Graduation

There is no better feeling than walking on the stage during the college's yearly commencement to receive your hard earned degree, diploma, or certificate. Regardless where you are in your educational journey at RCCC we want to assist you in whatever ways we can to get you to your finish line. Take time to review the items below and remember to contact us using our contact form. Simply CLICK to contact us.

Professional Certification

If you are working in the construction industry there is a chance you may have already earned your OSHA 30-hour card. Whether current or a new student, any student with their OSHA 30-hour card can get credit by professional certification. Having your OSHA 30-hour card will allow you to waive your CST 131 or CMT 212. Instead of taking CMT 212 or CST 131, you will simply be awarded credit. Anyone who wishes to waive their CMT 212 or CST 131 class needs to email Joe Christie at joe.christie@rccc.edu. Simply let Joe know that you have your OSHA 30-hour card and that you wished to get credit for the required CMT 212 or CST 131 classes that is required for your AAS degree in Construction Management Technology. Before seeing Joe Christie, you need to make a copy of your OSHA 30-hour card and submit it with the required form.

While the college offers a course to get your OSHA 30-hour card you can still get your card through a third party like https://www.360training.com/. The advantage of using 360training is mainly flexibility. You can complete this training as fast as you like and any time during the year. If you decide to go this route versus taking the CMT 212 or CST 131 class make sure you notify Dr. Kao Vang at kao.vang@rccc.edu in advanced.

Credit by Examination

Regardless of any class you take at RCCC you do have an option to test out of the class and simply be awarded credit versus taking the class. Understand any attempt at a credit by examination should be carefully considered. Only attempt a credit by examination if you are 100% certain you can pass the exam. Understand passing a credit by examination can be any combination including taking a final exam among other assessment means chosen by the instructor. Do not simply request for a credit by examination if you know you cannot pass the assessment. The last thing you want to do is waste yours and the instructor's time. Challenge the course at your own discretion. The ability to get credit by examination could mean a faster route to graduation.

Degree Audit

A degree audit is simply getting someone at the college to assess your transcript to make sure you have taken all the required courses needed to graduate. When should you complete a degree audit? It is highly recommended that you do this before the last final semester. For example, you know for certain you will graduate in the spring of 2021. During fall semester 2021 you need to initiate an email to Sabrina Johnson requesting a degree audit to ensure you have met all the requirements for graduation. You can contact Sabrina Johnson by sending an email to sabrina.johnson@rccc.edu. Your audit in fall could result in identifying you still lack one class in addition to the classes you need for spring 2021. This advanced notice will allow you time to see if you can find a way to take the course that is lacking to meet degree requirements. Imagine if you were graduating in the spring of 2021 and had not conducted a degree audit in advanced. The lack of audit means that after spring 2021 you still have one class to complete to get your degree. Stay on track and remind yourself to get your degree audit.

Course Progression

To ensure you complete your degree in a timely manner make sure you follow the program of study. CLICK to see the CMT AAS degree offering and associated courses. What this means to you as a student is to take the courses as they become available. For example, looking at the program of study you notice SST 140 and CMT 120 is only offered in the summer semester. Assumed if you opted out of summer school you would have not taken these two courses. This means you would have to wait until the next summer to come around to take the two courses. This offset will definitely set you behind to graduate.

Full-time Load

Going to school full-time can also help get you to graduation faster. While not every student has the luxury to take a full load due to personal situations such as full-time work and others, know that going part-time will result in a longer time to complete a degree. If able, strive for a full-time load every semester.

Online Courses

Another strategy to accelerating your degree completion is to take online courses. How does this help? Taking an online course or two means that you have flexibility to take more courses in a given week or semester. For example, some courses may require you two meet twice a week. Taking two classes may mean that you meet four out of the five days. This may not provide you with additional free days to take classes and so you are left with only two classes a semester. You may be able two take two online classes and two in-person classes for a total of four classes a semester. An advantage to many of the CMT classes is that many meet only once a week. Another alternative to not have to be in a physical classroom is to take the Work Based Learning (WBL) elective. CLICK to learn more about WBL electives.