Permission for Credits

The usual course load is 15 credits or five academic credit courses in a traditional semester. Full-time students with a minimum GPA of 3.0 may be permitted to register for more than five academic credit courses. (See course load limitations below.) These limits may not be exceeded without the approval of the Academic Standards Committee. Students should anticipate graduation, major and course requirements and submit appropriate requests in a timely manner. Freshmen in their first semester at Mount Saint Mary College are limited to five credit bearing courses.

Requests for course overloads must be submitted to the chair of the Academic Standards Committee via the MSMC portal before the start of the semester. All requests must be submitted and approved by the end of the add/drop period.

*Students enrolled in the Degree Completion program may take 18 credits per semester with a maximum of 20 credits with lab, practicum, or internship, providing they are in good academic standing.

Students, while matriculated at the Mount, may transfer credits and grades of C or better; toward degree requirements for course work taken at other institutions. Prior permission for such courses must be granted by chair of the division offering the courses. Students must complete and submit a Permission to Enroll Form, prior to enrolling in a course at another school, and send it to the Registrar's Office for processing.  

Prior approval is required to ensure credits will be accepted by MSMC. After grades are posted, the student must request an official transcript from the other institution to be sent directly to the Registrar’s Office as soon as possible. The student must receive a grade of C or better for the course to be accepted. C- grades are not acceptable. Credits and grades will be transferred with the approved Permission to Enroll Form and be averaged in with your Current GPA.

Students may not exceed 60 total credits of work at a two-year institution by combining Transfer and Permission Credits. If students are taking a repeat course, please note that the new grade will get calculated into your GPA, but the old grade will always appear on the transcript.

The last 12 credits toward degree completion must be taken at Mount Saint Mary College.

Students may delete transfer credits in order to bring in additional credits of transfer coursework. The Deletion of Transfer Credits Request form must be submitted prior to transferring additional credits. Transferred courses that have been substituted for current degree requirements will not be eligible for deletion. They must fall into the Free Electives on the student’s advising worksheet. Once a course is deleted for transfer, the change is PERMANENT. It will not be eligible for transfer credit at a later date.