Academic Planning

All courses which satisfy the Professional Development II Requirement that are offered in:

This section includes course descriptions for courses which are not yet included in the Rensselaer Catalog. They include courses which may only be offered for a few semesters, those being tested by a department to deterine if they want to offer it on a continuing basis, as well as courses which have not completely transitioned to the catalog.

NOTE: You can also access these descriptions through SIS Class Search. After doing a Class Search, click on the CRN, and for Topics Courses, a complete description will be displayed.

Every undergraduate student who entered as a freshman in Fall 2006 or later, or transfer student who entered Fall 2008 and later, is required to successfully complete at least 2 communication intensive courses (chosen from the approved list) as part of the requirements for a Bachelor’s Degree.

• at least one of these must be in the student's major, and
• at least one of the courses must be writing intensive and taught in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. (Courses taught by the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social sciences are noted on the list)
• Communication Intensive courses CANNOT be taken as Pass/No Credit (effective for students who enter Fall 2010 or later)

1. Students pursuing a dual major or double degree only need to complete 1 Communication Intensive course in either of their majors in addition to the 1 course taught by the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
2. Students entering as freshmen may not use AP credit, SAT scores or transfer credit from another university to satisfy the communication intensive requirement.
3. Transfer students may be eligible to satisfy the Communication Intensive requirement through courses taken at another institution. To determine if your prior coursework will satisfy the requirement, contact the HA&SS Director of Student Services, Sage 5208.
4. All courses approved as Communication Intensive include a "writing intensive" component.

Transfer students who entered prior to Fall 2008 must meet the Writing Intensive Requirement

HASS Inquiry courses are designed to give you the opportunity for meaningful interaction with your instructors through seminar-style discussion sections, Community Read discussions, and forums for dialogue and debate. Many HASS Inquiry courses act as introductory courses to the Integrative Pathways. The HASS Inquiry courses are a required component of your HASS Core curriculum.

Please see more information about HASS Inquiry as well as a list of courses with course descriptions and associated pathways at:https://hass.rpi.edu/advising/hass-inquiry

Faculty who want to have a course designated communication intensive should submit a proposal to any member of the CI review committee listed below. The proposal should include the following. 1) a brief memo giving the title of the course, the course description in the Catalog, and the first semester in which the course would be offered as a communication intensive course; and 2) a course syllabus showing how the course has the characteristics identified below.

Characteristics of CI Courses

The Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee has identified the following characteristics as being essential for all CI courses.

• Students complete at least at least two formal assignments; three or more are preferable. Successive drafts of a longer assignment, such as a design report or undergraduate thesis, may count as separate assignments. However, note taking, daily logs, or journals do not count as formal assignments.
• Over the course of a semester, each student is required to compose, at a minimum, the equivalent of 15 pages (typed, double-spaced) of writing done outside class. In determining the extent to which an oral presentation meets this requirement, one rule of thumb is that it can take speakers approximately two minutes to present the amount of information contained on one page of typed text. (This assumes that the lines of type are double-spaced.)
• Each student is assessed on his or her ability to communicate orally and/or in writing. For group projects, assessment of individual students might entail such strategies as the following: assigning grades to each individual for his or her part in an oral presentation; basing individual grades for a lengthy report not only on the overall quality of the report but on each individual?s work on a section for which he or she is the principal author; asking students to write an explanation of how their portion of the group project displays communicative competencies listed below.
• Grades on formal assignments count for at least 25% of the final grade for the course.
• Grades on the formal assignments reflect students? ability to communicate effectively as well as their understanding of course content. Invariably, instructors will want to use formal assignments to assess students? understanding of course content. But a substantial portion of the grade for each final assignment should reflect students? ability to display communicative competencies listed below.

Communicative Competencies

Rensselaer graduates must be able to communicate effectively in a variety of media (written, spoken, visual, electronic) and in a variety of genres (reports, proposals, etc.) Whatever the medium and genre, Rensselaer students should be able to:

Understand the context in which they are communicating,

• Identifying the goals of and audience for their communication
• Using their understanding of goals and audience to choose appropriate media, language, and content

Organize their work,

• Establishing a clear structure or principle of organization
• Creating effective introductory and concluding passages in which they identify their main point and set their work in a larger context

Develop content appropriately,

• Displaying a clear ethical sensibility (e.g., reporting data accurately, citing sources of information)
• Asserting and elaborating on claims using evidence and reasoning that are appropriate for their audience and their discipline/profession
• Addressing the questions and/or topics that are essential for success with a given assignment
• Understanding, and, as appropriate, applying principles of visual communication (graphs, charts, animations, pictures) in their written or spoken work

Edit their written work carefully,

• Observing the conventions of Standard English (e.g., correct usage, sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation)
• Observing the conventions (e.g., terminology and page format) of a particular discipline or workplace

Review Process

All proposed courses will be reviewed by a committee that is appointed by the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee and comprised of faculty from all five schools plus the Director of the Center for Communication Practices. This committee will:

• Determine whether syllabi for proposed courses display the characteristics indicated above;
• Make a recommendation to FSCC as to whether a proposed course should be designated communication intensive;
• Review all communication intensive courses at three-year intervals.

Assistance for Students and Faculty

The Center can help students with communication in a variety of media, oral and visual as well as written. In addition to working with individuals or groups of students, the Center will work with faculty in planning CI courses, devising assignments, establishing criteria that reflect the goals of specific courses, and/or annotating exemplary samples of student work for posting on course web sites or on the Center?s web site. Although Center staff will not grade papers, they will visit CI classes to explain criteria and will base their tutorial work on criteria established specifically for each CI course. For further information about this assistance, please contact Center Director Barbara Lewis (lewisb2@rpi.edu).

Students must take at least two courses that are designated Data Intensive (DI). One of these courses (DI-1) will be an introductory level course that is typically taken with the Math/Science Core, HASS Core, or other introductory courses. The other (DI-2) will be taken within the major program. Each major program has designated one or more courses within the major that may fulfil the DI-2 requirement. Students with more than one major only have to meet the DI-2 requirement in one major. DI-1 courses may not be met with AP or IB credits. Transfer courses may satisfy the DI-1 requirement provided that the course satisfies RPI’s DI standards. Students should send documentation to the School of Science Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (Lee Ligon at ligonl@rpi.edu) verifying that the course meets these standards.

Transfer/Advanced Placement/IB Credit - New incoming students (Beginning Fall 2024 and Catalog 2024)

Obtaining Transfer/AP/IB Credit

Students entering as first-time freshmen can transfer a maximum of 32 credits hours toward their Bachelor’s degree at Rensselaer. First-time freshmen are required to complete all AP/Dual Enrollment/IB credit requests by the end of their first year to be considered.

Advanced placement or academic credit can be obtained in three ways:

1. Transfer credit through dual enrollment in high school, which is granted for work done at an accredited college/university before beginning your freshman year at Rensselaer.
2. Advanced Placement Examinations, which are given by the College Entrance Examination Board in Princeton, New Jersey.
3. International Baccalaureate, which are awarded based on student performance in the Higher-Level examinations.

The following are the specific details involved in obtaining credit by these methods. If you have questions regarding these methods, please send an email to transfercredit@rpi.edu or call (518) 276-6231.

Transfer credit through dual enrollment

Courses completed at other colleges/universities while in high school, may be considered for transfer credit. Transfer credit may only be given for any college courses taken while in high school if they weren’t used to obtain their high school diploma. The Registrar’s Office will have your courses evaluated by the appropriate departments. Students may be required to submit additional course information or syllabus. Students can view Rensselaer’s Undergraduate Transfer Guide to view previously transferred courses. The Transfer Guide does not guarantee credit will transfer.

Please send the Dual Enrollment Credit: High School Certification form to your high school for completion. The form should then be sent to the Registrar at transfercredit@rpi.edu, or at Registrar, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, New York 12180-3590.

An official transcript from the college/university is also required to be sent to the Registrar’s Office, in order to process any applicable transfer credit. No grade is given for transfer credit and the grades are not included in calculating the QPA. Transfer credit will be forfeited if a student takes an equivalent Rensselaer course.

New updates to Rensselaer’s Advanced Placement policy starting Fall 2024

1. Students entering as first-time freshmen in Fall of 2024, may transfer a maximum of 32 credits hours toward their Bachelor’s degree at Rensselaer of which includes credit hours from AP, IB courses, and transfer credit.
2. Students who achieve a score of 4 or 5 on an accepted exam may receive academic credit at Rensselaer.

Advanced Placement tests

You should request your AP Score Report from College Board to be sent to Registrar’s Office at Rensselaer. The scores are evaluated by individual departments using the criteria outlined below.

When credit is granted, no grade is assigned; therefore, the grade received is not included in calculating the Quality Point Average (QPA) at Rensselaer. You always have the option of declining all or part of you Advanced Placement awards. Advanced Placement credit will be forfeited if a student takes an equivalent Rensselaer course.

International Baccalaureate College Credit

Students should request their IB Candidate Results to be sent to Rensselaer through their Program Coordinator before the release of their results. After the release of results, students should request their Candidate Results via the International Baccalaureate website. Results are delivered electronically to Rensselaer.

International Baccalaureate credits are awarded based on student performance in the Higher-Level examinations (standard level exam scores are not accepted), as outlined in the document below.