Rollins College Conference (RCC)
All first-year students enroll in a Rollins College Conference (RCC 100) during the Fall semester. Most students live in the same residence hall as their RCC classmates as part of the Living Learning Community program. The RCC is an interactive seminar class on a broad range of topics. Professors are drawn from all academic disciplines encompassing the arts, the sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences. Throughout the first semester, the RCC professor joins students in educational activities and co-curricular experiences that supplement and enhance the course. Upper-class peer mentors assist in the RCC and help first-year students with the transition to academics and life at the College. The faculty member teaching this seminar course also serves as the student’s faculty advisor during their first year.
Students may not withdraw from or elect credit/no credit grading in their RCC course. Students who fail their RCC course are not required to retake the class.
Transfer students with fewer than 12 transferrable credits are required to enroll in RCC 100; transfer students with 12 or more transferrable credits are required to enroll in RCC 200 in their first semester of enrollment.
The Foundations Seminars
To be eligible for a Bachelor of Arts Degree, students must complete five (5) Foundations Seminars. This series of courses is designed to be developmental and integrative. As students progress from the 100 to the 300 level, they will learn how different academic disciplines approach significant questions and will gain the core, transferable skills of information literacy, critical thinking, and written communication. Foundations Seminars are organized under themes-pressing questions like cultural collision or innovation-and students may select courses by staying within a single theme or by combining themes to explore new concepts with each class.
In the spring of their first year, students will take their first Foundations Seminar at the 100 level. Students must then take three (3) classes at the 200 level. The Foundations Seminars culminate with an interdisciplinary 300-level practicum, which demonstrates how integrating different disciplines can equip us to solve complex, real world problems.
Foundations courses at the 100 and 200 level are given an additional disciplinary designation of social sciences (C), expressive arts (A), sciences (S), and humanities (H); students are required to complete at least one course in each area. Students may also choose to take one course from an approved list of Rollins courses. Courses from the approved list will count toward the divisional requirement at the 200 level. These approved rFLA courses offered outside the Foundations Seminars will be designated in the Course Schedule published each semester by the Office of Student Records (rFLA-C, rFLA-A, rFLA-S, rFLA-H).
Students may double count one (1) Foundations Seminar toward their major or minor.
In order to count a course toward their Foundations curriculum, students must earn a C- or better in any course with the rFLA designation or an equivalent transfer course. The Associate Dean of Academics may approve courses at regionally accredited institutions of higher education other than Rollins for rFLA credit.
In order to advance to the 200 level, students must earn a C- or better in their 100-level course. Students who withdraw from or receive less than a C- in a 100-level course may be co-enrolled in 100- and 200-level courses in a subsequent semester.
The mathematical thinking and writing competencies must be completed before the student enrolls in the 300-level practicum. Students should complete the foreign language competency before enrolling in the practicum, but may be co-enrolled if necessary.
Transfer Students and rFLA
Students entering Rollins with an associate of arts (AA) degree from any regionally accredited college or university are exempt from the rFLA requirements with the exception of the Rollins College Conference (RCC 200).
Transfer students entering Rollins without an AA degree will receive, as part of the transfer credit evaluation, an individual audit of their prior coursework to determine which transfer credits, if any, can be used to count toward competency requirements and/or Foundations Seminars disciplinary designations.
