Appendix A

The Institute has approved changes to the Core Curriculum for the incoming class entering in 2024.

Changes to Grading Policies for First-Year Students

• All permanent grades recorded for first-year students in Core classes during the first and second terms they are enrolled will be either P, indicating “passed,” or F, indicating “failed.”
• If a first-quarter or second-quarter First-Year student is enrolled in a course from the list of introductory courses below and the instructor for that course gives letter grades, then the registrar will record P for all passing grades. No grades given to a First-Year student for such a class during the first and second quarter in which they are enrolled will be used in computing the cumulative grade-point average. Computation of grade-point averages begins at the end of the third term of the first year; the cumulative grade-point average will include any letters grades received for non-Core non-introductory classes taken for letter grades during the first two terms of the first year.

The list of introductory courses to which this policy applies is: Bi 8, Ma 2, Ma 3, Ph 2ab,Ph 12ab, Ch 41ab.

Classes that are not part of the Core curriculum or the list of introductory classes above, even if taken in the first two quarters of the first year, can only count towards fulfilling graduation requirements if their grading scheme meets the requirement of the particular option.

For example suppose a student wants to fulfill their graduation requirements for the Computer Science (CS) option. In that case, they cannot take a CS course that is not part of the core curriculum as pass/fail and use it to meet the requirements for the option. This is because the CS option prohibits pass/fail grading schemes for fulfilling its requirements. As a result, the student must take the CS course for a grade if they wish to fulfill the CS option requirement.

• First-quarter and second-quarter First-Year students receive pass/fail grades in all core and introductory courses listed by virtue of their classification as First-Year students by an admissions committee or, for students whose status after the first year is uncertain, by the Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors Committee.
  

Changes to Scholastic Requirements Policy

ELIGIBILITY TO BE ENROLLED

All undergraduate students must complete a minimum of 27 units per term with a grade-point average of at least 1.9 in order to be eligible to remain enrolled in classes. First-Year students are not held to the 1.9 GPA requirement during the first two terms.

Changes to Core Institute Requirements

CS 1 will be added to the Core curriculum as a pass/fail course to be taken by undergraduates during their first two terms at Caltech. The Core curriculum Social Science requirement will be reduced from four 9-unit courses to three 9-unit courses.