College of Journalism and Communications

Academic Policies

Admission to the College

Freshman Information: The university's Office of Admissions coordinates freshman admission.

Transfer Information: The College of Journalism and Communications evaluates applicants on a space-available basis. A 2.5 grade point average (on all work attempted) and 60 credits of acceptable credit are generally required for admission at the junior year.

To be eligible for admission, a transfer student from a Florida public college must have an Associate of Arts degree, including all prerequisite tracking courses. Transfer students from other universities and non-Florida public colleges should complete the first two years' requirements for the major before transferring.

Students denied admissions may petition. Petitions are available from PATH: Professional Advising and Teaching Hub, 1060 Weimer Hall.

Double Major/Dual Degrees: Students who want to specialize in more than one field can earn one of the bachelor’s degrees in this college and a second outside the college. Individuals who want to earn dual bachelor’s degrees must complete the required form, including approval signatures from each department/college. Journalism and Communications majors cannot double major or minor within the college.

Combined Degrees: A combined degree program allows interested undergraduates to take up to four graduate classes. These classes fulfill undergraduate college requirements and can then be used a second time to satisfy the requirements for a Master's degree if graded B or higher. Undergraduates from Advertising, Public Relations, Journalism and the Media and Society or Production Telecommunication specializations may apply to participate in one of three combined degree programs in the college: Web Design and Online Communication, Global Strategic Communication, and Social Media. Students interested in taking advantage of a combined degree opportunity should schedule an appointment with the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs to get more information.

College Requirements

Typing Ability and Computer Skills: Students are expected to type 20 words per minute before enrolling in MMC 2100 or JOU 3109C or RTV 2100 and 30 words per minute for selected advanced courses.

JOU 3109C is limited to JM, PR, and TEL-NWS majors, except by permission of the Department of Journalism. Advertising majors must take MMC 2100. Students in the other Telecommunication tracks must take RTV 2100 Writing for Electronic Media. Entry into the broadcast news sequence is limited to students in the Department of Telecommunication who place in a competitive entrance exam of writing ability.

Student Responsibility: Students are responsible for understanding and meeting all degree requirements. While the college maintains an academic advisory service and carefully works to keep accurate student records, this does not mitigate the student's obligation.

Students should read the college’s requirements and should visit an advisor at least once each semester. Computerized degree audits indicating each student’s academic progress are available on ONE.UF. The audit is used by PATH advisors as the official standard for a student's satisfactory progress to the degree.

Transfer Credit: Transfer students may transfer up to 60 semester credits from a state college. Credits taken beyond 60 may meet certain requirements but will not count toward the 124 credits needed to graduate. After 60 credits, credit taken as a transient student at another university can be transferred to UF but the last 31 credits needed must be UF courses. Professional courses required for a student’s major generally cannot be taken at other schools.

Satisfactory-Unsatisfactory Option: Undergraduate students in the college may not take courses designated ADV, JOU, MMC, PUR, RTV or VIC under the satisfactory-unsatisfactory (S-U) option, except courses which are offered only for an S-U grade.

Students are permitted to take elective courses outside the college on an S-U basis, subject to university rules published in the Academic Regulations section of this catalog.

After the S-U option is approved, students may not elect to convert to a letter-grade. Writing requirement courses cannot be taken S-U.

Courses for the outside concentration may be taken S-U with the following restrictions (in addition to university restrictions):

• The option may not be applied to any course below the 3000 level.
• Not more than three credits of S-U work may be taken to fulfill the outside concentration requirement.
• No beginning-level course may be offered for outside concentration credit under S-U.
• 9 credits of English required by the college may not be taken S-U.
• Courses used for the quantitative option may not be taken S-U.
• Refer to the university calendar for deadlines to apply for the S-U option.

Probation and Suspension: A student will be placed on college probation if he or she fails to maintain a 2.0 overall average and a 2.0 professional average. A student will be flagged if either or both of these averages falls below a 2.0 GPA for two consecutive terms. Students on college suspension must successfully petition the college for reinstatement.

Dropping Courses: Petitions to drop courses beyond the first two may be approved only when documented circumstances beyond the student’s control prevent the satisfactory completion of a course.

In all cases, students must file the petition with the PATH: Professional Advising and Teaching Hub, 1060 Weimer Hall. Consideration of petitions normally takes 1-2 weeks. All petitions must be submitted before the semester deadline. After these dates, all petitions are processed through the University Petitions Committee in 222 Criser Hall.

Flexible Learning: No CJC student can receive credit for a required professional course in the major through flexible learning study. No more than six semester credits of flexible learning coursework can be used to fulfill undergraduate degree requirements.

Foreign Language Proficiency or Quantitative Option: This requirement is satisfied by demonstrating proficiency or completing college-level credits in a single foreign language.

Students who elect the foreign language option may meet the requirement by successfully completing the second or third beginning-level course in one foreign language. Or, students can complete two college semesters of American Sign Language.

This is not a credit requirement, but a proficiency requirement, and it is satisfied by earning a minimum grade of C or S.

Students who previously have studied French, German, Latin or Spanish must take the SAT II placement exam for the appropriate language (unless the student has AP or IB scores for that subject). The exam places the student into the correct course in the sequence or out of the requirement. Students do not receive college credit for SAT II. Refer to the undergraduate catalog for information about SAT II exam scores: https//catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/advising/info/SAT-subject-test-placement.aspx.

CLEP: Students may also take the corresponding CLEP test for foreign language. From the university catalog:& "Students beginning in the fall or spring term must have taken the exams... and have their scores reported to the university before the end of their first term of enrollment at UF." Students do not receive college credit for performance on the CLEP. Refer to the undergraduate catalog for information about CLEP exam scores: https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/advising/info/CLEP-examination-credit-info.aspx

For other languages no listed above, students should consult an advisor to discuss acceptable options for demonstrating proficiency. Students who wish to demonstrate proficiency must do so before earning 90 credits.

To meet the quantitative option, take any three of the following courses: ACG 2021, ACG 2071, CGS 2531, CGS 3063, COP 3275, EME 2040 or ALS 3203, ISM 3004, STA 2023, STA 3024 and STA 4222. Statistics and computer courses listed under the quantitative option can apply three credits toward the general education mathematics requirement. Advertising and Public Relations majors can count STA 2023 towards the quantitative option only if it is not counting towards general education math. Courses used for the quantitative option cannot be taken for S-U grades.

Outside Concentration: The College of Journalism and Communications requires that all students complete 12 credits of coursework in a department outside of the college. Nine of the twelve credits should be at the 3000 level or above. In lieu of an outside concentration, a student may complete an approved UF minor that is offered outside of the college.

Professional Limit: The college stresses a broad background in liberal arts and sciences. Students spend most of their time on general background courses. The remaining time involves development of professional techniques in relation to this general knowledge.

Because the college insists on a general education background, the number of professional credits (ADV, JOU, MMC, PUR and RTV) applied toward graduation is limited to 52.

Professional courses as defined by the college and accepted by transfer are counted toward the 52 credits. A student must earn a minimum of 72 credits of non-college courses as part of the 124 credits required (65 semester credits must be in liberal arts and sciences.)

Dean’s List: Students cannot qualify for dean's list if they have grades of I, N or U. Certificates of recognition are issued by request from the PATH: Professional Advising and Teaching Hub in 1060 Weimer Hall.