Transfer Student Eligibility
Hampshire College accepts transfer credits for liberal arts courses taken at a regionally accredited college or university if the courses are comparable in content, nature, and intensity to courses offered at Hampshire College. The courses must also have a grade of C or better, and cannot have been recorded as high school credit.

Selection Criteria
Hampshire’s admission process is highly selective. The admissions committee takes great care to evaluate each candidate individually, taking into consideration the multifaceted background of every applicant. While the admission evaluation process is thorough and personalized, the factors that ordinarily most influence a candidate’s probability of receiving an offer of admission are:

• Rigor of the high school and college programs
• Academic performance
• Evidence of a critical and analytical thought process
• Quality of writing
• Passion for learning
• Demonstrated initiative and follow-through
• Activities and community involvement
• Empathy and concern for others

Ultimately, the admissions committee is charged with making a determination as to whether a candidate is likely to be successful in Hampshire’s distinctive and rigorous academic program.

How Hampshire uses transfer credit
Transfer credit may be applied directly toward Division I expectations. Courses may also apply toward Division II, so long as they meet the same criteria to be accepted as transfer credit. Faculty advisors can guide students in planning a curriculum that takes advantage of as much prior college work as possible. The number of courses and learning activities necessary to complete Division II will be determined by the individual student’s Division II committee. Each student’s program is individually designed and rates of progress vary.

Residency
The minimum residency requirement for graduation is three semesters, regardless of how many credits are transferable. Students receiving financial aid should consult with the financial aid office regarding the number of semesters of financial aid eligibility.

How transfer credit is evaluated
We conduct a course-by-course evaluation of college work to determine how each transfer course fits into Division I, which requires that students take one course in four out of the five following areas: Arts, Design, and Media (ADM); Culture, Humanities, and Language (CHL); Mind, Brain, and Information (MBI); Physical and Biological Sciences (PBS); and Power, Community and Social Justice (PCSJ). To illustrate how transfer courses may be applied toward the Division I distribution requirement, the following list of subject areas is provided as a representative sample of the array of courses offered by each area: