6. Residency Requirements At least 27 of 33 credit hours of a student’s graduate program must be completed in residence at Welch College. 7. Minimum GPA Students must have a minimum 2.5 GPA to continue in the graduate program and to be eligible for graduation. 8. Meeting Financial Obligations to the College Students with outstanding financial obligations will not be eligible to participate in Commencement exercises. The College strives to work with students who demonstrate good faith efforts in this area but arrangements to meet financial obligations must be made before participation in Commencement is approved. 9. Participation in Commencement Exercises and Issuance of Diplomas In some instances, graduates may not be required to participate in Commencement. Those who would like to be excused from participation in Commencement must provide appropriate evidence supporting a need to be excused and notify the Provost of this in writing at least three weeks before Commencement. The College reserves the right to exclude from Commencement exercises students who have holds on their accounts due to unresolved financial, Student Services matters, or other issues. Diplomas will not be issued to students who have remaining unresolved financial, Student Services, or other issues. 10. Length of Time Necessary to Complete Degree Programs The College does not guarantee completion of a degree program within a particular period. For the most part, graduate degrees can be completed in three years. Personal scheduling of the courses by the student may mean that the student will have to engage in regular academic studies for longer than three years. 11. Student Resources Welch Library The College's Welch Library provides all students with access to services and a total collection of over 100,000 volumes, including the library's general collection, print journals, numerous databases such as JSTOR, ATLA, and the Tennessee Electronic Library, e-books, the Free Will Baptist Historical Collection, curriculum lab, music collection, and other materials. For further information, see the library website at https://welchlibrary.wordpress.com/. The objectives of the Welch Library are: (1) to support the curriculum with information and services; (2) to provide resources for students’ independent learning; (3) to provide for some of the research and professional growth of the faculty; (4) to equip students for life-long learning.
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