Frequently Asked Questions

Enrollment and Degree Verification FAQs

No. Per federal regulations, financial aid loans come due six months after enrollment falls below half-time. Therefore, CIIS does not report student status (i.e. active, inactive, or LOA); we only report whether the student is enrolled (i.e. registered for courses) and the enrollment classification (i.e. less-than-half-time; half-time; full-time).
The Leave of Absence form, with all necessary signatures, must be submitted to the Registrar's Office by the semester's Drop Deadline.
CIIS contracts with the National Student Clearinghouse to perform our enrollment verification services. We transmit our students’ enrollment data to the Clearinghouse every month and they supply this information to its member lenders, servicers and guarantors. If yours is not a member, direct them to submit a request to verify your enrollment. They will be charged a small fee for this service.
 
You may see the enrollment information CIIS has transmitted to the Clearinghouse and print out an enrollment certification by clicking the Enrollment Verification/Loan Deferment link in the left-hand menu.
 
Please be aware that loans come due six months after enrollment falls below half-time, even for students on a Leave of Absence. See the Enrollment Status Classifications table for CIIS' definition of half-time.
Log into MyCIIS and view your unofficial transcript. At the end of the transcript, you'll see the words "Date Conferred". If a date appears there, you have graduated. Please be aware that access to the unofficial transcript closes for students three months after they stop attending.
CIIS has contracted with the National Student Clearinghouse for our degree verification services. Direct inquirers to the Clearinghouse. They will be charged a small fee for this service.

Grade FAQs

The deadline to dispute a grade is one semester after the one in which the course took place. (For spring courses, the deadline is the end of the following fall semester.) Discuss it with your instructor and if he or she consents to the change, submit a Grade Change Form  to the instructor. If the instructor does not consent, submit the form to the department/program chair in which the course was housed. If the instructor was the chair, submit the form to the Associate Provost, who will appoint a chair within the same school to adjudicate the dispute. 
Submit an Incomplete Grade Request Form to your instructor. The instructor cannot accept this form after the final day of the course. No instructor is under any obligation to agree to award an incomplete.
Deadlines are determined by the instructor, but cannot exceed the university's maximum of one semester, including Summer. Students experiencing a significant medical issue or a family emergency may extend this to two semesters, including Summer. The Institute reserves the right to request supporting documentation before granting this extension. 
Submit a Grade Change Form  to the instructor with your section filled out and attach the remaining coursework. The instructor cannot accept this form or the coursework after the established deadline. The instructors will then fill in the grade and submit the form to the Registrar’s Office. The Registrar’s Office cannot accept this form from a student. Grades are due ten business days after the Institute's maximum deadline. If the instructor does not submit the form by then, the incomplete converts to a permanent incomplete.

Graduation FAQs

Review the Graduation Guidebook . If after reading it you still have questions, contact registrar@ciis.edu or 415-575-6127 .
Yes, by viewing your unofficial transcript. If the degree has been conferred you will see the conferral date after the program name at the end of the transcript.
Consult the Graduation Guidebook for this information.
Consult the Graduation Guidebook for this information.
The Registrar's Office sends program certifications to students shorlty after they graduate. You do not need to submit a request. To inquire about the status of its issuance, contact the Associate Registrar. Please note, that when you submit your transcript request, request a hard copy transcript, not an electronic one, as the BBS does not accept electronic transcripts.

Payment and Refund FAQs

Tuition and fees are charged upon registration and are due at that time. Financial aid recipients whose aid covers only a portion of the total charges must pay the balance at the time of registration. Any balance that will be covered by aid should not be paid in advance. Students seeking exceptions to this deadline should contact the Financial Aid Office at least one week prior to registration.
Depending on the date of the withdrawal, some, all, or none of your semester's aid may need to be returned to the lender. There is a limit on the total number of courses from which you may withdraw and still be eligible for aid. Contact the Financial Aid Office to inquire about your individual situation.
100% of a course's tuition charge is reversed if it is dropped on or before the Add/Drop Deadline. 75% is reversed if withdrawn up through the third week of the semester; 50% if by the seventh week (fifth for Summer). There is no refund after this. Refer to the Academic Calendar for the specific deadlines. The registration fee is non-refundable, even if all courses are dropped or withdrawn.
The refund deadlines apply to all courses, regardless of their start and end dates.
Submit a Financial Petition form, and attach an explanation of the grounds for which you should be considered for an exception to the deadline. Anything which provides evidence of serious, extenuating circumstances beyond your control, or of your effort to follow the policy are helpful, such as correspondence, supporting statements, medical documentation, etc.
 Within 30 calendar days. The Financial Petition Committee usually meets weekly, so often their decision is communicated more quickly than this, but this can't be guaranteed. If it's been longer than 30 days, contact the committee's coordinator at 415-575-6126.

Personal Info. Update FAQs

You can submit changes online by logging into MyCIIS and clicking “Account Information” in the upper right. Any place you see a pencil icon is a modifiable field. There are some fields that cannot be changed online, such as legal name, gender, citizenship, and date of birth. For these, submit a hard copy  Personal Information Update Form along with accompanying documentation.

Registration FAQs

After the Add/Drop Deadline, students may no longer drop their courses, but it is possible, if they have the instructor's consent, to withdraw from them. A withdrawal records a "W" on the transcript. This is not an unsatisfactory grade, and so doesn't not impair academic standing. Withdrawals cannot be conducted online. Instead, submit the registration form with the instructor's signature. In lieu of a signature, you may attach to the form a print-out of an e-mail from the instructor - do not have the instructor e-mail the Registrar's Office directly. (Note: the instructor's permission is required even if the course has yet to begin.) The Registrar's Office will not process a withdrawal request submitted after the last day of the course.

Withdrawing results in either a partial or no refund of the course’s tuition depending on the date of the withdrawal. See the academic calendar for these deadlines.

As for adding courses, it is expected that all students complete their registration activity by the add/drop deadline (including for any courses that begin after this deadline). If serious extenuating circumstances occur, they may register after the deadline if they obtain the written approval of the instructor and their department/program chair. (These approvals do not guarantee that financial aid will be issued for the course’s tuition.) Students must submit to the Registrar’s Office a registration form with the instructor and student’s department/program chair’s signature and an attached explanation as to why an exception to the add deadline is warranted, the circumstances which caused the deadline to be missed, and the necessary steps that will be taken to avoid a similar occurrence in the future, and, if appropriate, supporting documentation such as a letter from a physician.

All students must register every Fall and Spring semester and, for some programs, Summer as well. Those who do not fall inactive. See the Maintaining Active Student Status and the Leave of Absence policies. 
The Registrar's Office cannot guide your course selection. Please contact your program. 
Under the MyCIIS “Registrar” tab, click the Search and Register for Courses  link in the left-hand menu. There you’ll be able to download a Class Schedule Overview. You can also see the electronic version of the schedule, which will include course descriptions.
You can register online by logging into MyCIIS and going to the Registration Search and Register for Courses  page. Click here to see an instructional video (may take time to load). Alternatively, you can submit a hard copy Registration Form.
If it's before the Add/Drop Deadline, you may drop a course; if it's after, you may not, but you may withdraw from it if you have the instructor's permission. A withdrawal records a "W" on the transcript. This is not an unsatisfactory grade, and will not put you on academic probation. Drops can be conducted online or by hard copy by using the Registration Form. Withdrawals cannot be be conducted online. Instead, submit the Registration Form with the instructor's signature. In lieu of a signature, you may attach to the Registration Form a print-out of an e-mail from the instructor - do not have the instructor e-mail the Registrar's Office directly. The instructor's permission is required even if the course has yet to begin. The Registrar's Office will not process a withdrawal request submitted after the last day of the course.
- Do you have a hold? See “Holds” descriptions in the question below.
- Is there a prerequisite for the class? Check course's information in the class schedule or catalog.
- Double-check the term, the course code, and the course section number.
- Is it now after the semester's Add/Drop Deadline ? If so, you will need permission from the course's instructor and your dept./program chair. Submit a hard copy registration form with their signatures and a written appeal for an exception to the policy that registrations must be conducted by this deadline. Further information can be found on the back of the registration form.
- Were you in a different program in the previous semester? For administrative reasons you will need to register via hard copy. Submit the registration form. Next semester you will be able to register online. 
See the Registration and Grading Policies webpage for an overview of the holds that we apply. You can use this to determine which office to contact if you have a question about the hold.
It is not possible to register online for a course which has a schedule conflict with another course you’re taking. You can register for one of the courses online, but the other will require the submission of a hard copy registration form with the instructor’s signature. In lieu of a signature, you may attach an e-mail from the instructor to the registration form. Do not ask the instructor to e-mail the Registrar’s Office. 
You are waitlisted in the order of enrollment. If a seat becomes available be added to the course and notified by the Registrar’s Office. If one does not become available by the Add/Drop Deadline, you will not be added, as waitlists are purged after that date.
You may attend the first class meeting if you have the instructor’s permission. If there are registrants who did not attend, the instructor may give their seats to the waitlisted students in the order they appear on the waitlist. Bring a registration form . If the instructor permits you to add, have them sign the form. Bring this to the Registrar’s Office. It will be processed only if 1) the Registrar’s Office confirms the waitlist order and 2) the capacity of the class is not exceeded.
It is not possible to register online as an auditor, as auditing requires the instructor’s written approval. Either obtain the instructor’s signature on the Registration Form (or the Special Student Application) or attach an e-mail from the instructor to the form. Do not ask the instructor to e-mail the Registrar’s Office.
- Before the Add/Drop deadline, drop the course and re-register for it, following the above guidelines. If the course has a waitlist, you will be placed at the end of it, so be sure to inquire whether a course has a waitlistbefore you drop it.
 
-   After the Add/Drop deadline, withdraw from the course and re-register for it, following the guidelines above. After the Add/Drop Deadline, withdrawing and re-registering must be done via the hard copy Registration Form and requires the instructor’s written consent. Withdrawing will result in partial or no reversal of the course's tuition charge. Your transcript will also document a “W” for the withdrawn course. 
Yes. This is called Special Student registration. It requires the approval of the chair of the department/program in which the course is housed. Download the Special Student Application. If you are auditing, you will also need to obtain the instructor’s signature. In lieu of a signature, you may attach an e-mail to the application . Contact the academic program to find out how to reach the chair or instructor.
No.
Up to one-sixth of a degree program’s units may be satisfied through coursework taken as a Special Student.
 
Submit a registration form signed by your department/program chair.
CIIS recommends to instructors that they post their syllabi to the Canvas course space six weeks before the course beings, and requires they post it at least one week before. This space is only available to the registrants of the course. Some programs post syllabi to their MyCIIS program page, which can be found under the Academics tab.

Transcript FAQs

We have unofficial and official transcripts, and both have identical information on them. We issue official transcripts in hard copy or electronically. Hard copy official transcripts are printed on transcript paper and come in a sealed envelope. Unofficial transcripts are available to current students only, and are not issued in hard copy as they may be printed from the View Grades and Transcript screen of MyCIIS (requires logging in).
To order an official transcript, submit a request online . To see your unofficial transcript, log into MyCIIS and click the View Grades and Transcript link.
Electronic transcripts are $5 each and requests are processed within two business days. Hard copy transcripts are $10 each and requests are processed within ten business days. If ten hard copy transcripts are ordered at the same time for the same destination, the fee drops to $3.50 each. There is a rush service for hard copy transcripts in which the order is processed within two business days. The bulk rate is not available for rush requests. Rush transcripts are mailed via first class mail, not overnight delivery. Rush service is not available the week before and after a semester begins. Check the academic calendar for these dates.
 
Privacy law prevents us from delivering transcripts this way. You can order an electronic transcript, which is downloaded from a secure website via a password that is e-mailed separately. This can take up to two business days.

 

 
We do not issue official transcripts to students who have outstanding financial obligations to CIIS. Such students will have a Business Office hold. Additionally, we do not issue official transcripts to graduating students who have not completed the financial aid exit interview, have unreturned Library materials, have unmet practicum responsibilities, or have not completed the Institute's graduation survey. Students with holds may view and print their unofficial transcripts by logging into MyCIIS and going to the View Grades and Transcript link.    

Transfer Degree or Credit FAQs

If you are an undergraduate student, CIIS will have applied all eligible credit from other schools toward your degree requirements. If you are a graduate student, you will need to request CIIS to do this. Submit a Transfer Credit Request Form . Be sure CIIS has the most recent transcript.
 
 
Submit a Transfer Credit Request Form indicating the specific courses at which school you’d like considered to be applied toward your degree requirements.
 
Contact the Admissions Office so they can advise you on how to start the process. Be aware that there is a fee to apply to change programs and it is not refunded if the new program does not admit you. Before submitting the form, it’s best to check with the program to ensure they are accepting new students.