Please note: This is NOT the most current catalog.
Transferring to St. Olaf
TRANSFER STUDENTS (STUDENTS INITIALLY ENTERING
ST. OLAF)
All students transferring to St. Olaf from other
colleges or universities should be aware of quantitative restrictions
on transfer work subsequently taken after matriculation at St. Olaf.
The number of additional transfer credits available is printed on the
degree audit.
Credit for work done at other accredited colleges or universities,
if satisfactory in grade and applicable toward a liberal arts degree,
will be allowed toward a bachelor's degree at St. Olaf. An "accredited
college" means a liberal arts institution and excludes vocational,
technical, business and correspondence schools. The credit granted for
such work is provisional, subject to the completion of one year of satisfactory
study at St. Olaf. Transfer students should seek admission to St. Olaf
by contacting the director of admissions. During the admissions process,
the registrar will provide the applicant with an evaluation of transfer
credit, evaluated on the basis of official transcripts.
Several important regulations apply:
- A student must complete a minimum of 17.00 credits
at St. Olaf or through St. Olaf programs.
- Only courses graded at C or higher at the original
institution will be given credit through course transfer.
- The actual grades earned at other institutions are
entered on the student's St. Olaf record, but are not included in
the computation of the St. Olaf grade point average.
- A St. Olaf course is equivalent to 4.00 semester or
50 quarter credits (hours). At least three semester or four quarter
credits (hours) are required for "course-for-course credit"
toward a particular requirement. A course worth fewer than three semester
or four quarter credits cannot by itself satisfy a St. Olaf General
Education requirement. A course must meet the normal requirements
of a minimum of 36 class contact hours to qualify for St. Olaf credit.
See scale under "Transfer Courses" below.
- Students wishing to apply a transfer course toward
a major or a concentration should consult with the department chair
or program director how the courses will fulfill a requirement.
- Course equivalencies are granted through transfer within
certain credit ranges. A transfer student should refer to the scale
printed under "Transfer Courses" below.
- The college does not accept P or S grades from other
institutions.
- College Board Advanced Placement credit will be considered
if the transfer student provides St. Olaf with the original scores.
- Transfer students should become familiar with the college's
S/U policy. Since St. Olaf permits only six out of the minimal 35
courses required for graduation to be taken S/U, students who are
transferring more than six courses to St. Olaf from another school
may have the allowable number of permitted S/U courses reduced by
scale. This scale will be recorded by the registrar on the evaluation
of transfer credit form returned to the transfer applicant during
the admission process.
- The 24-graded-course requirement is reduced by scale
for transfer students; consult the "Graded and Ungraded Courses"
reduction scale below.
- Music ensemble participation credits (band, choir,
orchestra, etc.) and intercollegiate athletic participation are not
awarded transfer credit.
- Transfer students who have previously received college
credit for courses taken in high school or college courses taken while
in high school should be aware of the college's policies: see "High
School Credits Applied to College" above.
TRANSFER COURSES (ALREADY ENROLLED
ST. OLAF STUDENTS)
St. Olaf students considering transferring courses
to St. Olaf from other colleges should be aware of quantitative restrictions
on transfer work.
After students have matriculated at St. Olaf, they may
subsequently transfer only 4.00 courses from other colleges or universities
to St. Olaf for degree credit, and only two (2) courses may count toward
General Education requirements.
If students earn the allowed transfer courses through
non-St. Olaf, off-campus programs after matriculation, they may apply
these courses toward a major or concentration or as elective credits
(if they receive pre-approval from the registrar and the appropriate
St. Olaf department chair or program director). But such non-St. Olaf,
off-campus courses cannot be applied to General Education requirements.
Course credits earned on St. Olaf off-campus programs or through inter-registration
with Carleton College are excluded from these restrictions.
For St. Olaf students planning to
transfer external credits within the quota limits, the procedures are:
Students must check with the registrar before making plans
for non-St. Olaf courses. St. Olaf students planning summer school courses
at another institution, and St. Olaf students enrolling for a semester/quarter
or more in other colleges/universities in anticipation of transferring
credits to St. Olaf must file a transfer of credit form (available at
the registrar's window) for advance approval. The student is given a
copy of the approved form as a receipt; the registrar retains the original.
Note that a department chair or program director may sign
the approval form without reference to the student's transcript, present
record, or future plans. In other words, a non-St. Olaf course is pre-approved
for transfer only on its liberal arts merit as an elective or as a credit
fulfilling a specified requirement. The student alone is responsible
for understanding the appropriateness of the transfer credit to the
particulars of the curriculum including the residency requirement, the
repeated course rule, the major, the graded course policy and the college's
graduation requirements as a whole. Again, restrictions on the amount
of transfer course credit are printed on each student's degree audit.
The St. Olaf faculty has set 35 class contact hours as the minimum instruction
time required for a full course to transfer to St. Olaf.
Several important regulations and procedures apply:
- Only courses from an accredited college or university
are accepted by St. Olaf.
- A photocopy of the relevant pages of the host college's
catalog must accompany the transfer of credit form when it is submitted
to the department chair or program director for approval. The chair
or director may also request the class schedule, course outlines or
syllabi.
- A student cannot apply to a St. Olaf General Education
requirement or toward a major any course worth fewer than three semester
or four quarter credits.
- Grades below C cannot be transferred to St. Olaf. Grades
from other schools are entered on the St. Olaf record.
- Correspondence courses, internships and/or independent
study courses taken through another college or university are not
accepted as college credits transferable to St. Olaf. Students taking
"Extension School" courses at the University of Minnesota
or elsewhere must check with the registrar.
- Off-campus work through another college/university
must be evaluated by the registrar in advance and is subject to the
limitations stated under "Off-Campus Programs (Non-St. Olaf Sponsored)"
in this catalog.
- In order to assure credit transfer, an official transcript
reflecting the completed course work at the host college/university
must be sent by that institution directly to the St. Olaf registrar.
- Juniors and seniors planning transfer work from other
institutions should be aware of the St. Olaf residency and senior
residency requirement.
- If a St. Olaf student has previously taken work on
a semester or quarter system, all credits on such systems will be
combined and converted into St. Olaf course credits using the scale
below, or an expanded scale available at the registrar's window.
- If credits were earned under both a semester credit
system and a quarter credit system, each system is converted individually,
using the transfer course scale, to St. Olaf course credits. Once
the conversion has been made, the course credits are added together
to determine the total number of course credits transferred.
- Courses of less than four weeks in length (regardless
of the number of class contact hours) and courses that are essentially
workshops, camps, summer theater, guides, summer jobs, assistantships,
travel programs and television-VCR-Internet-media-based experiences,
are not ordinarily transferrable as St. Olaf credit.
- Students should use the following transfer course scale.
Transfer Course Scale:
Semester and Quarter Credits Converted to St. Olaf Courses
0-3 qtr. crs. or 0-2 sem. crs. = 0 St. Olaf course
4-7 qtr. crs. or 3-5 sem. crs. = 1 St. Olaf course
8-12 qtr. crs. or 6-8 sem. crs. = 2 St. Olaf courses
13-18 qtr. crs. or 9-12 sem. crs. = 3 St. Olaf courses
19-23 qtr. crs. or 13-16 sem. crs. = 4 St. Olaf courses
24-29 qtr. crs. or 17-19 sem. crs. = 5 St. Olaf courses
30-34 qtr. crs. or 20-23 sem. crs. = 6 St. Olaf courses
35-40 qtr. crs. or 24-27 sem. crs. = 7 St. Olaf courses
41-45 qtr. crs. or 28-30 sem. crs. = 8 St. Olaf courses
46-50 qtr. crs. or 31-34 sem. crs. = 9 St. Olaf courses
Because transfer courses may reduce a student's requirements
under the 24-graded-course rule, interested students should consult
the reduced graded course scale under "Graded and Ungraded Courses"
in this catalog.
|