Academic Amnesty Policy

Academic Amnesty provides an opportunity to remove previously poor grades from being counted as part of the Polk State College grade point average (GPA); this can be beneficial for the purposes of graduation or for meeting the criteria for a limited-admission program. A student who changes his or her career goals or who has experienced extraordinary life situations that affected academic performance may petition for Academic Amnesty under the following conditions:

1. The student has not attended college for at least one full year after the term requested for Academic Amnesty.
2. After a period of absence of at least one full year, the student has completed 12 college credit hours with at least a 2.00 GPA for each term; however, the student’s overall GPA is still less than 2.0 after the 12 completed credit hours.
3. The student may apply for Academic Amnesty for terms that are older than five years from the date of the petition.
4. The student may apply for Academic Amnesty for up to three consecutive terms on the student’s Polk State College transcript.
5. Only grades that are considered “not passing” qualify for Academic Amnesty (i.e., grades of W, I, F, and D where D is not considered a passing grade).
6. Terms that are part of an earned degree do not qualify for Academic Amnesty.
7. Academic Amnesty may be applied to a student record only one time.

To apply for Academic Amnesty, the student must complete a petition with a Student Success Advisor, and the Petition Committee renders the decision. Courses selected for Academic Amnesty are still applicable in the calculation of financial aid and satisfactory academic standards; however, if a student is granted Academic Amnesty, this may be noted in the Financial Aid Appeals Process. More information about this policy can be found in the Standards of Academic Progress  Section of this Catalog.