Preparing to Transfer

Transfer Applicant Definition
Our office will consider you a transfer applicant if you complete 12 or more semester credits (18 quarter credits) of college coursework after graduating from high school (or earning a GED) and before your enrollment at Lewis & Clark. If you are uncertain whether to apply as a transfer or as a first-year, please contact our office.

Admission Requirements
Transfer admission is selective; we generally offer admission to fewer than half of the transfers who apply. There are, however, no GPA or credit distribution requirements to transfer to Lewis & Clark: We do not require students to have an associate’s or other transfer degree, to have completed a set list of courses, or earned a minimum GPA. We enroll transfers with first-year, sophomore, and junior standing.

Our top priority is to make sure any student we admit to the college will succeed academically in the classroom. We look for transfer students who have been successful in a balanced selection of challenging courses that match up well to Lewis & Clark’s traditional liberal arts and sciences curriculum. These include college-level math, lab science, a language other than English, and writing intensive coursework, as well as courses in the social sciences and humanities. Although we do not have a set GPA requirement for admission, most successful transfer applicants have maintained at least a B (3.0) average in their academic classes.

Majors
When students are admitted to Lewis & Clark College, they are admitted to the undergraduate program as a whole, not to specific academic departments. Once a student has enrolled, he or she can choose any of the 29 majors we offer. There is no major application process, so any student can major in any area, assuming he or she can fulfill the major requirements.

Evidence of progress in a major program is welcomed in our transfer applicants, particularly those who have completed several terms of college, but not if the pursuit of that interest has led to an unbalanced course selection. Please note that anticipated major interest is not a factor in our admissions process.