Transfer of Credits

Transfer of CrediTs froM oTher Institutions

A student enrolled at St. Mary's College may enroll in another institution or take a corre­spondence course and subsequently transfer the credits to St. Mary's College. If a student does not secure written permission before taking courses at another institution, the College reserves the right to refuse to grant credit for such courses. The student should secure this prior written permission on a "Pre-Approval of Transfer Credit" form from the Office of the Registrar. The Office of the Registrar will indicate on the form the transfer equivalency at St. Mary's College. The student is responsible for filing the written permission with the registrar. This policy includes courses taken during the summer, while on leave of absence, or while concurrently enrolled as a student at St. Mary's College of Maryland. Transfer students who are admitted to the College will receive an official evaluation of their transfer credits after the College has received official transcripts for all college work attempted.

Any course taken more than ten years ago, although possibly acceptable as transfer credit, might not fulfill General Education or major requirements. The determination of which requirement(s) such a course fulfills shall be made by the chair of the department in which the course is normally offered. Transfer applicants may request an unofficial evaluation of their credits prior to admission.

Students transferring from Maryland public colleges are entitled to the rights set forth in the Student Transfer Policies of the Maryland Higher Education Commission. St. Mary's College complies with these policies. Consult the Appendix for the full text of these policies. Credit earned from all other institutions, except Maryland public colleges, is acceptable for transfer to St. Mary's under the following conditions:

1. The institution must be accredited by the appropriate national accrediting association.
2. The course must be approved by St. Mary's as being congruent with its liberal arts program.
3. The student must have earned a grade of C- or better in the course. A course in which credit has been earned but no letter grade given will be accepted for transfer only if the student was not allowed to take the course for a letter grade, or if the student can verify that the letter grade equivalent was C- or better.
4. Credits for technical (career) programs will be evaluated on a course-by-course basis.
5. The maximum number of credits that can be transferred from a two-year institution is 70 semester-hours, and 90 semester-hours from a four-year institution. The maximum total number of credits that can be transferred from any combination of institutions is 90 semester-hours.
6. Credits that are transferred will be excluded from the computation of the grade-point average at St. Mary's College.

For further information, see Computation of the Grade-point Average in the section below. Regardless of the number of credits transferred, every student must conform to all degree requirements at St. Mary's in order to obtain a degree.

For further information, about the transfer of credit, see the Appendix section of the Academic Catalog.