RIT and three local community colleges are launching a new way for students to obtain a bachelor’s degree.
Monroe Community College, Finger Lakes Community College and Genesee Community College have a program where some students can enroll for one year in their schools, and then transfer to RIT for the remaining three years.
Marian Nicoletti is RIT’s director of undergraduate admission. She says this program is aimed at students who have potential but may not quite be ready to start at RIT right away.
“(For instance), a student who said, ‘I really didn’t know what I wanted to study in high school, I didn’t take the right classes in high school so I’m missing prerequisites. So they’re not quite ready to start in an RIT program of their choice. Or, they really didn’t apply themselves in high school, had the abilities and so their performance was lackluster," Nicoletti said.
To qualify for the program, students must take a required set of courses at the community college and maintain at least a 2.8 grade-point average.
Nicoletti says that RIT already has a relationship with the three community colleges.
“I reached out to those three schools and said, look it, I really think we need to keep people here in upstate New York; we’ve got great programs at your three colleges and this is another pathway for students to remain here and where we have opportunities for them to study at RIT,” Nicoletti explained.
Nicoletti says the program will begin with a few of the programs at RIT, and it could eventually be expanded to other fields of study at that university.
