Degree Requirements

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New College of Florida Graduation Requirements

Students must meet requirements as stated in the Undergraduate Catalog at the time of their admission or in the Catalog for the year in which they graduate.

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Degree Requirements

  1. Seven satisfactory semester contracts;
  2. Three satisfactory Independent Study Projects (ISPs);
  3. The satisfactory completion of 31 academic units (a unit being equivalent to a full-semester course or an ISP);
  4. The satisfactory completion of Chart Your Course (General Education) requirements, listed in the following Chart Your Course section;
  5. Demonstrated competency in Civic Literacy1;
  6. A satisfactory Baccalaureate Examination (usually in the form of an oral defense of the senior project);
  7. A satisfactory Senior Project or Thesis, accepted in final form by Library staff.
1. For the 2023-24 cohort, the requirement includes:
  • Satisfactory designation in one of the following two classes - American Government and Civics* (POLS 2041) or The United States: 1865 to the Present (HIST 2500).
  • The Florida Civic Literacy Exam (FCLE) with a score of 60 or higher, or the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Naturalization Test-Civics with supplemental questions with a score of 60 or higher. 
  • Both requirements can also be satisfied by scoring the following on Advanced Placement tests:

    Advanced Placement Government and Politics: United States -  3
    Advanced Placement United States History -  4
    CLEP American Government -  50

Please note: A student who seeks to graduate with the minimum number of contracts should plan for satisfactory completion of an average of least 4 academic units per contract. However, a student’s individual pace within the program may require additional time to complete graduation requirements.

Associate in Arts (A.A.) Degree Requirements

The Associate in Arts (A.A.) in Liberal Arts degree is available to students who have completed the following requirements:

  • Satisfactory completion of at least 15 academic units (equivalent to 60 semester hours)
  • The completion of the appropriate NCF general education requirements:
    • Chart Your Course (CYC) requirements for students who first entered New College in Fall 2021 or later
    • Liberal Arts Curriculum (LAC) requirements for students who first entered New College prior to Fall 2021
  • Completion of the Civic Literacy Requirement
  • At least 7.5 academic units completed in residence at New College
  • The world language admissions requirement, if waived when the student was admitted to New College.

Students who have met the requirements for an A.A. degree will be notified and invited to request an A.A. degree if they so desire. Students may request an A.A. degree by submitting an Application for Graduation with the Office of the Registrar. The A.A. degree will not be awarded to a student who has already received a B.A. degree.

Chart Your Course, New College's General Education Curriculum

Description of Requirements

To help students develop their full intellectual and personal potential, a liberal arts education should instill interest in diverse academic disciplines, inspire a regard for views different from one’s own, and assist students in acquiring important transdisciplinary skills. Chart Your Course provides students with a broadly-based liberal arts and sciences education and a variety of transferable, interdisciplinary skills. The program also regularly requires students to reflect on and articulate their progress, as well as consider how what they are learning can be applied to their plans beyond New College.

Alongside regular subject content, each CYC course teaches three of the following key skills: Career Development; Civic Knowledge and Engagement; Creative Thinking; Critical Thinking; Ethical Reasoning; Global Learning; Information Literacy; Inquiry & Analysis; Integrative Learning; Intercultural Knowledge & Competence; Lifelong Learning; Oral Communication; Problem Solving; Quantitative Literacy; Reading; Teamwork; and Written Communication. Searchable attributes in each term’s Class Schedule note which CYC breadth requirements a given course satisfies, as well as which skills it teaches.

Requirements

Students must complete at least ten CYC courses, including:

  • One course in each division (attributes: CYC Breadth-Humanities, CYC Breadth-Social Sciences, and CYC Breadth-Natural Sciences);
  • One Writing-Enhanced course (attribute CYC Breadth-WEC);
  • One course in Mathematics or Statistics (attribute CYC Breadth-Mathematics);
  • One course in Diverse Perspectives (attribute CYC Breadth-Diverse Perspectives);
  • One course in Civic Literacy (attribute CYC Breadth-Civic Literacy);
  • Three eligible electives (any CYC course).

These breadth requirements can also be fulfilled by transfer credit or exam, including appropriate courses taken at another college and achievement of certain scores on specific subject exams via Advanced Placement, the International Baccalaureate Programme, the Advanced International Certificate of Education, and the College Level Examination Program. See the CYC webpage for details.

Mathematics and English Language Proficiency

Mathematics Proficiency

All New College students must demonstrate the required basic proficiency in mathematics in one of the following ways:

  1. Satisfactory completion of a course that fulfills the CYC Breadth-Mathematics requirement.
  2. A score of 91 or above on the ACCUPLACER Elementary Algebra exam.
  3. A score of 3 on any Advanced Placement (AP) mathematics exam.
  4. A score of 4 or higher on an approved International Baccalaureate (IB) mathematics exam.
  5. A score of 50 or higher on a College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) mathematics exam.
  6. A passing score on the mathematics section of the College Level Academic Skills Test taken prior to July, 2009.
  7. A passing score on the FTCE General Knowledge Exam mathematics section or a score of 91 or higher on the mathematics portion of the Florida College-Level  Entry Placement Test.
  8. A 2.5 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) in traditional postsecondary-level course work identified by the Florida State Board of Education and Florida Board of Governors as meeting the requirement to demonstrate college-level skills in mathematics. (Contact the Office of the Registrar for details.)
  9. Six-semester credit hour equivalents of mathematics course work completed at another accredited college or university, and deemed eligible toward transfer credit.  (Contact the Office of the Registrar for details.)

Waivers for Basic Mathematics Proficiency and English Language Proficiency

Students may apply for a waiver if they do not satisfy the basic requirement(s) of Mathematics Proficiency and/or English Language Proficiency. Applications for waivers [not related to a documented specific learning disability] will be reviewed by the Waiver Committee. This committee will include the Provost, a faculty member in Mathematics, a faculty member in English, a third member of faculty outside of Mathematics and English, and an institutional test administrator. Petitions for waivers will be considered only after students have been provided test accommodations and other administrative adjustments to permit accurate measurement of the student’s proficiency in the subject area measured by the exam. The Committee reviewing the request shall review the student’s academic records and such other information as appropriate.

Any student with a documented specific learning disability (SLD), such that the student cannot demonstrate successful mastery of basic Mathematics Proficiency and/or basic English Language Proficiency, may apply for a waiver through the Office of the Provost.

Early Graduation

A student may graduate after the completion of six contracts by successfully petitioning the Provost’s Office, prior to beginning their sixth semester, for a waiver of the seventh semester. A Thesis Prospectus/Area of Concentration form must be submitted either before or with the petition.

A student graduating in six semesters is expected to complete an academic program comparable in content to that of a student graduating in the standard seven semesters. The work must be of superior quality. The student must have met both the Liberal Arts Curriculum requirements and his or her Area of Concentration requirements, and have satisfactorily completed 31 units (a unit being equivalent to a full semester course or ISP). The student must obtain the support of the senior thesis sponsor and a second faculty member signing the Thesis Prospectus/Area of Concentration form. All other academic requirements must be met in order to graduate early.

Failure to complete all graduation requirements by the end of the sixth semester voids any prior SASC approval of an early graduation petition and requires enrollment for a seventh semester.

The requirement of four on-campus contracts cannot be waived by a request for early graduation. Thus, a transfer student who enters New College with credit for three contracts is not eligible for early graduation.

Extra Contracts or Semesters

Specific academic programs may require the completion of contracts beyond the seven required for graduation. Students registering for contracts beyond the seventh are required to engage in full-time academic work.

Degree Conferral

Upon recommendation from the Student Academic Status Committee, the New College faculty, in its executive session, votes to approve the conferral of all bachelor degrees. New College awards degrees in January, May, and August each year for all students who have completed the requirements of their respective degree prior to established deadlines. Diplomas are distributed to graduates following the degree conferral date. All students graduating in August or January are invited to participate in the following May commencement ceremony.