Academic Forgiveness Policy (5 - Year Rule)

The Academic Forgiveness Policy allows a fresh start for former undergraduate students from RIC who have had a minimum of five consecutive years absence from the college and wish to return to complete a first bachelor’s degree. The older credits will be evaluated under the college’s current transfer model. When the policy is applied, the cumulative GPA will be recalculated and reset.

Courses that are at least five years old in which the student earned a grade of “C” or higher will be awarded elective credit, or if appropriate, general education credit. Upper level courses will be reviewed/evaluated by the department of the chair of the student’s major/program who determines if the course(s) may still be applied to the student’s program or must be repeated (such as change in body of knowledge, etc.). Programs with a secondary admission process are allowed to calculate grades from older courses and may require students to repeat those courses.

At the discretion of the admissions office, college credit may also be evaluated for academic forgiveness fortransfer applicants with credits five years or older from other institutions.