Applying Credit & Courses at Bates

Reconnect with your faculty advisor & department

In your first days back on campus, be sure to meet with your faculty advisor or, if unavailable, the chair of your major department or program. This is an opportunity to renew this relationship, to share information about your study abroad experience and to review your graduation requirements.

A review of your course registration and requirements is particularly important since you may not have been able to consult with your advisor when you registered from abroad.


General College Credit

The process to receive basic college credit is fairly simple:

  1. Complete the Bates Off-Campus Study Evaluation. The evaluation is very important to the college and to future Bates students and is available online at  Garnet Gateway (go to the Evaluation Menu).
  2. The Center for Global Education needs to receive an official transcript from your program or university directly. This usually happens automatically.

With the completion of the evaluation, you automatically receive four (4) course credits for a semester abroad and other affiliated programs provided you fulfilled the Bates requirements.  Year Abroad students receive eight (8) course credits.


Modes of Inquiry Course Requirements

Please review the Registrar’s Office information on Modes of Inquiry and non-Bates courses, at this website. It is possible to earn credit towards the Modes of Inquiry while studying abroad, provided that the study abroad course is a direct equivalent of a Bates taught course.

More from the Registrar’s Office:

During the process of transferring credit from an outside institution, the student requests the appropriate Chair (in the case of the credit being relevant to a major or minor) or GEC coordinator (in the case of the credit being relevant to a GEC) to consider the suitability of the non-Bates course. If the Chair or GEC coordinator determines that the non-Bates course is a close match to an existing Bates course and the credit is successfully applied to the student’s Bates transcript, then the DegreeAudit record will be updated to reflect that the student has satisfied the Mode of Inquiry associated with the Bates version of the course.


Major Course Requirements

You need to meet with the Chair of your major department to discuss the course or courses that you would like to apply toward your major. Provide the Chair with information that helps describe the course(s) (catalog description, syllabus and other class handouts, papers and exams, etc.).

Each Bates department or program decides which non-Bates courses can be applied toward the major and the number of non-Bates courses that can be applied. The chair of the department/program makes a record of the decision. This is recorded on the

A copy of the form should be submitted to the Office of the Registrar.


Minor Course Requirements

You need to meet with the Chair of your minor department to discuss the course or courses that you would like to apply toward your minor. Provide the Chair with information that helps describe the course(s) (catalog description, syllabus and other class handouts, papers and exams, etc.).

Each Bates department or program decides which non-Bates courses can be applied toward the minor and the number of non-Bates courses that can be applied. The chair of the department/program makes a record of the decision. This is recorded on the

A copy of the form should be submitted to the Office of the Registrar.


General Education Concentration Course Requirements

Most General Education Concentrations allow the use of one or two non-Bates courses. You need to meet with the GEC coordinator to discuss the course or courses that you would like to apply toward the GEC. Provide the coordinator with information that helps describe the course(s) (catalog description, syllabus and other class handouts, papers and exams, etc.).

The GEC coordinator decides whether a non-Bates course is appropriate for use toward one of the requirements. You need to return the

to the Office of the Registrar.


You can check the status of the completion of your degree requirements in the Degree Audit on your Garnet Gateway account.