6-Drop Rule

Office of the Registrar

6-Drop Rule

Revised 6-Drop Rule (SB 1231)

Any student who began college for the first time as a freshman in Fall 2007 or thereafter may not drop more than six courses during their entire undergraduate career. This includes courses dropped at another 2-year or 4-year Texas public college or university. For purposes of this rule, a dropped course is any course that is dropped after the published Census Date (See Academic Calendar for the date).

Students in pursuit of a 2nd Baccalaureate degree, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate program, or any graduate-level program are exempt from the provisions of the 6-Drop Rule.

Exceptions to the 6-Drop Rule, and the required documentation students must submit to claim each, are listed in the following table. Students wishing to claim an exception at the time a drop is initiated must submit appropriate documentation as detailed below along with their drop request paperwork. Students wishing to appeal a prior drop must submit an Application for Appeal form, along with the appropriate documentation, to the One-Stop Services Center (STE 230). Notification of appeal results will be sent to students' Patriot email accounts.

Exception Reason	Required Documentation
Totally withdrawing from the university*	Submission of online Course Drop or Withdrawal Request Form(s) to drop all courses, from all sessions, within an academic term. Note: Any withdrawals completed prior to the Census Date do not result in a grade on students' transcripts, and are thus automatically exempt from the 6-Drop Rule
Being administratively dropped from a course by the university	None required; automatic exception
Dropping a course for a provable severe illness or other debilitating condition that affects the student's ability to satisfactorily complete the course	Either a statement on letterhead from a doctor who has treated the student for the condition being documented or a formal letter from the UT Tyler Disability Services Office
Dropping a course due to responsibility for the care of a sick, injured, or needy person if the provision of that care affects the student's ability to satisfactorily complete the course	Either a statement on letterhead from a doctor who has treated the student for the condition being documented or a formal letter from the UT Tyler Disability Services Office, and a notarized statement that the student is caring for the sick, injured, or needy individual.
Dropping a course due to the death of a person who is considered to be a member of the student's family or who is otherwise considered to have a sufficiently close relationship to the student that the person's death is considered to be a showing of good cause	A certified death certificate. Students may submit an obituary or funeral program if appealing.
Dropping a course for documented change of work schedule that is beyond the control of the student, and that affects the student's ability to satisfactorily complete the course	A letter from the student's employer on company letterhead and a notarized statement from the employee.
Dropping a course for active duty service as a member of the Texas National Guard or the armed forces of the United States of either the student or a person who is considered to be a member of the student's family or who is otherwise considered to have a sufficiently close relationship to the student that the person's active military service is considered to be a showing of good cause	Signed orders or direct communications addressed to UT Tyler staff from the student's (or family member's) commanding officer.
Dropping a course that does not carry college level credit such as a developmental course or a zero credit course	None required; automatic exception
Dropping courses taken as required co-requisites such as lecture classes with a required laboratory. In such cases the lecture and lab are counted as one drop when dropped at the same time.	None required; automatic exception. Note: Labs that may be taken independently from their associated lecture (EX. BIOL 1106, CHEM 1311, etc.) are not automatically exempt. Such courses must be subject to another exception reason to be exempted.

 

Per the Texas Administrative Code, Title 19, Part 1, Chapter 4, Subchapter A, Rule 4.10: a "member of the student's family" is defined to be the student's spouse, child, grandchild, father, mother, brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, nephew, niece, first cousin, step-parent, step-child, or step-sibling; a "person who is otherwise considered to have a sufficiently close relationship to the student" is defined to include any other relative within the third degree of consanguinity, plus close friends, including but not limited to roommates, housemates, classmates, or other persons identified by the student, for approval by the institution on a case-by-case basis.

Students requesting an exception from the 6-Drop Rule for coursework withdrawn from at a prior institution must provide documentation that each such drop was, in fact, exempted from the 6-Drop Rule so those exemptions can be documented in their UT Tyler records. Students should be aware that many official transcripts will provide only a summary how many drops were counted by their former institution, and may not specify which individual courses were/were not counted. To address this, students may be required to obtain and submit a letter from that institution verifying that a specific withdrawal was exempted from the 6-Drop Rule, or documentation as detailed above for the relevant exception reason.

Students may not utilize the services of any notary public currently employed by UT Tyler for the purposes of obtaining notarized statements for the purposes of documenting a 6-Drop exception. Any such notarized statements that are submitted will be considered as invalid and must be replaced by the student with a letter from a non-employee notary public.

Additional exemptions may be granted upon petition to the Office of Academic Affairs and must be accompanied by documentation of extenuating circumstances beyond performance in the course. For more information, contact the Enrollment Services Center at 903.566.7180.

A designation will appear on transcripts of any student who has dropped a course where an exemption or exception was granted; for UT Tyler students, this will be in the form of a grade of "Q" rather than the standard "W". All Texas institutions are required to honor the exemptions or exceptions granted by a transferring institution.

Students may review their current number of "W" grades subject to the limitations of the 6-Drop Rule on their unofficial transcripts, which may be accessed via Student Center.

Procedures for implementing the law vary among institutions. Therefore, students have an obligation to keep track of the number of nonexempt dropped courses across all institutions to ensure that they do not exceed the six dropped courses limit.

UT Tyler Catalog Six-Drop Rule