Policies for Transfer Students

Bates College General Education Requirements Policies for Transfer Students in the classes of 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Students may view the General Education requirements in the Bates Catalog. The following policies for transfer students apply.

Writing (W1, W2, W3)

  • A student who transfers to Bates as a first-year student (i.e., a student who will be enrolled at Bates for 7 semesters) is required to complete the W1 requirement by the end of his or her first semester at Bates.
  • A student who transfers to Bates as a sophomore or junior (i.e., a student who will be enrolled at Bates for 4, 5, or 6 semesters) is not required to take a W1 course. He or she is required only to take one W2 course during the sophomore or junior year and one W3 course during the senior year.
  • W1, W2, and W3 requirements may only be satisfied by courses taken at Bates.

General Education Concentrations (GECs) 

  • A student who transfer to Bates in the 2nd semester of his or her sophomore year, or later, (i.e., a student who will be enrolled at Bates for 4 or 5 semesters), is required to complete only 1 GEC, not 2.
  • If a transferred course is deemed by Bates College to be directly equivalent to a particular Bates course, then the transferred course can be used to satisfy any GEC requirements that the Bates course satisfies.
  • To be applied toward a Concentration, the non-Bates course without an equivalent must be judged by the Concentration’s Coordinator to be comparable to a Bates course already in the Concentration.

Scientific Reasoning, Laboratory Experience, and Quantitative Literacy (S, L, and Q)

  • A non-Bates course may be applied toward the S, L, Q  requirement if directly equivalent to a Bates course that satisfies the requirement or with prior approval of the appropriate department/program chair and the chair of the committee that oversees these requirements.