The following is guidance issued by the Student Affairs Staff of the UCLA Department of History. Thanks Kevin Terraciano, chair of History, for sending along the information!
Incompletes. This grade may be issued if mutually agreed upon by the student and instructor. An “Incomplete” may be issued when most work for the course has been completed and at passing quality, but only a small portion of the course could not be completed due to a medical or other serious issue. Per the INC policy, the student would have until the end of the next registered and enrolled quarter to submit the missing work.
Some important caveats with this option: First, an INC will result in a permanent notation on the transcript. After the INC grade is replaced by the letter grade, both the updated and the INC grade are recorded on the transcript. Second, students are charged $5 when an INC grade is revised. Lastly, an INC grade binds the student to the course beyond the parameters of the instructional term, which means that if, for whatever reason, the student wanted to retroactively drop the course, they would not be allowed to do so; students cannot retroactively drop a course in which an INC grade was issued.
NR “No Report” grades. After the grading deadline, and until final grades are submitted, a student’s transcript shows an NR (No Report) grade for the class. When a final grade is submitted, it replaces the NR and there is no transcript notation. Approximately five to seven business days after the grading window closes, Gradebook will reopen for instructors, who may log into Gradebook and submit final grades retroactively.
Impact on students? Assigning either an INC or NR will not negatively impact a student’s GPA. If Fall 2022 is not the student’s graduating/filing term, then the grades should not pose an immediate negative effect on students with F-1 or J-1 visas, or federal financial aid recipients, because the enrollment verification cutoff for visa status and federal aid is determined at week 3 of each term (for policies governing maintenance of visa status, see Dashew’s site here for F1, here for J1). But if students are being supported by private or home country sponsored scholarships that require immediate reporting of quarterly grades, missing grades might impact their scholarship standing. More importantly, if Fall 2022 is a graduation/filing term for any student, international or domestic, the assignment of an INC or NR grade may prevent the awarding of the diploma/graduate degree. Lastly, graduate students begin to apply for summer and academic year fellowships as early as February. Some fellowships require graduate transcripts, so if Fall 2022 grades are not posted at the time of application, it may impact a student’s application.