II. Courses

Course elections and assignments.
1. Free Election of Upper-Level Courses. Except for required first year courses, there is free election of courses, day and evening.
2. First Year Courses.
  1. Mandatory assignment of first year courses. Except as provided in II.A.2.b. or II.A.2.c., required first year courses are mandatory for each student in the year and sections assigned for the student and scheduled by the Dean or the Dean's designee. A student enrolling in a required first year course must register for the appropriate section as assigned by the Dean or Dean's designee.
  2. Evening students to complete first year courses in evening. Entering students classified as part-time evening students when first enrolling in the Law School must complete required first year courses in evening sections, unless and to the extent the Dean or the Dean's designee approves the student's enrolling in a day section. Such approval will be granted only for good cause and in the sole discretion of the Dean or the Dean's designee.
  3. Delayed completion of required first year courses other than Legal Research and Writing.
    1. Students classified as full-time at enrollment. If a student who is classified as a full-time student when first enrolling in the Law School fails for any reason to complete a required first year course other than Legal Research and Writing during the first year of study, the student must take the course during the next semester in which it is offered unless, due to extraordinary circumstances, the Dean or the Dean's designee permits enrolling in a subsequent semester.
    2. Students classified as part-time evening at enrollment. If a student who is classified as a part-time evening student when first enrolling in the Law School fails for any reason to complete a required first year course other than Legal Research and Writing during the semester when the student is first assigned to such a course, the student must take the course during the next semester in which it is offered in the evening unless, due to extraordinary circumstances, the Dean or the Dean's designee permits enrolling in a subsequent semester.
  4. Delayed completion of first year Legal Research and Writing. A student who fails for any reason to complete the full year of first year Legal Research and Writing must register for both semesters of the course in the following year unless due to extraordinary circumstances an exception is approved by the Director of Legal Writing and the Dean or the Dean's designee.
Changes in course elections.
1. Dropping courses.
  1. Deadlines for dropping without penalty. Except for clinics, externships and required first year courses, a student may without penalty drop any course through the first two weeks of (I) courses scheduled during the fall and winter semesters and (II) courses scheduled for ten weeks or more during the spring/summer semester. For courses scheduled for fewer than ten weeks during the spring/summer semester, a student may without penalty drop a course through the first week of classes. The deadline to drop a course without penalty will be specified for each semester on the Law School's Academic Calendar as posted on the Law School's website.
  2. Dropping clinics and externships. If a student drops a clinic or an externship practicum or an externship colloquium after the first week of any semester without first obtaining written approval from (I) the instructor and the Director of Clinical Education (for dropping a clinic), or (II) from the instructor of the externship colloquium and the Assistant Director of Externship Programs (for dropping an externship colloquium or externship practicum), the student will be treated as having waived any preference for a particular clinic or externship in future semesters.
  3. No transcript notation. A course that is dropped within the drop period for a semester will not appear on a student's transcript.
2. Withdrawal from courses.
  1. Period for withdrawal from courses. A student who does not drop a course within the applicable drop period for the course may later withdraw from the course with written permission from the instructor. A student must withdraw from a course prior to the withdrawal deadline for the course for the applicable semester. The withdrawal deadline for a course will ordinarily be the date of the final examination (or date of distribution of a take-home examination, if applicable) or other final assignment comprising at least 20 percent of the student's final grade for such course; under extraordinary circumstances, the instructor and the Dean or the Dean's designee may permit a student to withdraw from a course after the ordinary withdrawal deadline, subject to applicable University policy.
  2. Withdrawal indicated on transcript. If a student withdraws from a course, the withdrawal will be indicated on the student's transcript in accordance with V.I.1.
  3. Tuition/fees following withdrawal. If a student withdraws from a course, the student is still responsible for applicable tuition and fees in accordance with University policy.
3. No credit for dropped/withdrawn courses. If a student drops or withdraws from a course, that course will not count toward the student's satisfying the J.D. degree requirements specified in I.A.
Maximum course load. The maximum student course load is 16 credits for each academic semester, unless an exception is granted by the Dean or the Dean's designee for good cause. In no circumstances may a student's course load exceed the maximum permitted under ABA Standard 311.