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The College of Humanities and Sciences offers more than 150 scholarships to current students annually.

To explore and apply for scholarships:

  1. Visit our scholarship page.
  2. Make sure to read each scholarship's requirements! (Remember: The amount of each award is set by VCU Foundation Policy.)
  3. Follow the instructions on each scholarship's page to complete your application.
  4. If you have questions, contact your adviser, department chair or email John Lee in the Office of Student Services at leejc10@vcu.edu.

Are you an incoming freshman or transfer student?

Visit the Office of Undergraduate Admissions or the Honors College to find additional scholarship opportunities.

All first-year students in the College are automatically assigned an adviser.

  • All first-year advisers are located in University Academic Advising on the first floor of Hibbs Hall at 900 Park Avenue.
  • You can find your assigned adviser by logging into myVCU and clicking 'Advising appointments' in the Resources section. VCU’s Navigate website will launch, and you can see your adviser(s) listed under the gray tab called 'Send a message.' You can also download the Navigate app which will allow you to easily make appointments with your adviser and get reminders via your phone.
  • If you don't know who your adviser is and can't log into the advising system, call the Office of Academic Advising at (804) 827-UNIV (8648). 
  • After declaring a major and completing your freshman year, you will get a new a departmental adviser in your major. After declaring a major and completing your freshman year, you will get a new a departmental adviser in your major. If you have questions, contact the appropriate name from this list of advising contacts by major.
  1. Use this list to make sure you meet all the requirements for your desired major.
  2. Important! Before filling out any official forms, contact the program’s advising office
  3. Remember! Some programs have higher tuition rates and additional course fees, and some of your previously earned credits may not apply.
  4. Submit the Change of Major/Concentration Form or the Change of Minor Form, and complete any additional steps required by your program. 
  5. The program change becomes official after Records and Registration receives authorization from the academic department head. Any changes made after the add/drop period will apply to the following fall or spring semester.

Starting Fall 2024, students will be able to declare pre-professional health minors in the College of Humanities and Sciences.  Students in these minors will have access to advising resources in the College of Humanities and Sciences and Career Services.

You can withdraw from a class through the first 10 weeks of classes.

  • After the add/drop period and through the end of the first 10 weeks of classes, students can withdraw from classes using eServices.
  • Note: If you don't withdraw from a class before the 10-week deadline, you could receive failing grades in all or some of the courses.
  • For a course that does not follow the standard semester calendar, the final withdrawal date is the day when one-half of the course has been completed.
  • For more information, visit Records and Registration.
  1. Always discuss your grade with the instructor first!
  2. Ask how the final grade was determined. 
  3. If you still would like to appeal the grade, you must submit a written appeal to the chair of the department in which you took the class.
  4. Your appeal should state and support with all available evidence the reasons why you believe the grade should be changed.
  5. The written appeal must be submitted within 14 calendar days of the following semester (for spring courses, this would be 14 calendar days of the fall semester).

Find more information in the VCU Bulletin or by emailing hsadvisor@vcu.edu.

The ARAC process

If you wish to appeal for an exception to VCU academic regulations, this appeal must be made to the Academic Regulations Appeals Committee (ARAC). Examples of such appeals include retroactive withdrawals from classes, waiver of the continuance policy following a suspension, and waiver of the last 25 percent residency requirement for courses taken at VCU.

Visit the ARAC page for more details.

Reminder! In addition to these requirements, check the specific graduation requirements for your major. Contact your adviser for more information. 

  • Overall undergraduate GPA and major area GPA must be, at minimum, 2.0.
  • Student must have completed 25 percent of the semester-hour credits required for the bachelor’s degree in residence at VCU, including at least 30 of the last 45 credits.
  • Student must have earned a minimum of 120 credits, including transfer credits.
  • Student must have earned a minimum of 45 upper-level credits.
  • All grades of Incomplete (I), Continued (CO), Progress (PR), Not Recorded (NR) and No Grade (NG) must be converted to final letter grades no later than the last day of class of the semester in which the candidate plans to graduate.

All students within the College of Humanities and Sciences are required to meet a foreign language requirement either through the 102 level for the college general education program or through a higher level as specified by the individual program. Students who have successfully completed the third level of a foreign language at an accredited public or private U.S. high school level qualify for a foreign language exemption through the 102 level at VCU.

Get more details and complete the waiver form.

There are many research opportunities around campus. 

  1. The Office of the Provost has a robust website on undergraduate research. On their website, you can find more information on finding a research project, applying for funding, and view examples of previous research projects.
  2. Reach out to your professors. Many professors, especially in the natural sciences, direct their own labs and often hire students as research assistants.
  3. The College of Humanities and Sciences leads several Vertically Integrated Projects (VIPs),  course-based, multiyear, multidisciplinary, team-based projects under the guidance of faculty and graduate students. You can view the list of CHS VIPs here. 
  4. The Student Opportunity Center (SOC) is a central place to find experiential learning activities like undergraduate research. While the database includes VCU-specific opportunities, they also list local and national opportunities, including internships, volunteer work and events.
  5. The Humanities Research Center houses several labs with the goal of connecting students, faculty, staff and other community practitioners around research topics. View a full list of their labs here.

There are many opportunities around campus for you to receive funding to help you in your undergraduate research efforts.

Visit the Office of the Provost's undergraduate research funding page for a full list of opportunities.

There are a plethora of internships at VCU, local to the city, or in other locations around the nation (if you’re willing to travel). Here are a few ways to find an internship:

  1. Handshake is a tool that connects students with employers and opportunities, along with career advisors, career-related events and workshops. Log in using your student eID.
  2. Reach out to your professors. Many professors are connected in the Richmond community and know of a local opportunity.
  3. Contact your internship coordinator or academic advisor; similar to professors they are in contact with local businesses in search of interns.
  4. Make an appointment at Career Services. Career Services can help you build your resume, help you prepare for interviews, and aid in the search for internships and other experiential and employment opportunities.
  5. Try social media platforms, like LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business and employment-focused social media platform that helps you search for internships, jobs and more. Also, businesses will sometimes advertise for interns on their social media feeds. Don’t hesitate to send your favorite business a DM asking about internships.

We're located on the first floor of Founders Hall at 827 W. Franklin St. Visit our page to find out what services we provide and don't provide first, though, to make sure we can assist you before you visit.