Jan Term Policies & Requirements

• Graduation Requirements:
  • One 3.0 CU (Carnegie Unit) JAN 100 course
  • One 3.0 CU JAN 200-499 course

• Explained: 
  • In their first year, students enroll in a 100-level JAN course.
  • Between their second and fourth year, students enroll in another JAN course at the 200, 300, or 400 level.
  • Jan Term is included in the cost of tuition, and students are encouraged to take a JAN course each year they are at Saint Mary’s.
  • First-year students can travel domestically, but not internationally. If a first-year student travels domestically, the 400-level travel course will be applied as a substitute for the 100-level JAN course requirement.

• For January 2025: Take a 100-level course (3.0 CUs). This is required.

• Graduation Requirements:
  • One 3.0 CU (Carnegie Unit) JAN 100 course
  • One 3.0 CU JAN 200-499 course

• Explained: 
  • Students who completed a Jan Term course in JT24 have satisfied the 100-level requirement.
  • Between their second and fourth year, students enroll in another JAN course at the 200, 300, or 400 level.
  • Students who did not complete a Jan Term course in 2024 must complete both JAN requirements between their second through fourth year. 
  • Jan Term is included in the cost of tuition and students are encouraged to take a JAN class each year they are at Saint Mary’s.

• For January 2025: Take a 200, 300, or 400-level course during the second through fourth year. Taking a JAN class this year is optional, though encouraged.

• Graduation Requirements:
  • One 3.0 CU (Carnegie Unit) JAN 100 course
  • One 3.0 CU JAN 200-499 course

• Explained: 
  • Students who completed a Jan Term course in JT23 have satisfied the 100-level requirement.
  • Between their second and fourth year, students enroll in another JAN course at the 200, 300, or 400 level.
  • Jan Term is included in the cost of tuition and students are encouraged to take a JAN class each year they are at Saint Mary’s.

• For January 2025: Take a 200, 300, or 400-level course during the second through fourth year. Taking a JAN class this year is optional, though encouraged.

• Graduation Requirements: 
  • Three 3.0 CU (Carnegie Unit) courses offered in January.

• Explained: 
  • Seniors no longer have four January Term course requirements. 
  • Taking a course during January in the fourth year is optional, so long as three previous full-unit courses taken during January have been successfully completed. 
  • January Term classes no longer are dual-designated with other Core requirements. 
    • Senior-level students, though, may take a JAN course or a CORE course during January in order to fulfill the JAN graduation requirement. 
    • A limited number of CORE classes will be offered this January, one IPE and one GIP. Search GXP 2.0 under “January 2025” for “CORE” to see the course offerings or visit the January Term 2025 website. 
  • Jan Term is included in the cost of tuition and students are encouraged to take a JAN class each year they are at Saint Mary’s.

• For January 2025: Taking a course during January in the fourth year is optional, though encouraged, so long as three previous full-unit courses taken during January have been successfully completed. 

• Graduation Requirements: 
  • Requirements vary and are adjusted depending on the number of CUs transferred.

• Explained: 
  • 2 courses (JAN 100 and 200 or higher) for 4-year students
  • 2 courses (JAN 200 or higher) for transfer students
  • Sophomore and junior transfer students with 45+ units of academic coursework will have 1 JAN waived
  • Jan Term is included in the cost of tuition and students are encouraged to take a JAN class each year they are at Saint Mary’s.

• For January 2025: Check both your Academic Evaluation and with your academic advisor to make a plan for this year.

Class Attendance Policy for Students

Attendance is an important obligation and an essential condition for successful academic progress. Absences may seriously jeopardize the satisfactory completion of a course, especially during January Term’s intensive format where one class session is roughly the equivalent of a week’s worth of class sessions during a long semester. Accordingly, students are generally permitted just one absence without academic penalty. 

In order to successfully engage in a January Term course and achieve, or demonstrate achievement of, the course learning objectives, students must be present during at least 80% of class sessions. Absences that exceed this amount result in course failure. Students are encouraged to withdraw from a course and register during a subsequent year rather than earn a failing grade. Regardless of quantity, absences do not excuse students from their academic responsibilities.

Friday, Jan. 3 - Friday, Jan. 24 (14 total class days)

• Thursday, Jan. 2: Residential halls re-open
• Friday, Jan. 3: First day of classes (in-person format required)
• Wednesday, Jan. 15: No class
• Monday, Jan. 20: MLK Jr. Day (No class)
• Monday, Jan. 27 - Friday, Jan. 31: Post Jan Term Break

Students are expected to do at least two hours of outside-of-class work for every hour of class or at least five hours of work for every regularly scheduled day of class. Plan accordingly. Formal class instruction begins immediately on the first day of classes.

Note that classes may require off-campus field trips or attendance at events on campus outside of regularly scheduled class time. If you have questions about field trips or off-campus events, please contact the instructor directly. 

Pass/Fail (P/F) grading is offered as an option to undergraduate students in good academic standing. Courses taken to satisfy the requirements of the Core Curriculum, including January Term, may not be taken on a P/F basis. For January Term classes taken as electives, the P/F grading option is available, unless it is a travel course. Petitions for P/F grading, which require the instructor's permission, are available from the Registrar's Office and must be filed by the Withdrawal Deadline. 

Please note: Undergraduate students are limited to 12 units of elected P/F coursework while enrolled at SMC. A C- or higher on the regular grading scale is required for a passing grade

If you are able to register for a January Term course, you may have your name placed on a waitlist for one other course. If you are unable to register for a course, you may have your name placed on the waitlist for up to two courses. 

If you are wait-listed for a course, and a space becomes available in that class, you will receive an email notification from GaelXpress permitting you to register in the wait-listed course. You will have 48 hours, from the notification time, to register. If you do not have the prerequisites for the course, you must submit a Course Permission Form to the Registrar's Office. In this case, you will not be allowed to register for the class and instead need to contact the Registrar's Office to be enrolled. Failure to register during the allotted time frame will cause you to be bypassed on the wait list, and GaelXpress will notify the next student in line.

If you register in the course, check GaelXpress to view your schedule as confirmation. If you do not want to have your course registration changed when a space comes open, please do not put your name on a waitlist, or be sure to have your name removed from any waitlist you might be on.

Please contact the Registrar's Office at 925.631.4214 or at regoff@dos5.net with any questions about registration and waitlists.

Students may not fulfill JAN requirements through Independent Study. 

After a student completes their JAN requirements, they may propose a JAN Independent Study to be completed as an elective course. Proposals are restricted to students with a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher. In no case are students on disciplinary probation or students whose cumulative GPA is less than 2.5 eligible for Independent Study in January. 

Proposals

Independent study courses in January Term are intended to allow students to pursue a course of learning that is not available in normally scheduled courses or to learn by practical experience in addition to methods more commonly used in college courses. Such courses are generated by students out of their own interest in a particular intellectual question or area of study, and they allow students to work independently to pursue knowledge in the chosen area.

Faculty Sponsor

Qualified students work under the guidance of a faculty sponsor who advises the student in the preparation of the proposal, monitors the student's progress, and awards the grade and credit. Students are expected to have regular contact with their faculty sponsor, though the focus on the student's independent work and research means that they will meet less frequently than regularly scheduled courses. Independent study courses are not intended to allow students to take regularly scheduled classes at a different time or location, they are not granted for internships, and they are not tutorial courses in which one faculty member teaches a course to a student or a group of students. It is the student's responsibility to find an appropriate faculty sponsor.

Please Note: A sponsor must be an SMC faculty member. 

Academic Credit

Academic credit is granted for demonstrated academic learning. Since independent study courses earn college credit equal to normal January Term courses, they must have a clear academic focus and educational goal, and they must require the same quality and quantity of work as a regularly scheduled college course. A specific reading list that indicates academic preparation and preparatory work sufficient to make the successful completion of the project likely, as well as a clear means by which the faculty sponsor can evaluate the quality of the student's work, are required parts of a successful proposal. The proposal is the result of close consultation with the faculty sponsor.

Petition Submission

The Independent Study Petition is to be submitted online to the Registrar's Office by 11:59 PM on Sunday, October 27, 2024. Applicants should attach a proposed syllabus to this form as there is insufficient space to fully delineate the projects on the form itself. No late proposals will be reviewed. It is strongly recommended that you register in a regular January Term course in case your independent study proposal is not approved.

When submitting your petition, please keep in mind the following: The January Term Program Committee is very interested in why the project you have proposed should be completed during January. By contrast, why not just complete the independent study you have proposed during a typical semester (Fall or Spring)? Include an explicit answer to this question within the syllabus you upload or within the space for "Content" in the on-line petition.

Reviewing Proposals

The January Term Program Committee will review proposals, and students will normally be notified within two weeks of the deadline whether their proposal has been accepted, rejected, or returned for revision. If the proposed independent study involves travel for study off campus (domestic or international), the proposal will also be sent to the Travel Risk Assessment Committee for further review.

Independent Study Petitions may be found on the Registrar's Office webpage.