Stanford
Student Services

Terminal Graduate Registration (TGR) Status

Overview

Doctoral students

You may request Terminal Graduate Registration (TGR) status to complete your dissertation under the following conditions:

  • Admission to candidacy
  • Completion of all required courses and degree requirements other than the university oral exam and dissertation
  • Completion of 135 units or 10.5 quarters of residency (if under the old residency policy)
  • Submission of a Doctoral Dissertation Reading Committee form

Engineering students

If you are pursuing the Engineer degree, you may apply for TGR status after:

  • Admission to candidacy
  • Completion of all required courses
  • Completion of 90 units or six quarters of residency (if under the old residency policy)

Master’s students

If you’re enrolled in a master's program with a required project or thesis, you may apply for TGR status upon completion of all required courses and completion of 45 units.

If you have more than one active graduate degree program, you must complete residency units between all active/completed degree programs in order to apply for TGR status. Please see the Minimum Residency Requirements for Graduate Degrees page for additional information.

TGR Final Registration Status

Graduate students may be granted TGR Final Registration status for one quarter if you are:  

  • Working on incomplete or "N" grades in your final quarter
  • Registering for one final term after all requirements are complete when a Graduation Quarter is not available 
  • TGR requirements above apply with the exception of the residency requirement. Students may be working on "I" (incomplete) or "N" grades in order to reach residency requirements while on this status.
  • Students are not permitted to have any enrollment aside from their TGR course in the quarter they are applying for this status. 

Doctoral students under the term-based residency policy need nine quarters of residency to qualify for TGR Final Registration Status. 

For more information, see Special Registration Statuses for Graduate & Professional Students.

Eligibility

In order for a TGR status to be approved, you must meet all eligibility requirements by the Preliminary Study List deadline of the applicable term:

  • Meet the residency requirement for all graduate programs in Active and Completed status (see Minimum Residency Requirements for Graduate Degrees). Please note that any outstanding units (ex: GNR grades) preventing you from meeting your minimum residency requirement must be resolved prior to the deadline.
  • Enrolled in your designated department TGR course (801 for master's and Engineer students or 802 for doctoral students). This course must be taken for zero units, in the appropriate section for your advisor.

How to Apply

To apply for TGR status, fill out and submit the eForm by logging in to Axess and selecting Student eForms from the mega menu. The eForm is then routed to all appropriate offices for approval and processing. 

Deadline

You must submit the Terminal Graduate Registration (TGR) Request eForm by the Preliminary Study List deadline of the quarter the status is requested. 

If the eForm portal is closed for submission and you wish to petition retroactive TGR status, please submit a help request. 

Note: if you are requesting TGR but are not enrolled in the TGR course by the Final Study List deadline of that term, there will be additional forms to file in order to correct enrollment.

Approved TGR Status

Once TGR status is approved, you are registered at a special tuition rate (see Tuition and Fees for additional information regarding tuition rates). 

You are certified as enrolled full time if you are enrolled in a course numbered 801 or 802. To maintain TGR status, you must enroll in your designated TGR courses each term. This does not include Summer Quarter (even if you plan on taking a course over the Summer) unless your department requires year-round enrollment or you are on an approved research/teaching assistantship (please refer to GAP for more information regarding Summer enrollment). 

You may enroll in up to three units of coursework per quarter at the special tuition rate. The additional coursework cannot be applied toward degree requirements as all degree requirements must be complete in order to enter TGR status. Enrolling in more than three units of coursework results in assessing the per unit tuition rate for each additional unit.

See Minimum Progress Requirements for Graduate Students in the Stanford Bulletin for information about satisfactory progress requirements for TGR students.

Summer Term TGR

Full-time enrollment

If you are enrolled in a program which requires full-time academics and/or research during the summer, you must enroll in the appropriate 801/802 TGR course accordingly. You will be billed for the full TGR tuition rate in this scenario.

Part-time enrollment

In programs which do not require full-time academic engagement during the summer, you are allowed to enroll on a unit basis and to be billed for just those one to two units. For example, if you are required to participate in a summer program that is equivalent to about 30 hours, and are not expected to have any further engagement, then enrolling in one unit is appropriate. 

Similarly, if you have no academic requirements and simply wish to enroll in a course of interest, then unit-based enrollment is appropriate.

Please note: In order to temporarily suspend TGR for Summer (to allow billing for only 1-2 units), your departmental student services officer will need to submit the specialized help ticket. They can find more information on the staff intranet (staff sign-in required). 

Summer TGR Curricular Practical Training (CPT) 

When you engage in summer CPT as a TGR student, you must enroll in at least one unit in the designated CPT course. You should not enroll in TGR or pay TGR tuition. (Please visit the Bechtel website for more information on the CPT application process.)

Please note: In order to temporarily suspend TGR for Summer (to allow billing for only 1-2 units), your departmental student services officer will need to submit the specialized help ticket. They can find more information on the staff intranet (staff sign-in required). 

Requesting TGR Reinstatement

If you wish to reactivate your TGR status (after initial approval) due to any of the following circumstances, you may request to do so by having your department Student Services Officer (SSO) submit a help request.  

  • Going on an approved Grad Quarter status which results in failure to graduate
  • Applying to graduate while on TGR and later withdrawing that application

TGR Grades

In order to maintain registration privileges, you must receive an “N” grade (signifies satisfactory progress) each quarter.

An “N-” grade indicates unsatisfactory progress. The first “N-” grade constitutes a warning. A second consecutive “N-” denies you from further registration until a written plan for completion of degree requirements has been approved by your department. Subsequent “N-” grades are grounds for dismissal from the program.

For faculty and staff information on TGR, visit Inside Student Services.