Middlebury Handbook

Graduate students in the Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish Schools register for courses in BannerWeb and receive an email with instructions on registration procedures. All other Language Schools and programs hold course registration on site after arrival. Once students have selected courses with their advisors, registration information is sent directly to the Registrar’s Office. Students’ courses will be listed on BannerWeb on the first day of class. If an error in scheduling occurs, students need to check with the Assistant Director of their Language School.

ADD/DROP Procedures

Add/Drop procedures are handled by each School office. Students must obtain the approvals of the instructors involved in the added and dropped courses, as well as approval of the director or associate director of the School. Students cannot add new courses after the Add/Drop deadline. Courses dropped before the Add/Drop deadline do not appear on transcripts. Courses dropped after the posted deadlines, but on or before July 17 will receive a grade of WD (withdraw) on the transcript. Courses dropped after July 17 receive a grade of WDF (withdraw failing) on the transcript. Notifying an instructor of non-attendance does not constitute official withdrawal from a course.

Add/Drop Deadlines:

Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian 8-week sessions: July 2

English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish 7-week sessions: July 8

Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish 6-week sessions: July 10

Arabic, English and Italian 6-week sessions: July 12

Buenos Aires 6-week session: July 2

All 2, 3 and 4-week sessions: end of the third day of class

* Last date to drop without grade penalty for all programs is July 17

Credits and Credit Load

All credit awarded by the Language Schools is defined in terms of units. 

One unit equals three semester hours of credit. Students enrolled in the eight-week session of the Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian Schools normally earn four units of credit. Students enrolled in the seven-week session of the English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish Schools normally earn three units of credit. Students enrolled in the six-week graduate programs of the Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish Schools normally earn three units of credit. 

Graduate students are not permitted to repeat a course for which they have received a passing grade and earned credit. For all other policies on retaking a graduate course for which a student received a failing grade, see section B.6.

For immersion students who have successfully completed a course in a prior summer, repeating that course is allowed only with permission of the director of the school. This permission to repeat that course only will be granted in exceptional cases. To request permission to repeat a course, non-graduate students must submit a request in writing. The request must include justification as to why permission to repeat courses should be considered. If approval to repeat a course (or courses) is granted, only the first grade is calculated into the grade point average, and the course is only counted once for credit, although both grades appear on the transcript.

For transfer purposes, the student’s home institution determines how many credits, graduate or undergraduate, are granted. Students should consult their home campus advisors.

All summer students must pay the full tuition even if they carry less than the full load of courses, as defined for that Language School. Students may only enroll in a single course if that is part of an approved single-course pathway in that particular Language School.

During the academic year, in certain circumstances with approval of the Director, students can pay a single course fee for an online portion of a graduate program.

A degree must be earned within a 10-year period. All units of credit expire after 10 years, whether earned at Middlebury College or transferred from another institution. Thus, credit earned at the 2026 session will expire after the end of the 2036 session. The validity of a degree, which certifies a level of achievement, does not expire.

Auditing

In general, students may not audit intensive language program courses. However, with the permission of the director of the School and the instructor, and if space permits, regularly enrolled full-time students may audit additional courses at the graduate level in the same School without charge. In rare cases, regularly enrolled students may change their status to that of auditor with the permission of the director of the School, but not after the third week of the session. Students granted special permission to change their registration status from full-time registered to auditor will no longer be eligible for any grants or Federal loans. Auditors may not change their status to that of regularly enrolled students without permission of the director of the School, and not after the first week of the session.

Occasionally, auditing privileges are granted to individuals not enrolled in one of the Language Schools, with the permission of the director of the School. Final decisions on the acceptance of auditors are not made until after the completion of formal registration of full-time students. On-campus housing cannot be guaranteed to auditors. Auditors are subject to the Language Pledge and they may take advantage of the co-curricular cultural program of the School, but they may not take an active part in classroom activities or expect out-of-class attention from faculty.

Audited courses are not recorded on the Middlebury transcript.

Auditors should check with Language Schools offices about the availability of on-campus housing. After receiving permission from the director of the School to audit, auditors should see the Language Schools budget coordinator for the costs associated with auditing and payment of fees.