of Colorado Denver. Grade Forgiveness
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Baylor University. FAQs – Undergraduate Course Repeat and Academic Forgiveness Policy
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Family Policy Compliance Office. FERPA – Protecting Student Privacy
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University of New Mexico. What Are Processing Times for Registrar and Record Services
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Salt Lake Community College. Grades and Grading Policies
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University of Colorado Denver. Grade Forgiveness
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eCFR. 34 CFR 668.2
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Veterans Affairs. Will I Have To Pay Back The GI Bill Benefits I Used If I Fail A Class
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Law School Admission Council. Transcript Summarization
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AAMC Students and Residents. Coursework
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AAMC Students and Residents. Grades Factored Into AMCAS GPA Calculations