Academics

Academic Load

The number of credit hours attempted determines a student’s classification as either full-time or part-time. Any student receiving financial aid should contact the Enrollment Service / Financial Aid Office to verify the definition of “full time” according to LDCC Financial Aid guidelines.

Academic Standing

Academic Standing is determined by the student’s institutional academic record. There are two categories of academic status: Academic Probation and Good Standing. Louisiana Delta Community College (LDCC) will inform students of any changes in their academic status at the end of a completed semester or term. Students have the responsibility to know and understand the ramifications of their academic standing prior to the beginning of the next enrollment period. Academic Status is applicable to credit earned at LDCC. Only institutional hours are used when determining academic status.

Good Standing

Students must earn and maintain a 2.00 Adjusted Cumulative grade point average in order to be considered in good standing.

Academic Probation

Students will be placed on Academic Probation whenever their adjusted cumulative grade point averages falls below a 2.00 and grade point average hours are 15 or more.

Once an adjusted cumulative grade point average of 2.00 or higher is achieved, a student will be removed from Academic Probation and the record will reflect Good Standing status.

Academic Status for Visiting Students

LDCC does not implement academic status for visiting students since academic standing should be enforced at the student’s home institution.

Academic Seminar Exemption

A transfer student can be considered for exemption from Academic Seminar if one or more of the following criteria are met. If the student:

• Possesses an earned degree from another college or university
• Has transferred 30 or more credit hours of college-level work and has a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher
• Has successfully completed an equivalent course from another college or university

Gateway English and Math Co-requisite Support and Exemption Criteria

Louisiana Delta Community College is committed to students’ success in the foundational gateway areas of English Composition and core Mathematics. LDCC is an open-admission institute of higher education and does not employ traditional developmental or remedial course(s) as pre-requisites to students’ enrollment in gateway English and Math courses. Instead, all students may enroll in the English and Math gateway courses specific to the declared program of study. Students enrolled in these gateway courses are concurrently enrolled in a subject-specific support course unless they meet the criteria for exemption.

Students pursuing the gateway ENGL 101 - English Composition I   are exempt from concurrent enrollment in ENGL 100 - College Writing Success  if the following proficiency standards are satisfied: ACT English subscore 18 and greater; SAT English subscore 500 and greater; Accuplacer Next-Generation (NG) Writing score 250 and greater.

Students pursuing the gateway core Mathematics course specific to the declared program of study are exempt from concurrent enrollment in MATH 100 - College Algebra Success  if the following proficiency standards are satisfied: ACT Math subscore 19 and greater; SAT Math subscore 510 and greater; Accuplacer Next-Generation (NG) Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra, and Statistics (QRAS) score 250 and greater.

Intellectual Property

Louisiana Delta Community College follows LCTCS Policy 1.042 and LDCC Policy AA_114. The policies provide protections and incentives to encourage the development of new knowledge and its transfer for the public benefit. LDCC is committed to assist faculty and other researchers in properly disclosing their scholarly work, in complying with applicable laws and formal agreements, and in gaining the protections available under the United States laws governing patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other appropriate provisions.

Requesting Official Transcripts

All current and previous students of Delta or NELTC can request their official college or GED/HiSET transcript through the College website, https://www.ladelta.edu/academics/student-resources/request-a-transcript

Contact the campus you attended if you have any questions.

Academic Renewal

Louisiana Delta Community College students not enrolled in college-level coursework for two consecutive years and can demonstrate that the conditions that led to past academic deficiencies have changed may apply for academic renewal. Academic renewal can only be awarded once in an academic lifetime and cannot be declared for any period that was previously used for an awarded credential.

Procedure and Conditions

The following guidelines are in place and must be followed if academic renewal is declared, documented, and accepted by the Registrar:

1. The student must be admitted to the College and submit official transcripts from the selected college(s) from which the student desires to use credits for placement, completion of degree requirements, or as directed by specific programs (i.e. Nursing). Official transcripts from LDCC for prior enrollment are not required.
2. During the first semester of enrollment, the student will submit the request for academic renewal and a letter of assurance detailing a reasonable expectation of future satisfactory performance to the appropriate academic supervisor for review and signature, if approved.
   1. If academic renewal is not declared during the first term of enrollment, then the student can retroactively request academic renewal to be effective during the first term of attendance. Enrollment without breaks in attendance and a maintained minimum 2.0 term GPA for every semester up to the date of the request is required. If academic renewal is declared using this process, only those courses prior to the two-year lapse of enrollment will be considered for renewal.
3. If the student is deemed eligible for academic renewal during a current semester, the signed request must be returned to Enrollment/Student Services for review by the Registrar. After the end-of-term GPA is confirmed by the Registrar, one of two actions will occur:
   1. If the first term of enrollment after appeal for academic renewal is successful with a semester GPA of no less than 2.0, the academic renewal is implemented on the academic transcript. Only credits with grades of A, B, C, S, and CR will remain as earned credits used to satisfy requirements for awards and will be used in the cumulative GPA and to determine academic honors awarded at graduation.
   2. If the semester average is less than 2.0, academic renewal will not be implemented on the student’s academic transcript and the approval for academic renewal will be null and void.
4. All grades considered not passing will be flagged for academic renewal in the student information system. These credits will be excluded from earned GPA hours and will not be used to meet graduation requirements.
5. Credits flagged for academic renewal will remain on the student’s transcript as attempted hours and will be used to determine eligibility for financial aid. A student who receives academic renewal does not guarantee eligibility for financial aid at LDCC.
6. LDCC will recognize academic renewal granted by other Louisiana Community and Technical Colleges System (LCTCS) institutions with an appeal of acceptance.
7. LDCC may recognize academic renewal from institutions outside of LCTCS. The student must submit a request for application to his/her LDCC academic record.
8. A non-LCTCS institution may choose to accept or deny the transfer of academic renewal granted by LDCC. Students are encouraged to investigate their transferring institution’s academic renewal policy, if necessary.
9. Applying for academic renewal does not ensure approval.

Students are cautioned that many undergraduate institutions and graduate professional schools compute the undergraduate grade point average on all hours attempted when considering applications for admission. The signed, submitted application for academic renewal verifies student acceptance of the terms and comprehension of the ramifications of academic renewal.

LDCC’s Office of Financial Aid does not recognize academic renewal for federal financial aid purposes. All hours attempted will be used to determine satisfactory academic progress for federal Title IV financial aid.

Scholastic Honors

Chancellor’s List:

At the end of each regular semester, the Chancellor’s List is published recognizing those full-time students enrolled in at least 12 semester hours who earn a semester GPA of 3.75 or higher.

Honor’s List:

At the end of each regular semester, the Honor’s List is published recognizing those full-time students enrolled in at least 12 semester hours who earn a semester GPA of 3.50 to 3.74.

Graduation

Louisiana Delta Community College awards students every official term (summer, fall, and spring). Students will earn their award in the term that all program requirements have been completed. LDCC holds a commencement ceremony at the end of the fall and spring term. Participating in commencement exercises is not mandatory but encouraged for all graduates.

To verify that they have satisfied all graduation requirements, the College highly encourages all students to meet with an advisor on a regular basis to ensure that progress is being made toward the completion of their program. However, it is the responsibility of the student to make sure he/she is meeting all certification requirements based on the College Catalog curriculum. Additionally, students are encouraged to use DegreeWorks, LDCC’s degree auditing system. It is accessible through their LoLA dashboard.

Potential graduates are deemed eligible for graduation by the Office of the Registrar. It is the graduating student’s responsibility to verify, prior to graduation, that no outstanding debt to the College exists. Students with outstanding debt will not be able to receive their diploma until their debt has been cleared.

All candidates exiting the program they are enrolled in must meet the following requirements:

• Complete all curriculum requirements by the program catalog term described in the College Catalog. If students change their program of study or major, or if they do not enroll at LDCC for a fall or spring semester, they must use the catalog in effect at the time of the change of program of study or the return to LDCC.
• Complete a minimum of 25 percent of the semester hours required for the program through instruction at LDCC.
• Complete the required coursework for the program with a grade of a “C” or higher.
• Be enrolled and in attendance at LDCC during the semester of graduation.
• Fulfill no more than 75 percent of program requirements using Prior Learning Credit.

Concurrent Degrees or Diplomas

Students can receive two credentials, a degree or technical diploma, awarded at the same time. The dual degree or technical diploma cannot share the same Board of Regents-approved Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP Code).

To earn concurrent credentials, students must meet the graduation requirements for each credential. If the two credentials are associate degrees, students must earn at least 15 additional semester hours to earn a second associate degree in a second major. If the two credentials are technical diplomas, students must earn at least 9 additional semester hours. For degree programs where several concentrations exist, a different concentration is not considered a second degree and therefore cannot be used to earn a degree twice.

Note that students completing the requirements for an associate degree in which a technical diploma and/or certificate credentials are embedded, or a technical diploma in which certificate credentials are embedded, will be awarded each certificate, technical diploma and/or associate degree in the term that program requirements are met.

Graduation with Honors

Louisiana Delta Community College encourages students to achieve at their highest ability to attain their educational and career goals. All courses used to fulfill graduation requirements, including courses from other accredited institutions, will be used to calculate the grade point average for honors designations. Students who have earned an associate degree or a technical diploma and maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 or above will receive honors recognition in the commencement program as noted below:

Technical graduate

Academic graduate

LDCC also recognizes students earning a grade point average of 3.0 - 3.49.

Academic Advising

Academic advising is an important activity for all students, whether they are seeking a degree or visiting from another institution. It is the time for the student to discuss with an advisor their academic, career, and life goals. Degree-seeking students are assigned an advisor who will review the student’s academic record, assist in designing a plan of study, and assist with the registration process. Students should communicate regularly with their advisor throughout their enrollment at LDCC. Faculty members are available for academic advising during their posted office hours, and many are available for virtual consultation throughout the year by appointment. Advising during the summer months is accomplished via virtual consultation and on-campus appointments managed by the LDCC Summer Advising Center. The goal of academic advising is to help students with enrollment and curriculum progression so that they can navigate degree requirements and earn their award.