Spring Entrants

This page focuses on questions you may have about entering in the spring semester.  This includes graduation plan options, credit transfer, majoring in biology, pursuing a career in the health professions, and satisfying the language requirement. However, since the entire First-Year Program is relevant for your course selections, please carefully read all sections.

Graduation Plan Options

If you are not taking courses elsewhere in the fall for credit transfer, you may either:

• Complete your required number of credits at Mount Holyoke and finish in December 2015.  (Please note that degrees are conferred once a year, in May, and those who choose this option would receive their degree in May 2016.) 
• Set up a plan for making up credits in consultation with an academic dean or faculty advisor in order to complete the 128 credits required for graduation in May 2015. Your plan may include summer school or an additional 2-4 credits beyond your 16-credit program, preferably after your first semester at Mount Holyoke. We do not recommend taking credit overloads, but it is sometimes possible to do so effectively with careful planning in your sophomore through senior year.

If you have taken courses elsewhere in the summer or fall, please see the information below about credit transfer. The credit transfer will count toward the 128 credits required for graduation. If you transfer in 16 credits, you will not need to follow any of the options above to graduate in May 2015.

Credit Transfer

• If you plan to take courses elsewhere during the fall, try to select courses similar to those you would be taking at Mount Holyoke if you were entering in September.  Mount Holyoke accepts credit from any regionally-accredited institution for courses which are part of a standard liberal arts curriculum.
• In order for the credit to transfer, your grade must be C- or better and the course cannot be an online course.
• When your work is completed and grades are recorded, be sure to ask the registrar at the school you attend to send an official transcript directly to Mount Holyoke’s registrar.
• For additional information about transfer and advance placement credit, please review the registrar's web site.

Credits toward Distribution Requirements

 You may satisfy some distribution requirements through transfer work in advance of your start at Mount Holyoke. The procedures are as follows:

• If you would like advice in advance on whether a course is likely to meet a distribution requirement, please email the registrar (registrar@mtholyoke.edu). It would be helpful to include a copy of the appropriate course description in the Catalogue for her to review. For questions about science distribution, please email Professor Sarah Bacon (sbacon@mtholyoke.edu).
• To request transfer credit for courses you have taken elsewhere, please complete the online Transfer Estimate Request form in December (ISIS login required, please see instructions). 
• The registrar will review the official transcripts you have submitted through the admission process or thereafter and will confirm whether credit can be counted toward satisfying distribution requirements. Those decisions will be visible to you when you arrive, by running the degree audit in ISIS to see which distribution requirements have been met through the transfer work accepted for credit.
• If the course you choose at another school has a catalogue description similar to the description of a distribution course at Mount Holyoke, distribution credit will be granted in most cases. The registrar may refer you to the appropriate department chair if she is unsure whether distrbution credit should be awarded; in this case, you will meet with the chair, share the course description, describe its assignments, etc and receive a final decision from the chair about whether it will be accepted to meet a distribution requirement.

Biology and Health Professions

Spring entrants considering majoring in biology or a career in the health professions, please click here for special information about course selection and sequencing.

Foreign Language

Some options for satisfying the language requirement once you are at Mount Holyoke:

1. In the fall, begin a year-long elementary course sequence in a language that you have not studied before (or for which you have had very little preparation).
2. Enroll (either semester) in a designated intermediate (or above) course in a language that you have already studied. To do so, you will need to take a placement test and/or fill out a questionnaire to determine the appropriate course. Not all intermediate courses are available both semesters, so you may have to wait until the fall to pursue this option.
3. If you are interested in continuing a language that you began in high school, but you do not feel particularly well-prepared, you should still take the placement test for that language. In some (although not all) cases it may be possible to enroll in the second semester of the regular elementary sequence in the spring and then complete your requirement with a second course (at the intermediate level) in the fall.
4. In the spring semester, enroll in an intensive elementary course, such as German, Italian, or Spanish. (Intensive courses are not offered in all languages.) These are “double courses,” fitting a full year’s study into one semester and should be treated as half of the semester’s course load. If languages are not your academic strength, you should consider other options.

Students wanting to satisfy the language requirement before entering Mount Holyoke should keep in mind that:

• Instructors at different institutions may use different books and move at a different pace; consequently, one course in a language at the elementary level studied elsewhere is quite often not adequate preparation for taking the second semester of the elementary language at Mount Holyoke. We therefore strongly suggest you consult the chair or language coordinator of the relevant Mount Holyoke department before starting a language elsewhere, especially if you want to apply that course towards the language requirement. 
• If you have taken a two semester sequence of appropriate courses (or an equivalent intensive course) in a foreign language at an accredited college or university before matriculation, the Registrar may determine that you have satisfied the language requirement; however, such courses may not prepare you to continue the study of the language at Mount Holyoke. As a consequence this option could affect your options for study abroad.
• A student whose first language is not English can satisfy the language requirement if
  • she can document that she attended a secondary school (grades 9-12) for at least one year at which instruction was conducted in a language other than English; or
  • she can document that she attended a secondary school outside of the U.S. (grades 9-12) at which the language of instruction was English, but she elected a language or literature course taught in her native language; or
  • she has an O-level, A-level, or GSCE language result (for students from India, this would be a Grade X or Grade XII) or has an official record of a college-level course in her native language.
  • If a student meets at least one of the criteria listed above and wishes to be exempted from the language requirement, she must contact Dean of International Students, Donna Van Handle, who will review the student's records and inform the registrar's office if she determines that the language requirement has been fulfilled. Note that international students are not exempted automatically from the language requirement.

In general, you should consult the chair or language coordinator of the relevant Mount Holyoke department before taking any language course at another institution. Our goal would be to determine as early as possible whether the course you plan to take is likely to be transferable and how it might "count" towards the language requirement, prepare you for study abroad, and/or prepare you for continued language study at any level at Mount Holyoke.