True first-year students* can receive temporary midterm (week 6) grades, to help them track their academic progress, usually over their first two terms at UW–Madison.

These grades are not recorded on the official transcript, and in fact are only visible to students in Student Center for about ten days, ending on the last day on which they are allowed to drop a course.

Students who feel a midterm grade isn’t meeting their expectations are encouraged to work with their instructor, their advisor, and also the designated academic dean in their school or college. The goal is to help students explore the range of support on this campus, leading either to solutions that improve their studies or to a guided plan to drop the course before the last course-drop day.

[* “First year” generally means students for their first (and sometimes second) semester/term at any college or university. Transfer students are not considered to be first-year students, even if it’s their first semester at UW–Madison. Because first-time students can receive credits for study completed before enrolling at UW–Madison, a first-year student could have sophomore or junior standing in terms of the credits.]

For instructors

Grade rosters

Our office creates grade rosters for courses that have any enrolled first-year students. Instructors are notified by email at the end of week 5, alerting them to the first-year students enrolled in their courses.

Reporting midterm grades

Entry of midterm grades is not mandatory. You may not have had enough graded activity in your class to indicate a grade at this time, or you may have other ways of informing students of their grades. However, only midterm grades entered through Faculty Center will be reported to academic advisors and to special program advisors (such as the Center for Educational Opportunity, Center for Academic Excellence, etc.). Since these advisors can provide useful support to your students, please consider reporting midterm grades.

1. Begin by opening Faculty Center through MyUW (my.wisc.edu).
2. Find and click on a grade roster icon on a row for a course you currently teach. Grade rosters will only appear for courses that have enrolled first-year students.
3. As you work, click the SAVE button
4. Enter a letter grade for your students. Valid midterm grades are A, AB, B, BC, C, D, and F.
   • For courses graded on a credit/no-credit basis (noted at the top of the roster), CR and N are the valid grades.
   • If a student is listed on the grade roster but is not attending your class, you may input a grade of NW (no work).
5. If you know a first-year student is attending your course and is not on the grade roster, please notify the student of the midterm grade, and that their name did not appear on the grade list. That student should check Course Search & Enroll to verify enrollment in your course. If the student is not enrolled in the course or was enrolled in a different section, they will need to submit a course change request to your dean’s office.
6. Click the SAVE button.
7. Because midterm grades are temporary, you don’t need to use a “submit to Registrar” button. Just SAVE.

Midterm grades can be submitted over a two-week period, usually ending 12 days before the last day to drop a course. At the end of this grading period, we will send an email to first-year students with instructions on checking their grades in Student Center.

Midterm grades are intended to be advisory in nature and are not recorded on the official transcript. After grades have been reported to students and after the last day to drop a course, entered grades will be removed and midterm grade rosters will no longer be available in Faculty Center. This is true for midterm grading only.

Grading assistance is available during our regular business hours by calling 608-262-3811 or emailing registrar@em.wisc.edu.