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:
- 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.
- 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:
- Be matriculated in a registered degree or certificate program at RCC;
- Have changed degree/certificate program or have been out of RCC for at least three academic years;
- Have a cumulative grade point average below 2.0;
- Complete 12 credits or more with a C or better in each subsequent course following the application;
- 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;
- Acknowledge in writing the restrictions of this policy;
- Not have received a degree from RCC.