II. Academic Calendar

A. Standard Calendar

Georgia Tech's standard Academic Calendar consists of a Fall Semester, a Spring Semester, and an accelerated Summer Session. Each Fall Semester and each Spring Semester normally includes approximately fifteen weeks of instruction plus one week of final examinations. A normal Summer Session includes approximately eleven weeks of instruction plus one week of final examinations. Each Academic Year consists of one sequence of a Fall Semester followed by a Spring Semester. The word "term" may refer to a Fall Semester, a Spring Semester, or a Summer Session. The Office of the Registrar publishes the official Academic Calendar for each term. Due to variations in the yearly calendar and the need to balance the dates of campus events, particularly in the Fall Semester, the Registrar uses discretion, as appropriate, to set dates on the Academic Calendar, such as Fall Recess, the Last Day to Withdraw from Individual Courses without a Penalty, and the Progress Report Grade Due Date. See Catalog Regulation V. Grades and Scholastic Average for more information.

B. Other Academic Terms

In addition to the standard Academic Calendar, some programs may be offered on other schedules. All such offerings are subject to the approval of the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Institute Graduate Committee, and/or the Registrar, as appropriate. With approval, such programs may operate under different academic rules, such as credit hour limits or withdrawal dates, than those specified for standard academic terms.

C. Curriculum Year

Requirements for degrees and minors shall be specified for each Curriculum Year, which is comprised of a Summer Session plus the immediately following Fall Semester and Spring Semester. This designation shall be independent of any schedule for publication of such requirements in printed or electronic form.
All changes in degree and minor requirements shall become effective at the beginning of the next Curriculum Year following final approval by the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Institute Graduate Committee, Academic Senate, and/or University System, as appropriate.
The Office of the Registrar shall maintain an archival record of all degree and minor requirements associated with each curriculum year.

D. Unit of Credit Defined

The current Academic Calendar is semester‐based, consisting of 15 weeks of instruction in a standard Fall/Spring semester where one contact hour is equal to 50 minutes of instruction. The amount of class attendance is 750 minutes for each scheduled credit hour in a standard semester.

One unit of credit represents how much time a typical student is expected to devote to learning in a typical week of study. Each unit of credit is representative of in‐seat effort and out‐of‐seat effort. One credit awarded yields a total of 3 contact hours of effort on the student’s behalf. The breakdown of effort from in‐seat effort (scheduled time) vs. out‐of‐seat effort (non‐scheduled time) differs by course structure and schedule type.

For scheduled time, one 15‐minute instructional break per 75 minutes of continuous instruction will be included for courses meeting in durations of greater than 75 continuous minutes.

This policy is consistent with specifications in the University System of Georgia Academic and Student Affairs Handbook, Section 2.1 Semester System, Uniform Academic Calendar, Cancellation of Classes and Religious Holidays. The policy is also consistent with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools policy statement on credit hours.

The amount of time that students should expect to spend in‐seat (scheduled time) and out‐of‐seat (nonscheduled time) should be commensurate with catalog structure of the course as approved by the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and/or the Institute Graduate Curriculum Committee. The appropriate committee must approve exceptions to this policy.

At Georgia Tech, courses have historically been classified as ‘lecture’ with a 1:1 ratio and/or ‘laboratory’ with a 3:1 ratio. These labels have become increasingly inconsistent with the creation of new scheduling types as faculty introduce new pedagogies in the classroom. The list below offers flexibility in how the Institution refers to the in‐seat/out‐of‐seat efforts for existing and new scheduling types.

Effort 1 (Lecture)

“Lecture” based courses yield a 1:1 ratio of in‐seat effort to credit hours. This means that for every 1 credit hour of lecture, there is 1 scheduled contact hour and an expectation for 2 contact hours of nonscheduled effort.

Effort 2 (Studio)

“Studio” based courses yield a 2:1 ratio of in‐seat effort to credit hours. This means that for every 1 credit hour of studio, there are 2 scheduled contact hours and an expectation for 1 contact hour of nonscheduled effort.

Effort 3 (Laboratory)

“Laboratory” based courses yield a 3:1 ratio of effort to credit hours. There are three types in Banner; Supervised, Unsupervised, and Mixed.

“Supervised Laboratory” means that for every 1 credit hour of supervised laboratory, there are 3 scheduled contact hours and an expectation for no non‐scheduled effort besides the completion of a post‐laboratory report.
“Unsupervised Laboratory” means that for every 1 credit hour of unsupervised laboratory, there are 3 non‐scheduled contact hours and an expectation for no scheduled effort.
“Mixed Laboratory” means that for laboratories worth 2 credits or more in even increments (ie: 2, 4, 6, credit hours, etc.), that half of the total credit hours are treated as supervised laboratories and half are treated as unsupervised laboratories. Breakdown in whole credits only.

Effort 4 (Zero-credit, non-credit bearing activities as part of a degree)

Currently at Georgia Tech, undergraduate programs have no zero-credit required activities as part of the BS degree. Undergraduate programs do not include any non-credit bearing degree requirements at present. However, this is under discussion and could change in the future.

At the graduate level, there are zero-credit, non-credit bearing requirements for some degrees. The Guidelines for Degree Requirements involving Teaching and Professional Experience are described in the Graduate Academic section of this Catalog at:

https://catalog.gatech.edu/academics/graduate/teaching-and-professional-experience

Requirements for the specific Master’s or Doctoral degree are outlined within the Catalog page where the curricular details are listed.

A program at Georgia Tech, undergraduate or graduate, that wishes to add a zero (0)- credit hour degree requirement must submit a degree modification proposal to the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee or to the Institute Graduate Curriculum Committee with a clear explanation of why the zero (0) requirement is being proposed including why it is appropriate for the specific degree program. If approved by the appropriate Curriculum Committee, the degree modification proposal would have to be approved by the Academic Faculty Senate before being placed in the next edition of the Catalog.

Effort 5 (Internships)

1. Internships for Credit. Internships offered by the Georgia Tech academic units should be registered in the student information system under the three existing for-credit courses, regardless of whether the internship is paid or unpaid.

XXXX 2695: Undergraduate Internship for Credit (1-12 credit hours)
XXXX 4695: Undergraduate Internship for Credit (1-12 credit hours)
XXXX 6695: Graduate Internship for Credit (1-12 credit hours)

Each course would have deliverables determined by faculty for grading and a determined number of work hours as follows:

a. A full-time internship for-credit would require 36 hours of work activity and deliverables determined by faculty for grading.

12 credit hours (full-time) = 36 hours of work/week + deliverables (academic assignment)

b. A part-time internship for-credit would require deliverables determined by faculty for grading (academic assignment) + work hours as follows:

1 credit hour = 3 hours of work/week + deliverables (academic assignment)
2 credit hours=6 hours of work/week+ deliverables (academic assignment)
3 credit hours=9 hours of work/week+ deliverables (academic assignment)
4 credit hours=12 hours of work/week deliverables (academic assignment)
5 credit hours = 15 hours of work/week + deliverables (academic assignment)
6 credit hours = 18 hours of work/week + deliverables (academic assignment)
7 credit hours = 21 hours of work/week + deliverables (academic assignment)
8 credit hours = 24 hours of work/week + deliverables (academic assignment)
9 credit hours = 27 hours of work/week + deliverables (academic assignment)
10 credit hours = 30 hours of work/week + deliverables (academic assignment)
11 credit hours = 33 hours of work/week + deliverables (academic assignment)

Deliverables will be established collaboratively by the employer and the Institute faculty member responsible for the academic content. The faculty member will determine the final course grade, based on the employer’s performance assessment and the student’s achievement on assigned academic work.

The availability of internships for credit whether paid or unpaid are at the discretion of each academic department.

2. Internship for Audit Hours. Students may elect to register their internship using the "audit" courses listed below, regardless of whether the internship is paid or unpaid, in order to maintain student status with the Institute. Note that “Domestic” and “International” refer to the location of the internship, specifically, whether it takes place within or outside of the United States.

Domestic Undergraduate Internships for Audit will be centralized and processed by the Career Center, under the current existing courses:

INTN 2003/4003 - 10-19 work hours per week = 3-hour audit course
INTN 2006/4006 - 20-29 work hours per week = 6-hour audit course
INTN 2009/4009 - 30-35 work hours per week = 9-hour audit course
INTN 2000/4000 - 36+ work hours per week = 12-hour audit course

Length of experience is a minimum of 14 weeks during Fall and Spring and minimum of 8 weeks in Summer.

International Undergraduate Internships (for GT Atlanta-based, degree-seeking students) for Audit will be centralized and processed by the Office of International Education (OIE), under the current existing courses:

INTN 3013 - 10-19 work hours per week = 3-hour audit course
INTN 3016 - 20-29 work hours per week = 6-hour audit course
INTN 3019 - 30-34 work hours per week = 9-hour audit course
INTN 3011 - 35+ work hours per week = 12-hour audit course

Length of experience is a minimum of 14 weeks during Fall and Spring and minimum of 10 weeks in Summer.

Domestic Graduate Internships for Audit will be centralized and processed by the Career Center, under the current existing courses.

INTN 6003 - 6-9 work hours per week = 3-hour audit course
INTN 6004 - 10-15 work hours per week = 4-hour audit course
INTN 6006 - 16-20 work hours per week = 6-hour audit course
INTN 6009 - 21-35 work hours per week = 9-hour audit course
INTN 6012 - 36+ work hours per week = 12-hour audit course

Length of experience is a minimum of 14 weeks during Fall and Spring and minimum of 8 weeks in Summer.

International Graduate Internships (for GT Atlanta-based, degree-seeking students) for Audit will be centralized and processed by the Office of International Education, under the current existing courses:

INTN 6003 - 6-9 work hours per week = 3-hour audit course
INTN 6004 - 10-15 work hours per week = 4-hour audit course
INTN 6006 - 16-20 work hours per week = 6-hour audit course
INTN 6009 - 21-34 work hours per week = 9-hour audit course
INTN 6012 - 35+ work hours per week = 12-hour audit course

Length of experience is a minimum of 14 weeks during Fall and Spring and minimum of 10 weeks in Summer.

Georgia Tech-Europe (GTE) Graduate Internships (for GTE degree-seeking students) for Audit will be centralized and processed by GTE, under the current existing course, using the GTE graduate campus code:

INTN 6012 - 35+ work hours per week = 12-hour audit course

Length of experience is a minimum of 14 weeks during Fall and Spring and minimum of 10 weeks in Summer.

Effort 6 (Cooperative Option)

Since 1912, Georgia Tech has offered a five-year Undergraduate Cooperative Program to those students who wish to combine career-related experience with classroom studies. The undergraduate co-op program is based in the Office of Undergraduate Education and Student Success (OUESS) and is managed jointly by its reporting units: The Office of Experiential and Engaged Learning (E2L) and the Career Center.

Students alternate between work assignments and classroom studies until they complete three semesters (2 regular semesters and a summer) of work.

Co-ops have a defined unit of audit hours:

CO-OP 2000 - 12 audit hours (36+ working hours/week)
CO-OP 4000 - 12 audit hours (36+ working hours/week)

Length of experience is a minimum of 14 weeks during Fall and Spring and minimum of 8 weeks in Summer.

Effort 7 (Undergraduate Research)

Undergraduate students have opportunities to participate in research activities. Faculty in academic units offering placement in research labs work with the student to determine the number of hours to be worked per week on a 3:1 ratio*, functioning in a similar manner to labs associated with classes.

*During compressed semesters where research is offered outside a standard 15-week semester the work/credit ratio may be adjusted appropriately to the semester length and specific research setting as determined by the faculty and academic department. For example, summer may be adjusted to 4.5:1 credit ratio where appropriate.

“For Credit” undergraduate research opportunities are registered in the student information system under the prefix used by the academic unit offering the research experience. It is preferred that the academic units use the universal numbers with their own subject code:

XXXX 2699: Undergraduate Research (1-12 credit hours) (Level: freshmen and sophomores)
XXXX 4699: Undergraduate Research (1-12 credit hours) (Level: juniors and seniors)

Any academic deliverables would be determined by the Institute faculty member who is overseeing the research experience. The grade for the course would be determined by the Institute faculty member who would evaluate the student's research performance and deliverables.

1 credit hour = 3 hours of research/week
2 credit hours = 6 hours of research/week
3 credit hours = 9 hours of research/week
4 credit hours = 12 hours of research/week
5 credit hours = 15 hours of research/week
6 credit hours = 18 hours of research/week
7 credit hours = 21 hours of research/week
8 credit hours = 24 hours of research/week
9 credit hours = 27 hours of research/week
10 credit hours = 30 hours of research/week
11 credit hours = 33 hours of research/week
12 credit hours = 36 hours of research/week

“For Pay or Volunteer” undergraduate research opportunities are registered in the student information system as placeholder courses under the prefix used by the academic unit offering the research experience. These courses are non-billable and non-credit bearing. It is preferred that the academic units use the universal numbers with their own subject code:

XXXX 2698: Research Assistantship (1-12 audit hours) (Level: freshmen and sophomores)
XXXX 4698: Research Assistantship (1-12 audit hours) (Level: juniors and seniors)

Any deliverables would be determined by the Institute faculty member who is overseeing the research experience. There is no grade for the course.

1 audit hour = 3 hours of research/week
2 audit hours = 6 hours of research/week
3 audit hours = 9 hours of research/week
4 audit hours = 12 hours of research/week
5 audit hours = 15 hours of research/week
6 audit hours = 18 hours of research/week
7 audit hours = 21 hours of research/week
8 audit hours = 24 hours of research/week
9 audit hours = 27 hours of research/week
10 audit hours = 30 hours of research/week
11 audit hours = 33 hours of research/week
12 audit hours = 36 hours of research/week

Effort 8 (Graduate Thesis and Dissertation Research)

Graduate students actively engaged in thesis or dissertation research register for 7000 or 9000 hours as described in the Graduate Academics section of the Catalog.