Academic Catalog 2019-20

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General Requirements for a Baccalaureate Degree

In order to graduate from Dominican University of California with a baccalaureate (bachelor’s) degree, a student must meet all requirements in the following categories:

  1. University-wide unit, residency, and GPA requirements
  2. International Language Competency (matriculation requirement)
  3. CORE Curriculum (CORE) requirements or Adult Degree Completion General Education (GE) requirements
  4. Major (and minor, if electing) requirements

For information regarding the CORE and GE requirements and the Major and Minor requirements, please see the applicable sections of this catalog. For information regarding the University-wide and International Language Competency requirements, please see below.

Students who have already earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution and are seeking a second bachelor’s degree at Dominican are not subject to the same unit and Residency requirements; for further details, see the applicable section below. However, second degree-seeking students must meet all CORE requirements in effect at the time of their admission (either through coursework earned in previous degree program or coursework earned toward the second degree), as well as all major requirements for the second degree.

Unit Requirements

To graduate, a student must complete a minimum of 124 semester units.

  1. Effective Fall 2019, at least 36 of these 124 units must be in upper division courses, though some majors may require more than 36 upper division units. For students earning two concurrent degrees (not double majors), must complete the Upper Division requirements of both majors.
  2. A minimum of one half (50%) of the upper division major or minor requirements must be completed at Dominican.
  3. At least 28 of the student’s last 36 units prior to degree conferral must be completed at Dominican.

Residency Requirement

To fulfill the residency requirement, all students must complete at least 30 in-class units at Dominican. Up to 12 credits of unsponsored Prior Learning Credit may be used toward satisfying this requirement.

Second Degree-seeking Students: Unit and Residency Requirements

In addition to fulfilling all CORE or GE and major requirements, second degree students must complete:

  1. A minimum of 30 units of coursework at Dominican for students whose first degree was obtained elsewhere, or a minimum of 24 additional units of coursework at Dominican for students whose first degree was obtained at Dominican
  2. At least one half of the upper division units required for the major at Dominican

GPA Requirements

A student must earn a cumulative GPA of ‘C’ (2.0) in each of the following areas:

  1. All courses taken at Dominican
  2. All CORE or General Education courses taken at Dominican
    • Students who fall below the cumulative 2.0 must make up the deficiency by (re)taking courses in disciplines in which they received a grade lower than a ‘C’ (2.0). If a student takes another course in the same CORE Category or GE area, the higher of the two grades will be used to calculate the CORE or GE cumulative GPA.
    • For CORE or GE transfer courses, each transfer course must have a minimum grade of ‘C’ (2.0) or higher to fulfill a CORE or GE requirement
  3. All college-level work completed, including transfer credit
  4. All courses which fulfill major requirements
  5. All courses which fulfill minor requirements (if a student has elected a minor)

International Language Competency: Matriculation Requirement

This competency requires the student to have the ability to sustain a brief conversation on simple everyday topics, demonstrating good use of the entire sound system specific to the language and of the basic grammatical constructions in past, present, and future tenses, conditionals, and imperatives. The student must also have the ability to summarize, orally and in writing, the main points of a relatively simple reading passage not involving specialized vocabulary. The emphasis is on the application of the language and not on the student’s ability to describe grammatical features of the language.

Fulfilling the Requirement

Transfer students entering with 60 or more units are considered to have met this requirement. Second bachelor's degree seeking students are also considered to have met this requirement.

Generally, students fulfill this requirement by one of the methods listed below. Bilingual students can be considered to have met the requirement; see below for methods of documenting competency in a language other than English.

  1. Dominican-approved High School Courses: Two years of high school study of the same international language, completed with a ‘C’ (2.0) average. Courses used to fulfill the requirement should emphasize speaking and understanding, and include instruction in grammar, vocabulary, reading, composition, and culture. American Sign Language and classical languages, such as Latin and Greek, are acceptable.
  2. SAT Subject Examination: See below for the qualifying subject examinations and their required minimum scores.
    Chinese with Listening 520
    French/French with Listening 540
    German/German with Listening 510
    Modern Hebrew 470
    Italian 520
    Japanese with Listening 50
    Korean with Listening 500
    Latin 530
    Spanish/Spanish with Listening 520
  3. AP or IB Examination: See below for the qualifying subject examinations and their required minimum scores.
    AP Language or Literature Exam in: French, German, Spanish, or Latin 3 or higher
    IB Language A2 HL Exam 4 or higher
  4. College Courses: A grade of ‘C’ (2.0) or better in any transferable course(s) (excluding conversation) considered by Dominican to be equivalent to two years of high school language. NOTE: Many colleges list the prerequisites for their second course in a language as “Language 1 at this college or two-years of high school language;” in this case, Language 1 fulfills both years of the International Language Competency requirement.
  5. Formal Instruction in a language other than English: Completion of two years of formal instruction in a school where a language other than English was used as a medium of instruction beginning in grade 6 or later, documented by an official school transcript or other official document.
  6. Assessment by Dominican University: The University will conduct an assessment and issue a statement of competency, which serves as certification that this requirement has been met.  A limited number of languages is available.
  7. Assessment by a University other than Dominican: Most language departments at universities will conduct an assessment and issue a statement of competency on official letterhead, which serves as certification that this requirement has been met. To fulfill the requirement by this method, a student should contact a university with a department in the language to be assessed to request an appointment to have an assessment conducted.  For information about the New York University International Language Exam, see the Transfer Credit Policies section of this catalog.
  8. Certification by High School Principal: Principals should develop and maintain clear standards for providing this certification. Certification should be based on the judgment of language instructors, advice of professional or cultural organizations with an interest in maintaining language proficiency, or other appropriate sources of expertise. Language placement examinations or similar assessments may be used for certification by a high school principal.