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Home > Teaching > Managing Your Course > Grading
Grading is not an easy task, particularly given the pressures on students to excel, as well as the prevalence of grade inflation in higher education. One thing that may help to make the process of grading easier is to clearly state your grading standards on your syllabus. Students should know how you will calculate the final grade: what factors will be taken into account (e.g., attendance, participation, various papers, presentations, etc.) and what relative weight each will have (e.g., participation constitutes 10% of the final grade). Parameters do not have to be reducible to numbers—you can still exercise your judgment—but they should be reasonable and clear.
Another thing to remember is that it is important to give students feedback early on and as often as possible. Students have a fairly generous period of time (up until the end of the ninth week of classes) to decide to withdraw from a course in which they are failing or doing very poorly; your early feedback helps them determine whether or not they should continue. Also, students will not be surprised about a final grade if they have been receiving consistent feedback along the way.
See NYU's Grading pages for additional information. And if you are concerned about a student, you can raise a flag via NYU Connect, or see Gallatin's guidance on Academic Difficulties and Wellness Resources on the Advising Portal.
Please see the Midterm Progress Reporting section of Grades, Undergraduate Students on the Gallatin website. For additional information about midterm grading, see NYU's Undergraduate Midterm Progress Reports and Graduate Midterm Grading.
Please make sure that when you set your deadline for students to submit final papers or projects, you allow enough time to evaluate the students’ work and to meet the University’s grade posting deadline. If you are scheduling a final exam on or after the grade posting deadline, you may request an extension from the Dean’s office.
The University provides a final exam week at the end of each semester. Some Gallatin instructors give a final during this week; many do not. Instructors may schedule a class during this week if they plan to give an in-class exam, or they may schedule a class for other purposes (e.g. presentations of final projects, making up a cancelled class, etc.).
Mid-semester, the Gallatin Office of Faculty Affairs will contact you to ask if you would like to hold a class during final exam week. You will have the option of meeting during your regularly scheduled class time (but please note that some of your students may have conflicts if they are taking exams in other courses), or you may meet at the day and time given in the University’s final exam schedule.
Since many of you ask students to drop off their final papers at Gallatin, please remind them to write your name on the paper (in the event it turns up in the wrong mailbox and needs to be redirected). If you have not received a student’s paper by your submission deadline, please contact the student directly to see if a paper was submitted. Students drop off a lot of papers at the end of the semester, and it is possible for one to end up in the wrong mailbox.
If you assign final papers, but do not have an opportunity to return them to students before classes end, we ask that you return them by mail. To help in this process, Gallatin will provide envelopes and use of NYU’s mail service. Here’s what you need to do:
Ask one of the faculty services staff for envelopes to return student papers.
Bring these to class so that students can self-address the envelopes (to their permanent address).
After you have finished grading, bring the stuffed envelopes back to Gallatin and place them in the outgoing mail.
Toward the end of the semester, the Office of the Registrar will send an email to your NYU account with the deadline and instructions for submitting final grades electronically through the Faculty Center in Albert. It is also possible to pull grades directly from Brightspace into Albert.
It is important that you meet the final grades deadline, particularly so as not to jeopardize student eligibility for graduation and financial aid. As a general rule, grades are due 72 hours after final exams are over. If you are scheduling a final exam on or after this deadline, you may request an extension from the dean’s office. If, for any other reason, you are unable to meet the deadline for submitting final grades, please contact the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Hallie Franks (hmf2@nyu.edu).
Once a final grade has been submitted by the instructor and recorded on the transcript, the final grade cannot be changed, except in cases of a grading error.
In the case where a student believes an error has been made in calculating a grade in a Gallatin course, the student should first consult with the instructor who assigned the grade to discuss the grading requirements for the course and how the grade was determined. If the student is not satisfied with the outcome of the discussion and wishes to appeal the grade further, a formal written appeal should be submitted to the Associate Dean of Students, Pat McCreery (pgm3@nyu.edu). The Associate Dean of Students will then attempt to mediate a resolution between student and instructor. If the Associate Dean of Students is unable to mediate a resolution of the grievance, an independent review of the grade will be undertaken by the Student Conduct / Grade Grievance Committee. All of the student’s work will be reviewed to clarify how the grade was determined and to ensure the grade is consistent with the academic guidelines and policies of the School. If a case goes to the Committee for a review, all parties agree that the decision of the Committee in matters related to a Gallatin course grade is final.
In all cases, students are expected to act within the semester following the course to appeal a grade since faculty may not be available to review an appeal in future semesters or years. (For fall and January term courses, students must appeal no later than the following spring. For spring and summer courses, students must appeal no later than the following fall.)
For an FAQ and information on how to submit final grades, see NYU's Final Grade Entry.
Gallatin has a strong Incomplete Grades Policy; please review the Incomplete Grades Policy page for more information.
Students enrolled in your course may elect the Pass/Fail Grade Option, which converts grades of D and above to P (pass) on the student’s academic record.
Pass/Fail grade option requests are reviewed and approved by the Gallatin Office of Student Services or the equivalent school office for non-Gallatin students. Please direct all students to the Gallatin Office of Student Services if they have questions or need assistance.
When your final grade roster becomes available for the term, you will not be able to identify students who have elected the pass/fail grade option. You should grade all students as you typically would; a final grade submission of A through D will automatically convert to P (pass) for any student who elected the option.
When a student has submitted the required work for an incomplete, you will need to review it and assign a final grade. You will then request a grade change electronically through the Faculty Center in Albert. On rare occasions—you made an error in calculation or judgment, you discover the student handed in work on time but you missed it, etc.—you may submit a grade change (please see Appealing the Final Grade, under Final Grades above). Also, please note that you cannot change a grade for a student who has graduated.
For instructions on how to request a grade change, see NYU's Grade Changes.