Adding or Dropping Courses

If you're considering adding or dropping a course, there are many factors you will want to consider:

  • Is there still time to add or drop a course?
  • Will dropping a course affect my progress toward my degree?
  • Will a change in my course schedule have financial implications?

Penn State maintains three periods relating to course drops: the pre-semester period, the drop/add period, and the late drop period:

  1. The pre-semester period begins on the first day of scheduling and ends the day before the semester starts.
  2. The drop/add period begins the day that your courses start and ends approximately 10% of the way through a course.  The academic calendar Links to an external site. that is established by the University Registrar sets these dates for each semester.  
  3. The late drop period starts the day after the regular drop period finishes and ends approximately 80% of the way through a course.  For full-semester courses, the beginning of the late drop period and the late drop deadline are listed on the academic calendar that we reviewed in the previous lesson. You can also find these deadlines in LionPATH by first selecting the Academics tab and then selecting your Class Schedule Details. From this point you should select the semester in question—this will bring you to the My Class Schedule screen. You can find the deadlines for each of your scheduled courses by selecting the icon in the Deadlines column.

Before making an important decision like late dropping a course, we strongly encourage you to contact your undergraduate adviser for more information.

Financial Considerations

We spoke earlier about Penn State’s tuition adjustment policy. Let’s take a look at how this policy can affect you when late dropping a course. When you're a part-time student and drop a course, or a full-time student and drop below full-time status, your overall number of credits changes. This can impact the tuition, fees, student aid, and refunds applied to your bursar account. Additionally, during the late drop period, the University assesses a $6 per course processing fee for any course dropped or added. If you're a full-time student (12 or more credits for undergraduate students, 9 or more credits for graduate students) who drops a course but still remains at full-time status, you won't incur the same impacts on your bursar account, as the tuition rate is flat once full-time enrollment is reached.

Another implication that you'll want to investigate is whether you're meeting the satisfactory academic progress standards for federal financial aid programs when considering a course drop. Details about satisfactory academic progress are available at the Office of Student Aid Links to an external site. website.

During the pre-semester period, you can add and drop courses as many times as needed to create a suitable schedule without the same financial implications. Please be mindful to check your tuition bill for updates if you make changes to your schedule (especially adding credits) after you have already paid your tuition bill.

Academic Considerations

Before you decide whether to drop a course, it's important to work with your academic adviser to understand how changing your schedule will fit into your academic plan. We'll look at your relationship with your adviser and how to contact them in the next lesson.

Military-Specific Information

The following information is for military students only:  What to do if you are called for active duty during a semester.