Lawrence awards credit for courses taken at accredited colleges and universities, provided you have earned a grade of C- or better and that the course is similar in content and length to a Lawrence course. You can use transfer credit to fulfill Lawrence General Education Requirements, except for the writing and speaking general education requirements. Individual departments will determine if transfer credit fulfills major requirements.
If you are transferring credit from an institution outside the United States, please submit your transcripts/documents to Education Credential Evaluators, Inc. for evaluation. (You will be responsible for any fees incurred.) Lawrence's registrar will use your evaluation report in awarding transfer credit.
At Lawrence, a standard course is valued at 6 units. A normal course load for a Lawrence trimester is three standard courses (18 units). For purposes of transcript evaluation, 6 units at Lawrence may be considered the equivalent of 3.3 semester hours or 5 quarter hours at other institutions. A 6-unit Lawrence course what includes extra class or laboratory sessions is the equivalent in content to courses valued at 5 semester hours or 8 quarter hours at some other instutitions.
For your credits to be reviewed by our registrar, your transcript must be official (i.e., your registrar must send it directly to our admissions office in a sealed envelope). Lawrence offers official evaluation only after making offers of admission. At that time, we will provide an evaluation report that includes a list of credits granted toward a Lawrence degree, along with a statement of the class to which you have been admitted. (If you are in the process of completing an academic term while you're applying to Lawrence, we will only be able to give you an official course evaluation on the courses you have completed. We will send you a revised evaluation after we receive your final transcript and our registrar has reviewed it.)
In some cases, the registrar may ask you for further explanations of course descriptions from your prior institution. We may also ask that you meet with a Lawrence department chair of a specific department to receive approval for credit in that academic discipline. Before receiving credit in the areas of mathematics, music, and foreign languages, we may also ask you to take a placement test after enrolling.
