Satisfactory Progress Towards Degree (PTD)

Policy 6305 is a University policy used to ensure that students make continual progress towards their degree and to encourage students to improve their performance or switch majors before they have invested a large amount of time and money on a degree they are unlikely to finish.

Students must earn an overall and in-major GPA of 2.00 or higher to graduate from every major at Virginia Tech. When the GPA drops below this value, it is a strong indication that the student is struggling and needs more guidance and advice. Many students improve their performance with a little encouragement and advice from an academic advisor.

Students can find Satisfactory Progress Towards Degree (previously called "Policy 91") requirements on the VT website:

• To find graduation and PTD requirements for a date of entry prior to the 2024-25 academic year, see the graduation checksheets.
• To find graduation and PTD requirements for a date of entry during the 2024-25 academic year or later, see the online Undergraduate Catalog.

The extended in-major GPA (ESM2104, ESM2204, & ESM2304 plus ME & NSEG courses) is included as a continued enrollment requirement to help identify students who are struggling earlier on in their studies before they have completed any in-major courses. The difficulty of ESM 2104 (statics), ESM 2204 (deforms), and ESM 2304 (dynamics) tends to be more in line with the difficulty of typical junior-level ME courses.

The extended in-major GPA also helps identify students with weak academic performance who have taken a large number of humanities and/or free electives courses to mask poor grades in math, science, and engineering courses. For many students, the extended in-major GPA is a better indicator of how well a student will do in required engineering courses than the overall GPA.

Note that the 2.000 extended in-major GPA requirement only applies to students who have not yet completed their first in-major course (with either ME or NSEG subjects).  For students who entered after Spring 2024, the extended in-major GPA has become the new in-major GPA following the merge between the ME and ESM departments.

Students are not required to reach a 2.000 cumulative in-major or overall GPA by the end of a probation semester as long as they meet the minimum requirements listed above during each semester they are on probation.

The only circumstances that can result in suspension after only one semester on probation are:

• Failing to earn a C or higher on at least 3 credits of required math, science, or engineering courses during that semester, OR 
• Earning a semester overall GPA below 2.0 if the previous semester GPA was also below 2.0, OR
• Failing to complete a required course within the first 3 attempts at Virginia Tech.

In the past, the Mechanical Engineering Department prepared individual PTD contracts and required students to sign these contracts by the end of the first week of classes.  Instead of having individual contracts outlining specific GPA and course requirements, the department has gone to a system where all students must follow the same generic rules of improving in-major and overall GPA’s to a 2.00 by the end of the next semester and eliminating course deficiencies (see above).  

Students should consult their academic advisor if they have questions about what it will take to earn their way off of PTD probation.

If you decide to take a semester off of school, this does not count against you if you are on PTD probation. Sometimes taking a semester off is a good way to regain focus and get more inspired about completing your degree. If you have personal issues that have contributed to your poor performance at school, a semester off may help you work out your problems so that you can come back and do better.

If you take a semester off for a formal co-op job and are enrolled in the 0-credit CEP course through Career Services and decide to enroll in courses at Virginia Tech while working full time, the minimum credits and required course clauses of PTD probation do not apply, however, the target GPA requirements will remain in effect.

Sometimes students decide to resign from all courses during a semester due to a personal issue.  A semester during which a student resigns does not count against them as long as all courses have fully been removed from their transcripts for that semester.

Professors are not allowed to change grades for the sole reason of helping you meet a progress towards degree requirement, so please don’t ask. If one of your grades changes due to a grade entry error or an honor system violation, your transcripts will be re-evaluated to see if you met the PTD probation requirements. If you receive a grade change that you feel affects your PTD status, please consult your academic advisor and ask that your PTD status be re-evaluated.

If you receive academic relief through the University due to a health or personal issue, your PTD status and requirments will be re-evaluated. Although you may be granted a reprieve from completing a required course which was awarded a WP grade, you will still be held to all minimum grade requirements for any courses with a letter grades remaining on your transcript for that term after relief was awarded.

If you are granted academic relief to remove all courses from a semester, the semester will not count against you.

If you are granted academic relief, we strongly recommend that you take as much time off from school as is necessary to overcome the issues that caused you to require academic relief. If you return to school and do poorly again, we suggest that you reflect on what went wrong and honestly consider whether or not Mechanical Engineering is the right major for you.

Our experience has shown that students who do not perform well their first semester back after receiving academic relief are very likely to be suspended for not meeting PTD requirements in the future. Using academic relief to avoid poor grades may only delay the suspension if the student has not addressed the underlying issues which caused the poor academic performance.

We feel that it is better to take your time and earn a degree than to not complete your degree at all. If you end up being suspended from the department and being forced to choose a different major, that will most likely take more time than just taking a lighter courseload and doing well in the courses you are taking.

Many engineering students take more than four years to graduate. PTD probation students often struggle more than the average student with large courseloads. Take a look at your last few semester(s) with a comparable courseload (similar number of credits and similar difficulty of courses) to the one you want to take. How were your grades during those semesters? How many credits did you actually complete?

We often suggest co-op jobs for PTD probation students as a way to spread out courses to a reasonable load while earning a good salary and getting some great work experience. Not only does this give a student a break from school, but it also helps to strengthen a resume and move the focus of a resume from grades to relevant work experience.

Summer courses (either at VT or at transfer schools) can also help decrease fall and spring semesters to reasonable loads, however, we don’t recommend heavy summer loads. Students often get fatigued when they don’t take a break. Summer courses can also prevent students from gaining valuable work experience.

Students on an older checksheet who entered before Summer 2024 can request to be switched to a newer catalog year if the ESM courses they took at VT will help improve their cumulative in-major GPA. Please contact your academic advisor to see if this options would help you.

Students with low in-major GPA’s are often advised to repeat ME courses (or ESM courses for students entering after Spring 2024) in which previous grade(s) were all C- or lower. If a course is retaken in which previous grade(s) were C- or lower, the new grade averages into the GPA as if it were a different course; old grades are never overwritten by new grades.

Retaking prior in-major courses with low grades strengthens a student’s background and makes it easier for them to do well in future ME courses. It also can help a student improve a low in-major GPA. To make progress to get to the 2.0, the grades need to be C+ or higher (C’s don’t help reduce quality point deficits, and they prevent a student from retaking the course for a grade in the future).

Students can also choose technical electives taught by the ME Department to help improve their in-major GPA. Students should only choose technical electives that they are interested in; if a student is not interested in a course, their grades will often reflect a lack of interest.

For on academic probation, we especially recommend:

• Free tutoring for some courses available through the Student Success Center.
• Free Academic Success Seminars offered through Student Success Center (includes topics such as time management, note taking, test taking, procrastination, etc.)
• Free Academic Coaching through the Student Success Center.
• Other Learning Assistance Programs offered through the Student Success Center, including programs for students on academic probation or suspension and UNIV1004, College Success Strategies (3 credit, A/F course)
• The Sloan Career Cornerstone website, and Career Services are excellent resources for students who are unsure about their choice of a major
• Cook Counseling Center for counseling to help with personal problems like stress, anxiety, low motivation, depression, relationship problems, etc.
• Services for Students with Disabilities if have been diagnosed with a disability or suspect you have a disability that is affecting your academic performance
• Course-specific resources, graduate teaching assistants, or tutors provided by the department.
• Please see your advisor for additional information.