The Bachelor of Liberal Studies (BLS) degree program accepts up to 90 credits of transfer coursework (see table below). Whether you are an applicant or a continuing student, the information on the Registrar’s Transfer Information webpage has a wealth of information to answer your questions and outlines transfer procedures.
Evaluating Transfer Credit
After UMW has received all official transcripts, we will conduct a formal credit evaluation. Keep in mind that your courses will first go through the Registrar’s equivalency matrix, then be evaluated by the BLS Office for further uses. If you are uncertain how a transfer course will satisfy a requirement, contact the BLS Office, especially if you are a graduating senior.
If a transfer course involved writing or public speaking, you may want to consider having it reevaluated for Writing Intensive or Speaking Intensive credit. If a course came in designated as “NOTMJ,” you have the choice of seeing if the Department Chair of that discipline will allow major credit for the course. Course syllabi would be required for these reevaluations. All of these procedures are outlined on the Registrar’s webpage.
If you transfer more than 90 credits, you may switch out courses to satisfy needed requirements, as long as you remain at a maximum of 90 transfer credits applied toward your BLS degree. This is not done automatically, so you must either contact the Transfer Credit Coordinator in the Registrar’s Office or the BLS Office to accomplish this.
Transfer Credit Limits
BLS students may transfer a maximum of 90 credits into UMW.
There are four categories of transferable coursework:
Transfer Source | Credit Limit |
Traditional classroom experience | Up to 90 |
Alternative testing, such as AP, IB, or CLEP | Up to 30 |
ACE military credit | Up to 30 |
Life/work experience portfolio | Up to 30 |
Maximum combined transfer credit | 90 |