All students admitted as freshmen or transfers, must satisfy or meet exemption qualifications from the state foreign language admission requirement. Students who do not meet this requirement may be admitted with the condition that they fulfill the requirement by completing a two-semester sequence of a foreign language prior to graduation.

Students satisfy the requirement by having completed two (2) years of a foreign language sequence in high school or eight (8) or more semester hours of a foreign language sequence in a previously attended college or university.  Upper Level Transfer applicants may submit an official high school transcript showing they have completed 2 years of foreign language sequence in high school.

Students are exempt from the foreign language requirement if one or more of the following conditions are met:

• The student received an Associate of Arts degree from a Florida public community college prior to September 1, 1989.
• The student enrolled in a program of study leading to an Associate of Arts degree at a Florida public community college prior to August 1989 and who maintained continuous enrollment until admission to and enrollment in Florida Gulf Coast University.
• The student holds a Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university.

Students can demonstrate equivalent foreign language competence through credit awarded on the basis of scores on the foreign language subject matter examinations in the College Level Examination Program (CLEP), which must be equivalent to 8 to 10 semester hours of college-level work.   Acceptable scores for awarding CLEP credit can be found in the Transferring Credit section of the catalog.  American Sign Language satisfies the criteria of a foreign language for the purposes of this requirement.