Transfer Admission
Each year we seek to enroll about 10-20 transfer students in the fall and another 5-10 transfer students in the spring. Occasionally, we are over or undersubscribed with our first-year class enrollment and will adjust these targets accordingly.
Transfer Deadlines and Requirements
Spring Entry Application Deadline: November 1
Fall Entry Application Deadline: March 14
To apply for admission, submit a Transfer Common Application or Coalition Application, including Hamilton’s member-specific questions.
Required Forms
- Transfer Mid-Term Report (Common Application) or College Curriculum Report (Coalition Application)
- Transfer College Report (Common Application) or Transfer Report (Coalition Application)
Questions?
- Rachel Clarey, Assistant Dean of Admission, serves as coordinator of transfer admission. Please contact Rachel with any additional questions.
- Email the following transfer student to learn more about their experience: Zoe Neely '25
Transfer Frequently Asked Questions
Students may apply for admission for either the fall or spring semester. The application deadline for the fall semester is March 14; the deadline for the spring semester is November 1.
The transfer application is accessible through the Common Application or the Coalition Application. See the checklist above for application requirements.
A transfer applicant is any student who has previously enrolled as a degree-seeking student at another institution and completed a semester or more worth of credits. This includes students who attend community college and/or are currently enrolled in an associate degree program, unless those courses count toward your high school graduation requirements or are through a dual enrollment program.
Anyone can apply to Hamilton, regardless of citizenship. Please note that international students without a currently active visa status permitting for study in the United States will not be eligible for spring transfer admission due to visa administration timeframes.
We are need-aware for non-U.S. citizens, non-U.S. permanent residents, and transfer students, which means the process is more selective for students applying for financial aid. All admitted students, including international students and transfers, will have their full need met by the College.
Yes. Candidates who have previously applied must complete the transfer application and all additional required documents (transfer college report, final high school transcript, college transcript, mid-semester grades for courses in progress, etc.) Transfer candidates who were previously admitted to the College as a first-year applicant are eligible to reapply for spring enrollment during their first year of college (after completion of one semester); those who were unsuccessful in gaining admission as a first-year are not eligible to apply until spring (for fall entry), so that we have at least one set of semester grades to consider (along with those in progress) when re-evaluating your candidacy. Please note that the maximum number of times a student can apply to Hamilton as a first-year or transfer is three.
The maximum number of times a student can be considered for admission to Hamilton College, including first-year admission, is three (3).
Once your application is imported into our database, you will receive an email acknowledging receipt of your application and providing you with a login name and password for our secure applicant portal, where you can manage and monitor your personalized checklist of Hamilton application materials.
Please note that during the peak processing times and surrounding application deadlines, we may have a backlog for application processing, and it could take us up to two weeks to acknowledge your application or for materials to show up as received on your checklist. Thank you in advance for your patience.
Hamilton's policy is to release all admission decisions online. In the email acknowledging your application, you will be sent a login name and password for our secure My Hamilton portal where you will manage your personalized application checklist and receive your admission decision. Our decision notification dates, also communicated in the letter and in your My Hamilton account, are based on your specific application plan (Fall Transfer or Spring Transfer). Any changes to decision notification dates will be communicated via email to the address you provided in your application, so please check it regularly throughout the application process.
All transfer applicants must submit an official high school transcript regardless of the length of time enrolled in college or out of high school. Submission of SAT and ACT scores is optional for Hamilton applicants. Should you choose to submit them, standardized test scores can be official or self-reported as part of your application. Please note that international applicants will be required to demonstrate English language proficiency, which in most cases requires submitting test results.
Yes, we require a Transfer College Report from each institution in which you have enrolled in a degree-seeking capacity.
Recommendations from high school do not replace recommendations from college officials. However, recommendations from high school may be submitted as additional information, if desired.
While a personal interview is not required, it is strongly recommended. The interview is informative for both the student and the admission committee. Interviews are conducted online, and advance registration is required.
There is no minimum GPA. However, successful applicants have typically earned a college GPA of 3.33 or higher.
Financial aid is typically available for transfer students and is dependent upon the college's overall budget and spending on the freshman class.
Once admitted, our Registrar will evaluate each of the college classes you have taken and accepted students will receive a credit evaluation as soon as possible after receiving their letter of acceptance.
General guidelines for credit transfer are as follows:
- Credit is granted only for courses in the liberal arts.
- Credit is not awarded for the following:
- Pre-professional courses, e.g. business, engineering, criminal justice, computer application, journalism, etc.
- College-level coursework completed during secondary school or courses in which a substantial portion of the class consists of high school students. [Some departments will allow you advanced placement in an area in which you have already completed college-level coursework.]
- Online courses.
- Credit is awarded only for courses where the grade received is C or higher.
- Hamilton course credit is based on a system where one Hamilton unit is equivalent to four semester hours. Credit from other colleges is transferred proportionately based on this ratio.
- Students who have had more than four semesters of full-time course work must fulfill our two-year residency requirement by completing four full semesters at Hamilton. In other words, no more than two years of credit will be transferred.
- Many disciplines require that students complete at least half of their academic major courses at Hamilton. Students who come in with more may still get general credit for those courses, but may need to take additional courses for their major at Hamilton to fulfill this requirement. In such cases the opportunity to have the wide-ranging distribution of courses that we hope to see in a well-rounded liberal arts graduate is jeopardized, and we encourage students to be mindful of this when considering the possibility of transferring institutions.
Hamilton College is a residential campus. It is the policy of Hamilton College that all students live in campus housing. This applies to returning, transfer, and first-year students.
Hamilton is a fully-residential, bachelor’s degree-granting institution. While the majority of Hamilton students are recent secondary school graduates, we do enroll a small number of non-traditional students whose diverse perspectives are a valuable part of Hamilton’s campus community. Non-traditional students should be aware that transfer admission to Hamilton is quite selective and that all admitted students, including non-traditional students, are expected to live on campus, according to our residential requirement.
Contact
Office of Admission