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At Rowan University, students must complete 120 semester hours of coursework for a four-year degree. Students must have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0 in Rowan University coursework. (Transfer courses and credit do not count toward the Rowan GPA.) A minimum of 30 semester hours of coursework must be completed at or through Rowan University. Only those courses with grades of “D-” or above count toward degree requirements. (Some programs may have higher minimum grades.) Students must meet the Rowan Core and Rowan Experience Requirements described below. Students must also complete 18 semester hours of Non-Program courses. Non-Program courses can include all University courses except those offered by the major department. Students are encouraged to plan their program of study in consultation with an advisor to ensure they meet all the requirements of a specific major program.
Rowan Core
Through Rowan Core, students will strengthen their ability to be critical thinkers, intentional learners, and engaged citizens. Rowan University is an inclusive, agile, and responsive institution, and its graduates exhibit those same qualities.
Rowan Core is organized around six literacies: Artistic, Communicative, Global, Humanistic, Quantitative and Scientific. Instead of emphasizing content coverage, a literacy framework promotes transformative learning. Each literacy provides students with a greater capacity to participate in society to access information, to analyze and reflect, and to express conclusions and opinions. Learning is not only cognitive, but effective and experiential as well. To be literate means having knowledge about a subject area and being able to apply that knowledge.
During their academic careers, students will take at least three Communicative Literacy courses (9 semester hours) and at least one course (3 semester hours) from each of the other five literacies. Specific academic programs may require additional courses in some literacies. As always, students should be sure to check with their academic advisor every semester before registering for courses to ensure that their selections meet the requirements of Rowan Core as well as their specific major.
Students are encouraged to visit the Program Guide Information webpage for information on recommended Rowan Core courses for their major. For a list of current Rowan Core courses in each literacy, please visit: Rowan Core Listing. The literacies are described in more detail below.
Artistic Literacy
Artistic literacy is the knowledge and understanding of the centrality of the arts and aesthetics to human existence. Art reflects and artists respond to and interact with the communities in which we live. Artistic literacy requires learning about and engaging in the creative and performing arts. Visual, verbal, physical and auditory expression will be informed by a study of historical and cultural contexts. Active experimental engagement, including critical analysis and evaluation, will foster an aesthetic sensibility, which includes cognitive and emotional responses.
Communicative Literacy
Communicative literacy is the capacity to analyze, reflect on, and respond to diverse communication situations. This includes understanding the ways in which audience, context, and purpose shape acts of communication. Communicative literacy is demonstrated through fluency in various modes of communication and effective adaptation, invention, and choice of strategies for communication. Engagement in a range of communicative acts and experiences will cultivate critical awareness and ethical responsibility.
Global Literacy
Global literacy is the ability to understand the complexities of one’s own society as well as the global community. This requires knowledge of the diversity of world cultures and recognition of the interdependence of the contemporary world. The extensive globalization of the world’s economies and societies reveals the limits of human and natural resources in a global context. Knowledge of the reciprocal nature of local and global conditions will produce an international perspective.
Humanistic Literacy
Humanistic literacy is the ability to understand how human experience is shaped by economic, political, literary, sociocultural, historical and other contexts. Humanistic literacy includes critical awareness of how dominant paradigms are created and shape human thinking and feeling. It also encompasses the ability to empathize with other times, places, cultures, and mindsets and to grasp the complexity of change and perspective. Active engagement involves the interpretation of significant texts and artifacts to develop awareness and to use this awareness to make decisions and to initiate and react to change.
Quantitative Literacy
Quantitative literacy is the ability to reason logically and to communicate mathematical ideas verbally, symbolically, and graphically. It involves knowing fundamental concepts and techniques of mathematical principles and processes in order to see mathematical functions as quantitative relationships, to understand the concept of probability, and to estimate or approximate answers to questions.
This knowledge provides a foundation for understanding how to construct logical arguments and how to make use of mathematical thinking. Quantitative literacy encourages appreciation of mathematics as a practical tool as well as a philosophical and humanistic endeavor which helps make sense of the world. Engagement in quantitative literacy includes analysis of the use of mathematics and the application of mathematical thinking and modeling to real world problems.
Scientific Literacy
Scientific literacy is the understanding that science is a systematic, evidence-based process of observation, modeling, and testing, to formulate and refine theories which not only explain but predict. Scientific literacy encompasses an appreciation of the role of science in society, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It includes recognition of the scientific knowledge, skills, and values that promote informed evaluation of the validity of claims and proposed solutions to current problems. Scientific literacy does not necessarily involve the production of new science but rather it enables one to make informed decisions and cooperatively engage in the protection and improvement of the world through scientific processes.
General Education for Students Prior to Fall 2018
The Rowan Core general education model began in Fall 2018. Students who started at Rowan prior to this date continue to follow the previous general education model, rather than Rowan Core. The requirements for the previous general education model are as follows:
- At least 6 semester hours of Communication (COMM) courses: College Composition I or Intensive College Composition I, as well as College Composition II.
- The 3 semester hour Public Speaking course.
- At least 7 semester hours of Science and Mathematics (SM) courses. (All students must take at least one course from the list of mathematics courses listed under Science and Mathematics. All students must take at least one approved course that includes an in-class laboratory experience (LAB). Students may not test out of the lab experience.)
- At least 6 semester hours of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) courses.
- At least 6 semester hours of History, Humanities and Language (HHL) courses. At least 3 semester hours of Artistic and Creative Experience (ACE) courses.
- At least 3 semester hours of Multicultural / Global (M/G or MCUL) courses.
In addition to meeting the minimum credit hours in each bank, students must earn at least 42 semester hours of general education courses and Rowan Experience courses. These are minimum requirements for each area of study or discipline group. Specific major programs may expand the requirements within any of these categories in order to meet program and learning outcome objectives. Specific general education courses may be required for individual majors if they serve as prerequisites for required courses within that major.
Students following this general education model can find courses that fulfill the requirements by going to Section Tally: Section Tally. In Section Tally, use the Attribute drop down to select the relevant course attribute (e.g., SM, LAB, SBS, HHL, ACE).
Students Transferring from a New Jersey Community College to Rowan University
Students who have completed an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree at a New Jersey community college will receive at least 60 semester hours of transferable credit towards the appropriate Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science Program. With regard to general education, it is assumed that transfer students will have met all lower division general education requirements expected of students having completed the first two years of a four-year program. In most situations, students will receive transfer credit for a combination of general education courses, Rowan Experience courses, free electives, and major courses totaling at least 60 semester hours of credit or approximately one half of a basic four-year degree. Exceptions to this assumption will occur when students have failed to complete required course work at the community college that is required for entrance into a required Rowan University course.
Coordination between the student and advisor at the community college is necessary in planning for the transfer to Rowan University. Specific program requirements are available on the Rowan University home page.
For students transferring to the University without completing an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree, it is expected that credits taken at a New Jersey community college that are applicable to an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree will be transferable to the basic four-year degree program at Rowan University. Transfer students must meet the specific graduation requirements of the Rowan University degree program to which they seek to transfer. It is expected that through careful planning, the transfer student will be able to meet these requirements within their two years of study at the community college and the following two years of study at Rowan University.
At this time, transfer students will continue to follow the previous general education requirements and not the new Rowan Core requirements. Individual transfer students can switch to the Rowan Core curriculum if they will benefit from doing so. On a case-by-case basis, Rowan University may authorize substitutions for individual transfer students when warranted by extenuating circumstances.
Rowan Experience
In addition to the Rowan Core general education requirements, all students must complete the following Rowan Experience requirements:
- One Rowan Seminar (RS) Designated Course
- One Broad-Based Literature (LIT) Designated Course One Writing-Intensive (WI) Designated Course
- Courses that fulfill the Rowan Experience requirements compliment the six Rowan Core literacies. These courses can also fulfill General Education, Program, or Non-Program requirements. Students can see a list of the available Rowan Experience courses for a given term by using the Attribute drop down in Section Tally. The attributes are coded as follows: Rowan Seminar, RSEM; Broad-Based Literature, LIT; Writing-Intensive, WRIT.
Rowan Seminar (RS)
College is very different from high school; all Rowan first-year students are supported through this transition in their Rowan Seminar course. Students build skills for success in college-level work and will engage with the Rowan community. Students who transfer in as sophomores, juniors, or seniors do not take Rowan Seminar courses.
Broad-Based Literature (LIT)
In Literature courses, students engage with great works, whether modern or classic, American or from around the globe. Students build life-long skills and enjoyment for the literary world by taking at least one course from among selections in the English Department, Philosophy and World Religions, and more.
Writing Intensive (WI)
The ability to write effectively is vital for any well-educated person, no matter the career field. Students’ writing skills will be bolstered by these special courses emphasizing learning, and expressing one’s learning, through the writing process.
Non-Traditional-Format Undergraduate Offerings
Rowan also offers a few of its undergraduate degree programs in non-traditional modes of delivery (online, off-site, hybrid, accelerated, etc.) through the Global Learning & Partnerships (Rowan Global). For a list of available programs and related details, please visit https://global.rowan.edu/.
Note: Admission to all traditional-format undergraduate programs at Rowan University is coordinated by the main Admissions Office (admissions@rowan.edu).
Admission to the non-traditional-format undergraduate programs at Rowan University is coordinated by the Rowan Global Admissions Office globaladmissions@rowan.edu or www.rowanu.com.
Students transferring from a New Jersey community college to Rowan
Students who have completed an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree at a New Jersey community college will receive at least 60 hours of transferable credit towards the appropriate Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science Program.
With regard to General Education, it is assumed that transfer students will have met all lower division General Education requirements expected of students having completed the first two years of a four-year program. In most situations, students will receive transfer credit for a combination of General Education Courses, Rowan Experience Courses, Non-Program Requirements, Free Electives, and Major Requirements totaling at least 60 semester hours of credit or approximately one-half of a basic four-year degree. Exceptions to this assumption will occur when students have failed to complete course work at the community college that is required for entrance into a required Rowan University course.
Coordination between the student and advisor at the community college is necessary in planning for the transfer to Rowan University. Specific program requirements are available on the Rowan University website.
For students transferring to the university without completing an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree, it is expected that credits taken at a New Jersey community college that are applicable to an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree will be transferable to the basic four-year degree program at Rowan University.
Transfer students must meet the specific graduation requirements of the Rowan University degree program into which they transfer. It is expected that through careful planning, transfer students will be able to meet these requirements within a total of four years of full-time enrollment at the community college and Rowan University.
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