Academic Forgiveness Policy

Academic forgiveness is a policy designed for a student with a history of poor grades who either wants to change to a new degree/certificate program or, having been away from RCC for at least three years, wants to resume his/her original plan of study. Additional restrictions apply to a student who wishes to return to the Nursing Program.

An eligible student will have his/her cumulative GPA recomputed by excluding final grades earned in courses taken at RCC that are not explicitly required in the students’ intended degree or certificate program. A student may apply for this opportunity in the Student Development Center at any time during his/her career. However, academic forgiveness will be awarded only once. The decision to grant academic forgiveness will be made by the Assistant Registrar.

Academic forgiveness means:

  1. Grades of D or F can be omitted from the recalculation of the cumulative GPA until the cumulative GPA is 2.0 or the smallest possible number above 2.0 at the time of re-entry or program change. Grades that are forgiven will not count towards graduation requirements.
  2. Courses and grades omitted from the recalculation will be identified on the transcript.

To be eligible for academic forgiveness, a student must meet all of the following criteria at the time of application submission:

  1. Be matriculated in a registered degree or certificate program at RCC;
  2. Have changed degree/certificate program or have been out of RCC for at least three academic years;
  3. Have a cumulative grade point average below 2.0;
  4. Complete 12 credits or more with a C or better in each subsequent course following the application;
  5. Demonstrate that a new degree/certificate program is being pursued if a change in degree/certificate program is being used as a basis for the forgiveness request. Return to the original program would result in the re-instatement of the forgiven courses into the cumulative GPA;
  6. Acknowledge in writing the restrictions of this policy;
  7. Not have received a degree from RCC.