Transfer Student Admission

A transfer student is anyone who wishes to enroll in an undergraduate degree program at Miami and who has attended a college or university other than Miami after graduating from high school. If you have registered for one or more courses at another college after high school regardless of whether or not credit was granted, or entered the military, you must apply for admission as a transfer student. If you have earned Advanced Placement credit or college credit while attending high school or during the summer following your admission to Miami, you are not considered a transfer student.

Information on transfer admission and services can be found in the Transfer Viewbook, available from the Office of International and Transfer Admission.

Admission Requirements

You are required to have earned a high school diploma, be in good standing in all respects at your prior institution(s), and have a minimum of 2.00 GPA on your college courses to be eligible for transfer admission. Transfer students are responsible for meeting all requirements that are in effect when they first enroll as degree candidates.

Admission Prerequisites

If you graduated from high school after 1985, you are required to complete admission prerequisites to earn a baccalaureate degree. These are listed under “High School Preparation” in this chapter. If you did not complete these specific curriculum standards in high school or at the college(s) you attended, you must fulfill them in the same manner described for beginning freshmen.

Housing Requirement

If you are a freshman or sophomore transfer student who has registered for nine or more credit hours, you are required to live in university housing. You are not required to live in university housing if you will commute from your parents' or legal guardian's home (who had guardianship at time of admission), within commuting distance (50 miles) from the Oxford campus); if you are married or live with dependent children; have matriculated full-time for at least two years at another institution, or if you are at least 21 years of age before the first day of classes. For students not required to live in University housing, University housing is not guaranteed. More about Miami University’s Residency Requirement Policy (https://miamioh.edu/policy-library/students/undergraduate/housing/residency-
requirements.html).

Limited Admission to Programs

Transfer admission to some programs is limited. These programs include:

College of Creative Arts: Contact the appropriate department as soon as possible for specific requirements.

Incoming first-year and transfer students pursuing a major in Architecture, Art (studio), Art Education, Communication Design (graphic design), Games + Simulation, Interior Design, Music, Music Composition, Music Education, Music Performance, or Theatre are required to submit a portfolio and/or schedule an audition/interview by the admission application deadline. This is in addition to completing the common Application for admission to Miami University.

No portfolio is required for students pursuing a major in Art and Architecture History or Emerging Technology in Business and Design.

Portfolio and/or Audition Information

Farmer School of Business: To be admitted to the Farmer School of Business as a transfer student from another college/university, a student must have earned 30 graded credit hours of college or university transfer credit post high school graduation . Students must have also earned an overall GPA of 3.50 or higher in all graded credit hours earned after high school graduation, which must include MTH 141 or MTH 151 and ECO 201 equivalents (via AP, college credit plus, or transfer courses). More information is available at: http://miamioh.edu/fsb/admission/transfer/index.html. Questions may be directed to the FSB Student Services Office at (513) 529-1712.

College of Liberal Arts and Applied Science: Nursing
To be considered for nursing admission, students must select Nursing as their intended major on the Admission
Application. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis beginning December 1 each year until the cohort is
filled. Students must have a grade of "C" or higher in two of the following courses: BIO 171, BIO 172; CHM 131; or MBI 161 to be eligible to apply. Students must have a grade of "C" or higher from an accredited baccalaureate nursing program in comparable content for transfer of nursing credit to be considered. Decisions about transfer credit for nursing courses and military credits are made on a case-by-case basis. Official transcripts must be received by January 5 to complete the application.

Meeting minimum qualifications does not guarantee acceptance into the nursing program. If accepted, transfer students must meet with a nursing adviser to have potential transfer credits evaluated.

Transfer and Articulation Policy

Institutional Transfer

The Ohio Department of Higher Education in 1990, following a directive of the 119th Ohio General Assembly, developed the Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy to facilitate students' ability to transfer credits from one Ohio public college or university to another in order to avoid duplication of course requirements. A subsequent policy review and recommendations produced by the Articulation and Transfer Advisory Council in 2004, together with mandates from the 125th Ohio General Assembly in the form of Amended Substitute House Bill 95, have prompted improvements of the original policy. Additional legislation from the 125th Ohio General Assembly also initiated the development of a statewide system for articulation agreements among state institutions of higher education for transfer students pursuing teacher education programs.

Action by the 126th Ohio General Assembly led to the establishment of criteria, policies, and procedures for the transfer of technical courses completed through a career-technical education institution; and standards for the awarding of college credit based on Advanced Placement (AP) test scores.

Legislation from the 130th Ohio General Assembly required public institutions of higher education to: use baseline standards and procedures in the granting of college credit for military training, experience, and coursework; establish an appeals process for resolving disputes over the awarding of credit for military experience; provide specific assistance and support to veterans and service members; adopt a common definition of a service member and veteran; and establish a credit articulation system in which adult graduates of public career-technical institutions who complete a 900 clock-hour program of study and obtain an industry-recognized credential approved by the Chancellor shall receive 30 college technical credit hours toward a technical degree upon enrollment.

While all public colleges and universities are required to follow the Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy, independent colleges and universities in Ohio may or may not participate in the transfer policy.  Therefore, students interested in transferring to independent institutions are encouraged to check with the college or university of their choice regarding transfer agreements.  In support of improved articulation and transfer processes, the Ohio Department of Higher Education  has established an articulation and transfer clearinghouse to receive, annotate, and convey transcripts among public colleges and universities.  This system is designed to provide standardized information and help colleges and universities reduce undesirable variability in the transfer credit evaluation process.

Acceptance of Transfer and Articulated Credit

To recognize courses appropriately and provide equity in the treatment of incoming transfer students and students native to the receiving institution, transfer credit will be accepted for all successfully completed college-level courses completed in and after Fall 2005 from Ohio public institutions of higher education. Students who successfully completed Associate of Arts (AA) or Associate of Science (AS) degrees prior to Fall 2005 with a 2.00 or better overall grade-point average would also receive credit for all college-level courses they have passed). While this reflects the baseline policy requirement, individual institutions may set equitable institutional policies that are more accepting.

Pass/Fail courses, credit-by-examination credits, experiential learning courses, and other non-traditional credit courses that meet these conditions will also be accepted and posted to the student record.

Application of Transfer and Articulated Credit

Application of credit is the decision process performed by the receiving institution to determine how the credits accepted and recorded on the student's official academic transcript will or will not apply toward program and degree requirements.  While the receiving institution makes this decision, it will do so within the parameters of this Policy.

The following guidelines and requirements shall govern the application of transfer and articulated credit:

Ohio Transfer 36

The Ohio Department of Higher Education’s Articulation and Transfer Policy established the Ohio Transfer 36, which may be a subset or the entire set of a public higher education institution’s general education curriculum in Associate of Arts (AA), Associate of Science (AS) and baccalaureate degree programs. Students in applied associate degree programs may complete some individual Ohio Transfer 36 courses within their degree program or continue beyond the degree program to complete the entire OT 36. The Ohio Transfer 36 contains 36-40 semester or 54-60 quarter hours of course credit in English composition (minimum of 3 semester or 5 quarter hours); mathematics, statistics and logic (minimum of 3 semester or 3 quarter hours); arts and humanities (minimum of 6 semester or 9 quarter hours); social sciences (minimum of 6 semester or 9 quarter hours); and natural sciences (minimum of 6 semester or 9 quarter hours). Oral communication and interdisciplinary areas may be included as additional options. Additional elective hours from among these areas make up the total hours for a completed Ohio Transfer 36. Courses for the Ohio Transfer 36 should be 100- and 200-level general education courses commonly completed in the first two years of a student’s course of study. Each public university and technical and community college is required to establish and maintain an approved Ohio Transfer 36.

Ohio Transfer 36 course(s) or the full OT 36 completed at one college or university will automatically meet the requirements of individual Ohio Transfer 36 course(s) or the full Ohio Transfer 36 at another college or university once the student is admitted. Students may be required, however, to meet additional general education requirements at the institution to which they transfer. For example, a student who completes the Ohio Transfer 36 at Institution S (sending institution) and then transfers to Institution R (receiving institution) is said to have completed the Ohio Transfer 36 portion of Institution R's general education program. Institution R, however, may have general education courses that go beyond its Ohio Transfer 36. State policy initially required that all courses in the Ohio Transfer 36 be completed to receive its benefit in transfer. However, subsequent policy revisions have extended this benefit to the completion of individual Ohio Transfer 36 courses on a course-by-course basis.

Ohio Transfer 36 for Miami University

Important: Please refer to the Courses of Instruction section for a full course description and other details.

English6
Select six hours of the following including a second writing course:
Workplace Writing
Composition and Rhetoric
Composition and Literature
Mathematics and Statistics
Select three hours of the following:3
Quantitative Reasoning
College Algebra
Trigonometry
Precalculus
Business Calculus
Calculus I
Calculus II
Calculus II
Statistics
Arts/Humanities
Select at least three hours of the following:3
Introduction to African American Music
Ideas in Architecture
History of Architecture I
History of Architecture II
Concepts in Art
Art and Society: Prehistoric to Medieval
Art and Society: Renaissance to Modern
Multicultural Perspectives in Music
Captivating Sounds: The Beauty of Western Music
History of Western Music
And the Beat Goes On. . . The History of Rock and Roll
Performance Analysis
Experiencing Theatre
Select three hours from the following:3
Introduction to American Cultures
Native American Literature
Greek Civilization in its Mediterranean Context
Greek and Roman Mythology
Sociocultural Studies in Education
Popular Literature
Introduction to Poetry
Introduction to Fiction
Introduction to Drama
Introduction to Shakespeare
Introduction to European Literature
Caribbean, Latin American, and Latinx Literatures
English Literature to 1660
English Literature 1660-1900
English Literature 1901 to Present
American Literature to 1900
American Literature 1900 to the Present
Film History and Analysis
Enchanted Worlds: Folk and Literary Fairy Tales
Survey of American History to 1877
Survey of American History: From 1877 to the Present
World History to 1500
Latin America in the United States
Introduction to Latin America
Society and the Individual
Theories of Human Nature
Introduction to Ethics
Introduction to the Critical Study of Biblical Literature
Magic and Power in Russian Folklore
Social Sciences
Select six hours from two different areas of the following:6
What Does It Mean To Be Human?
Global Cultural Diversity
Cultural Diversity in the U.S.
Equality, Poverty, and Opportunity: Economic Perspectives
Principles of Microeconomics
Principles of Macroeconomics
Psychology Of The Learner
Human Development and Learning in Social and Educational Contexts
Diverse Family Systems Across the Life Cycle
Global Forces, Local Diversity
World Regional Geography: Patterns and Issues
Geography of Urban Diversity
Aging in American Society
Introduction to International Studies
Media, Culture and You
American Politics and Diversity
Comparative Politics
American Political System
World Politics
Introduction to Psychology
Social Relations in the U.S.
Sociology in a Global Context
Theories of Language Development
Introduction to Women's Studies
World Cultures and Intercultural Perspectives
Select six hours of the following:6
Global Cultural Diversity
Greek Civilization in its Mediterranean Context
World Regional Geography: Patterns and Issues
World History to 1500
Strength Through Cultural Diversity
Introduction to International Studies
Introduction to Latin America
Comparative Politics
World Politics
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Select three hours.3
Introduction to American Cultures
Cultural Diversity in the U.S.
Latin America in the United States
Sociology in a Global Context
Natural Sciences
Select six hours. One course must include a laboratory.6
Biological Concepts: Ecology, Evolution, Genetics, and Diversity
Biological Concepts: Ecology, Evolution, Genetics, and Diversity
Biological Concepts: Structure, Function, Cellular, and Molecular Biology
Biological Concepts: Structure, Function, Cellular and Molecular Biology
Environmental Biology
Plants, Humanity, and Environment
Principles of Human Physiology
Human Anatomy and Physiology
Ecology of North America
Plant Biology
Chemistry in Modern Society
Chemistry in Modern Society Laboratory
College Chemistry
College Chemistry Laboratory
Earth's Physical Environment
The Dynamic Earth
Understanding the Earth
Environmental Geology
Geology Of U.S. National Parks
Microorganisms and Human Disease
The Microbial World
Experimenting with Microbes
Physics and Society
Concepts in Physics Laboratory
Astronomy and Space Physics
Energy and Environment
Total Credit Hours36

Transfer Assurance Guides (TAGS)

Transfer Assurance Guides (TAGs) comprise Ohio Transfer 36 courses and additional courses required for an academic major called TAG courses. A TAG is an advising tool to assist Ohio universities and community and technical college students in planning for specific majors and making course selections that will ensure comparable, compatible, and equivalent learning experiences across Ohio’s public higher education system. A number of area-specific TAG pathways in meta majors including the arts, humanities, business, communication, education, health, mathematics, science, engineering, engineering technologies, and the social sciences, and foreign languages have been developed by faculty teams.   

TAGs empower students to make informed course selection decisions and plans for their future transfer. Advisors at the institution to which a student wishes to transfer should also be consulted during the transfer process. Students may elect to complete the full TAG or any subset of courses from the TAG. Because of specific major requirements, early identification of a student's intended major is encouraged. More information can be found on the Ohio Department of Higher Education website http://www.ohiohighered.org/transfer/tag.

Career-Technical Assurance Guides (CTAGS)

Collaboration among the Ohio Department of Higher Education, the Ohio Department of Education, and other key stakeholders led to the development of policies and procedures to create statewide discipline specific articulation agreements and further ensure that students completing coursework at an adult or secondary career-technical institution can transfer agreed-upon technical courses/programs to any Ohio public institution of higher education "without unnecessary duplication or institutional barriers."

Career-Technical Assurance Guides (CTAGs) are statewide articulation agreements that guarantee the recognition of learning which occurs at public adult and secondary career-technical institutions and have the opportunity for the award of college credit toward technical courses/programs at any public higher education institution.  CTAGs serve as advising tools, identifying the statewide content guarantee and describing other conditions or obligations (e.g., program accreditation or industry credential) associated with the guarantee. For more information, visit the Ohio Board of Regents website http://www.ohiohighered.org/transfer/ct2.

One-Year Option Credit Award

The One-Year Option builds upon Ohio’s articulation and transfer system to help more adults accelerate their preparation for work by earning a technical associate degree. Consistent with the philosophy of the Career-Technical Assurance Guides (CTAGs), the One-Year Option guarantees that college credit will be awarded for college-level learning that occurs through adult programs at career-technical centers.

Adults who complete a career-technical education program of study consisting of a minimum of 900 clock-hours and achieve an industry-recognized credential approved by the Chancellor shall receive thirty (30) semester hours of technical course credit toward a standardized Associate of Technical Study Degree (ATS) upon matriculation at a public institution of higher education that confers such a degree. The 30 semester hours will be awarded as a block of credit rather than credit for specific courses. Proportional credit is awarded toward the ATS degree for adults who complete a program of study between 600 and 899 clock hours.

The credit earned through the One-Year Option will be applied to ATS degrees bearing the following standardized degree titles:

  1. Associate of Technical Study in Building and Industrial Technology
  2. Associate of Technical Study in Business Technology
  3. Associate of Technical Study in Health and Allied Health Technology
  4. Associate of Technical Study in Information Technology
  5. Associate of Technical Study in Services Technology

Military Transfer Assurance Guides (MTAGs)

In response to the legislative requirement (Ohio Revised Code 3333.164) to create a military articulation and transfer assurance guide for college credit that is earned through military training, experience, and coursework, college credit will be granted to students with military training, experience, and/or coursework that is recognized by the American Council on Education (ACE) or regionally accredited military institutions, such as the Community College of the Air Force.

In order to streamline the awarding, transferability, and applicability of college credit, service members and veterans are guaranteed to earn certain types of credit(s) or course(s) as specified in the Military Transfer Assurance Guides (MTAGs), which are based on the endorsed baseline standards and procedures by the Chancellor.  Equivalent course(s), credits for courses, or block of credit is to be awarded and applied towards general education and/or major course requirements at the receiving institution in accordance with the MTAG guarantee. There is some training, experience, and coursework that the receiving institution may be able to award college credit only toward general or free electives.

In addition, public institutions of higher education shall ensure that appropriate equivalent credit is awarded for military training, experience, and coursework that meet the baseline standards and procedures according to the Ohio Revised Code 3333.164. This requirement goes beyond credit/course awarded based on the MTAG alignment process. More information will be forthcoming and posted on the Ohio Department of Higher Education website http://www.ohiohighered.org.

Apprenticeship Pathway Programs

The Apprenticeship Pathways initiative advocates for individuals completing apprenticeships by incorporating their learning into academic credit, thereby saving them time and money and encouraging them to advance their academic credentials to contribute to a strong, educated workforce.

Ohio apprenticeship programs partner with public community colleges to provide technology-specific statewide articulation agreements that recognize non-traditional prior learning. College credit is awarded toward a technical associate degree. Each agreement simplifies student advising by outlining how apprenticeship training in a certain pathway applies to an applied associate degree and lists remaining courses required to complete the degree. The application of the credit toward a technical associate degree in these agreements is guaranteed at the participating receiving institution.

Conditions for Transfer Admission

  1. Graduates with associate degrees from Ohio’s public institutions of higher education and a completed, approved Ohio Transfer 36 shall be admitted to a public institution of higher education in Ohio, provided their cumulative grade-point average is at least 2.0 for all previous college-level courses.  Further, these students shall have admission priority over graduates with an out-of-state associate degree and other transfer students with transferable and/or articulated college credit.
  2. Associate degree holders who have not completed the Ohio Transfer 36 from an Ohio public institution of higher education will be eligible for preferential consideration for admission as transfer students as long as the institution’s admission criteria, such as the minimum academic standards, space availability, adherence to deadlines, and payment of fees, are fairly and equally applied to all undergraduate students.
  3. In order to encourage completion of the baccalaureate degree, students who are not enrolled in or who have not earned an Associate of Arts (AA) or Associate of Science (AS) degree but have earned 60 semester/90 quarter hours or more of credit toward a baccalaureate degree with a cumulative grade-point average of at least a 2.0 for all previous college-level courses will be eligible for preferential consideration for admission as transfer students as long as the institution’s admission criteria, such as the minimum academic standards, space availability, adherence to deadlines, and payment of fees, are fairly and equally applied to all undergraduate students.
  4. Students who have not earned an associate degree or who have not earned 60 semester/90 quarter hours of credit with a grade-point average of at least a 2.0 for all previous college-level courses will be eligible for admission as transfer students on a competitive basis.
  5. Incoming transfer students admitted to a college or university shall compete for admission to selective programs, majors, and units on an equal basis with students native to the receiving institution.

Admission to a given institution, however, does not guarantee that a transfer student will be automatically admitted to all majors, minors, or fields of concentration at the institution.  Once admitted, transfer students shall be subject to the same regulations governing applicability of catalog requirements as native students.  Furthermore, transfer students shall be accorded the same class standing and other privileges as native students on the basis of the number of credits earned.  All residency requirements must be completed at the receiving institution.

Responsibilities of Students

To maximize transfer credit application, prospective transfer students must take responsibility for planning their course of study to meet both the academic and non-academic requirements of the institution to which they desire to articulate or transfer credit as early as possible. The student is responsible to investigate and use the information, advising, and other available resources to develop such a plan. Students should actively seek program, degree, and transfer information; meet with an advisor from both the current and receiving institutions to assist them in preparing a course of study that meets the academic requirements for the program/degree to which they plan to transfer; use the various electronic course/program transfer and applicability database systems, including  Ohio Transfer to Degree Guarantee web resources; and select courses/programs at their current institution that satisfy requirements at the receiving institution to maximize the application of transfer credit. Specifically, students should identify early in their collegiate studies an institution and major to which they desire to transfer. Furthermore, students should determine if there are foreign language requirements or any special course requirements that can be met during the freshman or sophomore year. This will enable students to plan and pursue a course of study that will better articulate with the receiving institution's major.

Appeals Process

Following the evaluation of a student transcript from another institution, the receiving college institution will provide the student with a Statement of Transfer Credit Applicability (Degree Audit Report). A student disagreeing with the application of transfer credit by the receiving institution must file his/her appeal in writing within ninety (90) days of receipt of the statement of transfer credit applicability. The institution shall respond to the appeal within 30 days of the receipt of the appeal at each appeal level.

Student Complaints Following Transfer Appeals at the Receiving Institution

After a student exhausts the appeals process at the receiving institution and chooses to pursue further action, the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) responds to formal written complaints related to Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy against public, independent non-profit, and proprietary institutions of higher education in Ohio.  While the ODHE has limited authority over colleges and universities and cannot offer legal advice or initiate civil court cases, staff will review written complaints submitted through its established process and work with student complainants and institutions.

Transfer Credit Evaluations

Evaluations of academic transfer credit are conducted by the Office of the University Registrar based upon course equivalencies approved by the Ohio Department of Higher Education, Miami’s academic departments and the general guidelines articulated below. Students are encouraged to confer with their academic advisor to determine whether the credit satisfies specific curriculum requirements within their plan(s) of study.

Only coursework that is transcribed on an institution’s official transcript issued by the institution’s registrar’s office or similar authorizing designee and sent directly from the transcripting institution to Miami University will be eligible for transfer credit consideration. Transfer credit will be awarded from eligible originating institutions based on the content, level, course value, length of study, and applicability of the course to Miami offerings.

All transferred coursework approved for transfer credit is posted on the student's Miami academic record at Miami University without grade. Posted transfer work will not be removed from the academic record.

Applicability of accepted transfer work will be determined by the University’s academic departments/divisions and in accordance with the Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy established by the Ohio Department of Higher Education.

International Transfer Credit Eligibility

For foreign institutions not holding regional U.S. accreditation, Miami looks to quality assurance bodies and Ministries of Education as a baseline for accepting and awarding transfer credit. Quality assurance bodies and Ministries of Education have been authorized to operate by their respective governments as either agencies of the government or as private entities (Council for Higher Education Accreditation). For the purpose of this policy, such agencies are referred to as accrediting bodies, and institutions authorized by such agencies are referred to as Institutions of Higher Education (IHE).

To determine if credit from a foreign institution is eligible for transfer evaluation, Miami University will review criteria, including but not limited to, admission requirements, grades, length of program and program type ( including degree or non-degree), credential qualifications/requirements, and course level/content at the originating institution and comparatively analyze those factors with Miami requirements to determine if credit from the foreign institution is eligible for evaluation and transfer.

Nontraditional Transfer Credit Eligibility

A maximum of 32 semester hours of non traditional credit may be awarded, and only 20 of the 32 semester hours may be in correspondence coursework.

Courses taken at U.S. military services schools will be accepted as nontraditional transfer credit on the basis of the publication, “Guide to the Evaluation of Educational Experience in the Armed Services,” prepared by the American Council on Education (ACE). Nontraditional transfer credit will also be awarded for military training and experience in the Armed Services based on the evaluation by ACE for students entering the University fall 2012 or after.

Nontraditional credit earned through non-collegiate sponsored instruction that has been evaluated by (ACE) (listed in the National Guide), will be accepted for transfer. The appropriate academic department may evaluate the course for Miami equivalent Miami credit.

Exceptions to the 32 semester hour maximum of nontraditional credit include:

  1. Credit earned either by taking national standardized examinations, such as CLEP, International Baccalaureate, or Advanced Placement tests which are recognized by an academic department of Miami University as equivalent to one or more of its course offerings, or by taking proficiency examinations administered by an academic department at Miami. (See policy “Registration” section “Proficiency Examinations”).
  2. Credit earned through portfolio submission.

Transfer Credit Appeal

A student may appeal a transfer credit evaluation by submitting a Transfer Appeal Form to the Office of the University Registrar. The Office of the University Registrar will work with the appropriate academic division/department to review and consider the appeal and will notify the student of the appeal decision.

Applying a Transfer Course to the Miami Plan

If you believe a course taken at another university or college satisfies the spirit of the Miami Plan for Liberal Education requirement, but does not correspond to a specific course, you may petition the Liberal Education Council to apply the course toward the Miami Plan. Obtain a petition from the Office of Liberal Education or its website (www.MiamiOH.edu/liberal-ed), request the chair of the appropriate Miami department to evaluate your transfer course, and then present the petition to the Office of Liberal Education. A syllabus of the course must be attached to the petition.

Capstones are designed to culminate your baccalaureate study and are rarely taken off-campus or transferred from another institution. Students who plan to transfer any course to meet the Capstone requirement must obtain permission from the Office of Liberal Education before they take the course.

If the English composition requirement (Foundation I) was waived for you by another school, Miami’s English department will evaluate your eligibility for a similar waiver. In most cases, students are asked to submit a portfolio of their writing. Contact the English department for detailed instructions on preparing your portfolio. The department will notify the University Registrar and the Office of Liberal Education of its decision. No petition is required for this procedure.