Academic Notice

Students can find themselves on Academic Notice for many reasons, including personal, financial, health, family, or other issues. Our goal in CDSS is to help you identify the factors that are relevant to you and to help you address them. We recommend the following actions if you are placed on Academic Notice:

• Meet with CDSS College Advising and check in throughout the semester if you need extra support. CDSS College Advisors can help you come up with a plan to set you up for success for the semester and also provide you with resources for whatever factors might have contributed to you being placed on Academic Notice.
• Meet with your Major Advisor if you are having difficulty in your major-related coursework.
• Read all emails from CDSS as some might be in regards to your Academic Notice status.
• Use the midpoint of the semester as a checkpoint to see how you are progressing. If you need support, don’t hesitate to reach out to CDSS College Advising.

To clear Academic Notice, you will need to do the following:

• Be enrolled in at least 12 units for the current term*
• All enrolled classes must be taken for a letter grade except for classes that are only offered as P/NP. If you attempt to change a grading option of a class from a letter grade to EPN, the change will be reverted.
• Earn a minimum 2.0 term (semester) GPA and a 2.0 cumulative UC GPA by the end of the next Fall or Spring semester of enrollment. 

If you are approved for a Reduced Course Load, you can enroll in less than 12 units and it will not impact your Academic Notice status. If you use a late drop, this will be automatically approved as a Reduced Course Load and it will not impact your Academic Notice status.

If you do not clear Academic Notice after your first term of being on Academic Notice, you will have the following term to clear Academic Notice. During this second term, your status will be changed to “Subject to Dismissal.”

If you do not clear Academic Notice after your second term on Academic Notice, your status will be reviewed and it will either be changed to Continued on Academic Notice (CAN) or you will be Dismissed (see the “Dismissal” section below for more information).

If you do not clear Academic Notice after your second term of being on Academic Notice with a Subject to Dismissal status, CDSS will evaluate your progress and determine if you will be Continued on Academic Notice (CAN) or Dismissed. 

If you are CAN, you will have one more term to clear Academic Notice. In order to be considered for CAN you will need to provide a letter stating why you were not able to clear Academic Notice and why you should be able to continue on with your studies. More information will be provided to all students who are Subject to Dismissal after grades have been posted for the current term.

Students can be dismissed from CDSS if they do not clear their second semester of Academic Notice. Students will be informed by CDSS at the beginning of the term that they are Subject to Dismissal and they will be informed at the end of the term if they have been dismissed or that they are Continued on Academic Notice (CAN) or that they have cleared Academic Notice.

If a student is dismissed, they must take a break from UC Berkeley and cannot enroll in UC Berkeley classes. However, students can continue their studies in CDSS at UC Berkeley by meeting certain eligibility requirements that show readiness to return. See the Readmission section for more details.

If you have questions about dismissal, please email cdss-undergrad@berkeley.edu or meet with CDSS Advising.