Hampshire College

Transfer Student Eligibility
To be considered for transfer status, students must have completed at least 15 transferable semester credits or 23 transferable quarter credits in a variety of academic (liberal arts and sciences) disciplines prior to enrollment at Hampshire.

Courses must be comparable in academic demands and disciplines to courses offered at Hampshire, carry at least a grade of “C,” and not 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 each of Hampshire's five interdisciplinary schools:

• Cognitive Science (CS)
• Interdisciplinary Arts (IA)  
• Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (HACU)
• Natural Science (NS)
• Social Science (SS)

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 school.

This list is not comprehensive; many additional subject areas are offered in each school. Please consult Hampshire's catalog and online course listings for detailed information about current course offerings.

Advising
Close student-faculty relationships are a central feature of a Hampshire education. As Hampshire gives students extraordinary freedom in shaping their academic pathways, personal guidance is an integral component of the planning process.

Transfer students who have completed one or two semesters of college work will be assigned to a First-Year Tutorial course taught by their faculty advisor. Advisors assist students with selecting courses and planning their academic programs.

Transfer students who have completed three or more semesters of college work will be assigned to a Division II committee to assist them in planning their concentrations.

Visiting students
Each year a number of students from other colleges and universities take a semester's or a year's leave of absence from their home institution in order to take advantage of the resources at Hampshire and in the Five College consortium.

Visiting students should have completed two to five semesters of college work and must be prepared to pursue Division II-level work at Hampshire.

Students should submit written permission of the home institution to study at Hampshire College, and must apply for the appropriate admission deadline for September or February entrance.

Admission is granted for the visiting term or year only; in order to transfer to Hampshire, formal reapplication must be made through the admissions office.

Note: Visiting students are not eligible for financial aid.

Transfer and Visiting Student Admissions Information (pdf)