Extension Policies

An instructor is not required to approve a request for a first or second 30-day extension, so you shouldn’t count on always being able to get an extension. For the longer special extensions, the approval will be based on the documentation provided, the length of time the actual circumstance covered, and your previous work in the course. 

• Your instructor has 72 hours to make a decision regarding an extension request.
• If your instructor fails to respond to your correctly submitted request within 72 hours, please check the information within your ecampus, or contact [email protected] for assistance.
• Courses may be extended in two 30-day intervals for a maximum of 60 days.
• Extensions are always granted based on the original course end date, so the longest extension would be 60 days from the original course end date and not from the date your extension was approved.
• The deadline for submitting all work for an extension is 11:59:59 pm Eastern Time on the extension end date posted, so if the date is 02/24/2009, you have until 11:59:59 pm Eastern Time of the 24th to complete all course requirements.
• Regardless of when a student on extension finishes their course work, the instructor has until 8 days after the approved extension ends to submit a final grade. An instructor may post a final grade PRIOR to the official extension end date if all work has been submitted.
• If you don’t complete the course requirements by the end of your extension, you will receive a grade for the course based on the work you completed, including a failing grade if appropriate, based on the grade and percentage of coursework you submitted in relation to the overall requirements of the course.

Are You Eligible for an Extension?

• You must have successfully completed at least 50% of the coursework assigned at the time of your extension request.
• You must currently have an overall passing grade in the course; this calculation is only on work which has received a grade. Assignments that have not been submitted are not factored into your overall grade at the time of your request.
• You must articulate a reason for the request and provide a detailed course completion plan on the designated form.
• Meeting the above requirements demonstrates only that you are eligible to request a course extension and no approvals are guaranteed. Your instructor may decline the extension at their discretion and provide feedback regarding their decision.
• You can only request a second extension if you have completed a substantive amount of course work on any previously approved extensions as determined by your instructor.

If you do not meet the eligibility requirements above, but have an extreme circumstance such as deployment during the course to an area without internet access, serious medical issue, or other similar situation, you should read the section on Extensions for Military Deployment and Other Special Circumstances.

Deciding if a Course Extension is Right for You

If circumstances prevent you from completing all required coursework before the end of the course, you should consider all options before deciding to request an extension in a course.

Although extending a course is preferable to withdrawing, there are consequences associated with an extension.

Registration

If you have 2 or more courses on extension, you will be blocked from further registration until your open extensions are reduced to one. Also, if you are requesting an excessive number of extensions in your program, or have had to make use of a special circumstance or post course extension due to overextending yourself with other commitments, you may be restricted to part-time registrations.

Graduation

Extending a course may impact your planned graduation date — all courses, including course extensions, must officially end prior to your planned degree conferral date. Once you are assigned a conferral schedule based on your requested course extension, we are not able to move you back to an earlier conferral.

Future Registrations

If you have two or more concurrent extensions approved, and have future registrations that will begin prior to the end of your extensions, you may be dropped from these future courses if the basis of your extension request was due to being overextended in the demands on your time.

Financial Aid

If extending your course overlaps an academic semester, and/or blocks you from further registration, this could have an impact on your financial aid. Also, once a course enters the extension period, it NO LONGER counts as a current enrollment, so this would impact your enrollment status for both financial aid awards and for loan deferments.

Air Force Students

It will be your responsibility to submit your final grade report to your ESO for your course so any failing or Incomplete grade previously posted is updated in the AI Portal. Also, the Air Force will no longer cancel TA recoupment even if a final grade for an extended course is eventually posted. They now require any grade change to be submitted to them before 30 days from the original course end, so the Air Force will require recoupment for your extended course even if you do successfully finish it by the end of a 30-day extension if a previous final grade had been posted prior to your extension being approved. If you request and are approved for an extension that is longer than the Air Force allows from the original course end date, your TA for the course will be recouped by the Air Force regardless of your final grade.

Withdrawing

If you extend a course, you may no longer have the option to withdraw online from that course once your extension has actually started. However, if you have a new circumstance that will prevent you from being able to complete your extension, you may appeal for a special circumstance withdrawal using the official Academic Appeal Request form in your campus under the University Forms menu.

Final Grades

APUS does not allow Incomplete grades to remain on record permanently; so, any extensions that are still not completed by 30 days after the course end date will revert to a failed grade.

How to Request an Extension

• You must submit extension requests using the online form which can be found in your ecampus under the Academic Plan & Forms menu, under the All Forms link. If you don’t currently have access to the Internet and need to request an extension, please contact [email protected] or call the university’s toll-free number and ask for help submitting the online form.
• You’ll need to submit a separate form for each course.
• You must submit a detailed work plan with your extension request showing exactly which date you will be submitting each outstanding forum, quiz, assignment, paper or test.
• You must request an extension BEFORE the course or your current extension ends.
• You can’t request a course extension until the start of the second week of the course.
• Decisions are emailed to your email address on record, so you must remember to verify on the extension form that your email address is current before you submit the form.
• If you haven’t heard back from your instructor after 72 hours, check the information regarding your course in your ecampus, as extension dates will show up there, or contact [email protected] to check on the status of the request for you.