Graduation Requirements

All students enrolled in the Baccalaureate degree in ASL-English Interpretation must satisfy course work requirements in the following areas:

·         ASL-English Interpretation Major (59 credits)

·         Open Electives (12 credits)

·         Foundations (6 credits)

·         Perspectives (Liberal Arts, Math, and Science) (25 credits)

·         Liberal Arts Studies – Immersion (9 credits)

·         Liberal Arts Studies – Electives (6 credits)

·         Deaf Cultural Studies – Electives (6 credits)

·         Wellness (2 courses, 0 credits) [if younger than 25 years of age]

·         RIT 365 (0 credits) [if less than 24 transfer credits]

For more information, visit https://www.rit.edu/study/undergraduate-graduation-requirements. 

You will complete 59 credits (19 courses) in the interpretation major. A complete list of the courses is found on the BSI Student Progress Report. It is important to note that many of the courses require completion with a grade of C or better to move on to the next course. If you need to re-take a course, you will most likely have to wait a year for the course to be offered again.

The BSI program offers a number of professional electives that students take in their 3rd and 4th year. While you are required to complete 3 credits in professional electives, you may take more than 3 credits and count them as part of your open electives. 

·         Beginning Mexican Sign Language

·         Community Interpreting

·         Educational Interpreting:  Elementary Settings

·         Healthcare Interpreting

·         Interpreting Frozen Texts

·         Interpreting in Research Settings

·         Introduction to K-12 Interpreting

·         Introduction to Video Relay Remote Interpreting

·         Mental Health Interpreting

·         Working With the DeafBlind Community

Perspectives consist of eight courses designed to introduce students to seven key areas of inquiry that develop ways of knowing the world. The Perspectives courses introduce students to fundamentals of a liberal arts and sciences discipline (methods, concepts, and theories) while addressing specific general education learning outcomes.

Perspective 1 (ethical):  Courses focus on ethical aspects of decision-making and argument, whether at the individual, group, national, or international level. These courses provide students with an understanding of how ethical problems and questions can be conceived and resolved, and how ethical forms of reasoning emerge and are applied to such challenges.

 Perspective 2 (artistic):  Courses focus on the analysis of forms of artistic expression in the context of the societies and cultures that produced and sustained them. These courses provide insight into the creative process, the nature of aesthetic experience, the fundamentals of criticism and aesthetic discrimination, and the ways in which societies and cultures express their values through their art.

Perspective 3 (global):  Courses in this category encourage students to see life from a perspective wider than their own and to understand the diversity of human cultures within an interconnected global society. Courses explore the interconnectedness of the local and the global in today’s world or in historical examples, and encourage students to see how global forces reverberate at the local level.

Perspective 4 (social):  Courses focus on the analysis of human behavior within the context of social systems and institutions. Because RIT recognizes that student success depends on the ability to understand how social groups function and operate, these courses provide insight into the workings of social institutions’ processes.

Perspective 5 (natural science inquiry):  Science is more than a collection of facts and theories, so students are expected to understand and participate in the process of scientific inquiry. Courses focus on the basic principles and concepts of one of the natural sciences. In these classes, students apply methods of scientific inquiry and problem solving in a laboratory or field experience.

Perspective 6 (scientific principles):  Courses focus on the foundational principles of a natural science or provide an opportunity to apply methods of scientific inquiry in the natural or social sciences. Courses may or may not include a laboratory experience.

Perspective 7A, 7B (mathematical):  Courses focus on identifying and understanding the role that mathematics plays in the world. In these courses, students comprehend and evaluate mathematical or statistical information and perform college-level mathematical operations on quantitative data.

Immersion is a series of three related general education courses that further broaden a student’s judgment and understanding within a specific area through deeper learning. (http://www.rit.edu/academicaffairs/generaleducation/general-education-framework/immersions-and-minors

Interpreting students who wish to build a secondary area of expertise into their program of study can expand the 9 credits (three-course) immersion into a 15-credit (five-course) minor. (The two additional courses come from electives). Completion of a minor is formally designated on the baccalaureate transcript, which serves to highlight this accomplishment to employers and graduate schools.

You can choose from an extensive list of minors in a variety of subject areas. Some minors require a prerequisite that must be taken in the core. Refer to the description of each minor for specific requirements.  A list of available minors can be found at http://www.rit.edu/programs/minors.

All students wishing to pursue a minor must contact the College of Liberal Arts . (See the individual minor descriptions for advisor contact information.) For more information, discuss this option with your BSI counselor/academic advisor.

For information on the ASL & Deaf Cultural Studies Minor, see https://www.rit.edu/study/american-sign-language-and-deaf-cultural-studies-minor. 

Interpreting students must complete at least 6 elective credits in the area of Liberal Arts and College of Science classes.

Interpreting students are required to take MLAS 351 Linguistics of ASL, plus one deaf cultural studies elective. Students may choose a course in ASL literature; literature in English pertaining to the D/deaf experience; the history of D/deaf people in America and around the world; Deaf art and cinema; the experience of D/deaf people from racial, ethnic, and other minority groups; oppression in the lives of D/deaf people; or various political, legal, and educational issues affecting members of the D/deaf community.

All students who are 25 years of age or younger at the time of matriculation must complete two different Wellness Activity (physical education) courses. Wellness Activity courses are not assigned credit but do appear on the student’s record with a grade of “S” (satisfactory) or “F” (failure). These courses are offered through the Center for Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation.

All students who have completed 24 college credits or less are required to complete the RIT 365 course during the first semester enrolled at RIT.