Undergraduate courses grade A at 4.0 for 94 to 100 percent down through D- at 0.667 for 60 to 62.99, with U, a zero-point fail, at 59.99 and below, and a 2.0 cumulative floor for good standing. Graduate courses use the same A-through-C-minus values but delete the D range entirely: at or below 69.99 percent the grade posts as U, and the standing floor is a 3.0, which makes B the effective safe floor for every graduate student. Nursing practicum courses, N550, N552, and the N586 family, grade Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory outside the GPA, and W, WA, R, and P marks do not factor into it. Weekly deliverables in the D2L-powered Aspen Classroom feed every one of these numbers on an 8-week clock.
The two ladders, side by side
| Band | Undergraduate | Graduate |
|---|---|---|
| A range | A 4.0 at 94 to 100, minus steps below | Same values, same bands |
| B and C ranges | Full plus-minus ladder | Same values through C- |
| D range | Exists, down to D- 0.667 at 60 to 62.99 | Does not exist |
| Fail | U, zero points, at 59.99 and below | U, zero points, at 69.99 and below |
| Standing floor | 2.0 cumulative | 3.0 cumulative |
The no-D rule, and what it changes
At the graduate level a 68 percent course is not a bad grade, it is a failed course: zero grade points, the credits unearned, the course repurchased at $475 or more per credit and rerun on the calendar. Combine that with the 3.0 standing floor and even the surviving C-range grades carry debt a future A must repay. The strategic consequence is the one our whole graduate desk is calibrated to: the A range is not ambition at Aspen, it is margin, and every week that drifts toward the C line at midterm deserves intervention, not optimism. Send a gradebook screenshot any time and the recovery arithmetic comes back free.
S/U practicums, the parallel track
MSN practicum courses, N550, N552, and the N586 specialty family, grade Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory and sit outside the GPA, with hours logged through ProjectConcert. The GPA relief is real and the stakes are not lower: an Unsatisfactory repeats the practicum. Our practicum support is documentation-side only, objectives, logs, reflections, and the write-ups around your hours, while the hours themselves stay entirely yours, detail at the MSN desk. The catalog's lone pass-fail outlier, PAC799A, follows its own course rules; read them in week one.
The weekly gradebook on the 8-week clock
Aspen's terms run eight weeks with weekly due dates: written assignments and APA papers, discussion posts with peer responses, quizzes and exams inside the Classroom, and capstone or practicum components where programs schedule them. Eight weeks means every week is roughly an eighth of the course, no midterm recovery arc, no slack weeks, which rewards exactly one operating system: the term mapped on day one, heavy weeks pre-positioned, and the rhythm kept whatever your job does. Deliverable-level mechanics live at the assignment, discussion, and exam prep desks.
Playing both ladders well
- Know which ladder owns you; graduate students should treat 70 as the cliff edge it is
- Target the A range everywhere, floors make B-and-below expensive on both ladders
- Map all eight weeks in week one; short terms forgive no surprises
- Watch the withdrawal calendar, a clean W beats a U every time the math has already failed
- Practicum students: keep ProjectConcert current weekly, retroactive logging is misery
Keep the average where the cliff cannot see it
Send your course and gradebook screenshot. The ladder read and the plan come back free, same day.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official and independent sources, and anything that matters is worth checking against the originals:
- www.aspen.edu: Aspen University's official site, the primary source for program and policy facts
- aspen.smartcatalogiq.com: the official Aspen University catalog, where grading scales and course rules live
- www.deac.org: Distance Education Accrediting Commission, the institutional accreditor
- www.ccneaccreditation.org: Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the nursing accreditor
- apastyle.apa.org: APA Style, the official style authority behind the formatting rules