UCF College of Nursing — Dismissal & Petitions

Written by Zachary Gaynor, attorney · The Florida Bar, admitted 2016 · court admissions. Reviewed 26 September 2026.

Who decides whether a UCF nursing student continues?

At UCF’s College of Nursing, one course failure puts your future in the hands of the Program Director, and if the director does not support you, the Undergraduate Admission, Progression, and Graduation (UAPG) Committee decides on petition. A second failure or withdrawal, at any point in the program, is dismissal. And the deadline in the middle of that process is the tightest one on any Florida nursing page I have written: the petition is due no later than the first business day after grades post.

The progression rules

The UCF College of Nursing Undergraduate Student Handbook (2026–2027 edition) requires pre-licensure students to hold a 2.5 overall GPA and a 2.5 nursing-major GPA, earn at least a “C” or “S” in every nursing course, stay continuously enrolled, and finish all program coursework within four years of admission. A “C–” counts as a course failure — students discover that one the hard way — and so do a “D,” “F,” or “U.” A GPA that becomes mathematically impossible to cure means dismissal at the end of the current semester.

First failure or withdrawal: you need the Program Director’s approval to continue. That approval is earned with paper — a reflective essay identifying what went wrong and how each factor has been addressed, plus a listing of any prior counseling incidents. Continuation is barred outright while a conduct matter is pending, after repeated documented counseling, or after a clinical site has pulled your privileges.

If the director does not support you: the Undergraduate Petition to the UAPG Committee is the remaining route — and it must be filed no later than the first business day after the failed grade posts or the withdrawal happens. Filing late does not just delay things; the handbook treats a missed filing as an expression of no desire to continue, which becomes a formal dismissal. This is the trap: students spend a week composing themselves after a failed course, and by then the door has closed.

Second failure or withdrawal, ever: dismissal, notified by email, with academic appeal procedures running through UCF’s Golden Rule Student Handbook — the university level, not the college. And a student dismissed from any UCF pre-licensure BSN track is ineligible for every other UCF pre-licensure track: Traditional, Accelerated, and Concurrent are one strike zone.

Why the clock is the whole case

Every lever in this process is front-loaded. The reflective essay and the continuation request go to the Program Director as early as possible — the handbook itself says to start well before the semester ends if a failure is coming. The petition has a one-business-day fuse. The unsafe-practice rule pulls a student out of all remaining clinical rotations for the semester the moment a clinical course is failed on safety grounds. If you see a failing grade coming, the time to get advice is before grades post, not after — that is the difference between a petition filed with a complete record and one thrown together overnight.

UCF is a public university, which matters twice: constitutional due-process protections sit on top of the college’s own published rules, and the university’s own Golden Rule procedures govern the academic appeal after a dismissal. The college must follow its handbook, and the record of whether it did — dates, notifications, the petition file — is what the appeal is built from.

Where the governing documents are

The UCF College of Nursing Undergraduate Student Handbook (the Program Progression sections carry the rules summarized above, per the 2026–2027 edition), the Undergraduate Petition form it references, and UCF’s Golden Rule Student Handbook for university-level appeals. The edition for your enrollment year governs — verify deadlines against the current one.

The federal money on the line at UCF

University of Central Florida students and families took on $139.6 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — 7,847 undergraduates carried subsidized loans worth $33 million, and graduate students borrowed $51 million unsubsidized.

Every dollar of it rides on academic standing. A dismissal, a failed Satisfactory Academic Progress evaluation, or a mid-term withdrawal sets off federal rules that decide whether aid continues, whether money already disbursed has to go back, and — under the borrowing caps in effect since July 1, 2026 — whether a student who leaves can still finance a return. For health-professional students the timing rules bite hardest: remediation terms, leaves, and repeated courses all feed the federal pace-of-completion math. The academic fight and the financial aid fight are the same fight, and the windows are short. How those rules work: SAP appeals and academic dismissal.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Data Center, Direct Loan volume by school, award year 2025–26 (cumulative through June 30, 2026). University-wide federal Direct Loan totals.

Other Florida nursing programs

These pages set out the procedure at related programs: USF College of Nursing, FSU College of Nursing, UF College of Nursing, and all Florida nursing programs. The general framework is at nursing school dismissal.

Common questions

I got a C– in one nursing course. Am I in trouble?

Yes — at UCF a C– is a course failure, and it triggers the continuation process: Program Director support, the reflective essay, and, if unsupported, the UAPG petition on the first-business-day clock. Treat it exactly as seriously as an F.

How fast do I really have to move?

The Undergraduate Petition must be filed no later than the first business day after the failed grade releases or the withdrawal occurs. If a failure looks likely, start the continuation conversation with the Program Director before the semester ends — the handbook expressly recommends it, and the students who do are the ones with options.

I was dismissed after a second failure. Is that the end at UCF?

Within the College of Nursing’s pre-licensure tracks, the handbook closes the door — dismissal from one track bars admission to the others. What remains is the university-level academic appeal under the Golden Rule, and the questions a lawyer asks there: was every notification proper, was the process the handbook promises actually followed, and does anything in the record — an accommodation that was approved but not delivered, a medical withdrawal that should have reversed a grade — change the count.

A medical withdrawal reversed my failing grade. Do I just continue?

No — reversed grades still require an Undergraduate Petition to the UAPG Committee for reinstatement and continuation, with a new plan of study and updated background and drug screening. It is a petition you want built properly, because approval is not guaranteed.