All students studying away from the college, making up a deficiency, or transferring to Amherst College must review these general policies before submitting a course approval form.

For instructions on sending official transcripts, please refer to the bottom of this page.

In order for courses to be accepted for transfer credit and count towards the completion of your Amherst College degree, the courses must meet the following criteria:

  • Courses must fall under the liberal arts category as defined in the “Liberal Studies Curriculum” of the College Catalog
  • Courses counting towards fulfilling a major must be approved by the major department
  • Courses taken for pass/fail are not accepted for credit
  • Internship courses are not accepted for credit
  • Online courses are not accepted for credit
  • Courses earning a letter grade below a C will not be accepted for credit
  • All courses must be approved by the Office of the Registrar before enrollment is finalized - students can submit their courses for evaluation through the Course Approval Forms found below
  • Courses that were not submitted in the course approval form, or were not approved by the Office of the Registrar, will not be used towards the total courses required for graduation at Amherst College
  • At the end of the program students must order an official transcript to be sent to the Office of the Registrar

Study Away Students

A full time course load at Amherst College consists of four courses which is equivalent to a minimum of sixteen semester hours of credit per semester. While you are away, you must earn at least fifteen semester hours of credit in liberal arts courses in order to keep up with your current class standing. If you will be attending a college on the quarter system, you will need forty-eight quarter hours of credit for the academic year to earn the equivalent of eight courses at Amherst.  

If you directly enroll in a program, understand that the crediting system will be different from Amherst's credit system. Programs which state that three or four courses are a full course load are not always applicable for conversion to Amherst College and you may be expected to take more courses to fulfill the 15 semester credit hours.  For this reason, you need to refer to your overall credits, instead of number of courses, for the entire term to be fully equivalent in terms of credit.

  • Coursework should not duplicate or substantially overlap your prior work completed
  • If you are on Study Away and incur a deficiency because you have not successfully completed your coursework, you must contact your class dean to discuss how any necessary coursework may be made up

We expect that students studying away will return to the College at the time they originally indicated when they left. If your plans change, you must inform your class dean as soon as possible.

Course Approval From for Study Away

Making-up Deficiency Course(s)

 A student who by failing a course incurs a deficiency in the number of courses required for normal progress toward graduation is usually expected to make up that course deficiency by taking a three or four-semester credit hour course at another approved institution.

All course deficiencies must be made up based on the guidelines outlined in the student's CAS letter and prior to the first semester of the final year, except those arising in the final year, in which case they must be made up prior to graduation. All make-up courses must be approved in advance by the registrar through the Deficiency Course Approval Form. 

Transfer credit from other institutions will only count towards an Amherst College degree if a student is making up an earned deficiency and has the approval of the Class Dean and Registrar’s Office to take a specific course for this purpose.

  • Refer to your CAS letter for guidelines on credit(s) required for re-admission
  • Coursework should not duplicate or substantially overlap your prior work completed
  • Each course must be at least 3 semester credit hours to be considered for transfer credit

Course Approval Form for Making-up Deficiencies

Incoming Transfer Students

Transfer students at Amherst College may enter the college after completing the equivalent of thirty-two semester hours of transferable liberal arts coursework (equivalent to eight Amherst College courses) at another college or university. No more than sixty-four semester hours of transferable credit (equivalent to sixteen Amherst College courses) may be counted towards an Amherst College degree. 

  • Refer to your admission letter for guidelines on credit(s) required for admission standing to be finalized
  • Each course must be at least 3 semester credit hours to be considered for transfer credit

Course Approval Form for New Transfer Students

Ordering Official Transcripts:

Please request that an official transcript be sent to the Registrar’s Office upon completion of your coursework. You will not receive credit for your work until an official copy of your transcript is received. 

Official electronic transcripts may also be sent directly from the institution to the Registrar’s Office using the following email address: registrar@amherst.edu

Mailing Address:

Office of the Registrar
Amherst College
P.O. Box 5000
Amherst, MA  01002-5000