Academic Calendar and Credit Hours
Nazarene Bible College employs the trimester calendar format to schedule its course offerings. The college uses the semester credit hour as its unit for awarding and recording academic credit.
The school's Fall, Winter, and Spring trimesters consist of two six-week sessions, with a one week break between sessions, and a two-week break during the Christmas holidays. There is also a one week break between each trimester. The college's Summer term is ten weeks in length, and consists of two six-week sessions with overlapping end/start dates.
NBC's semester credit hour is based on the U.S. Department of Education's determination that one hour of college credit requires, on average, 37.5 hours of engaged learning for every credit earned. As an example, a three-credit hour course will require a student to invest, on average, 112.5 hours per course.
Course Load
A student is considered full time when enrolled for eight or more semester hours per trimester. Students should determine the number of hours they take per trimester based on their desired graduation date and the personal resources required to perform well academically. A student desiring to take more than 13 hours must have at least a 3.5 grade point average for two consecutive trimesters and obtain the approval of the academic provost.
Students may take two courses per online session if they have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00. Students may not take more than two courses per online session. An exception is allowed when one of the courses in which students are enrolled in a course whose requirements are fulfilled over two or more sessions. Examples include: REQ4000 Graduating Colloquium; PAS4081 and PAS4091 Senior Ministry Integration; MPP1232 Supervised Ministry Experience. Students should contact their advisors for additional details.
AdVantage students must submit a request to their advisor for permission to take more than one course a session. To be considered for approval, the student must not have a full-time job and must have at least a 3.3 cumulative grade point average in the AdVantage program.