ADMISSION

APPLICATION FORMS AND DATES

Candidates should understand that admission is closed when all classroom space has been committed. The majority of freshman admission decisions are reached during the period November through March. Transfer students seeking entrance in August are usually notified between February and July. Candidates must submit a nonrefundable fee of $40 with their application. This fee is not applicable toward tuition and/or other University fees.

Deadlines for submitting an application follow:

                            Freshmen             Transfers

Fall Semester             May 1                    July 1

Spring Semester     December 15         December 1

Transfer student deadlines for submitting official transcripts (except for current term) are as follows:

Fall Semester           July 15

Spring Semester      December 15
 

FRESHMEN

English--4 credits

All four courses must have strong grammar and composition components, with at least one in English literature and at least one in American literature. College preparatory English I, II, III, and IV will meet these requirements.

Mathematics--3 credits

These include algebra I (for which applied mathematics I and II may count together as a substitute if a student successfully completes algebra II), algebra II and geometry.

Laboratory Science--3 credits

Two must be selected from biology I, chemistry I, or physics I.

Foreign Language--3 credits

All three must be earned in the same language.

Social Sciences--3 credits

American history is required. One half credit of government and one half credit of economics are also recommended.

Physical Education/ROTC--1 credit

Other--2 credits

One of these must be a fourth year of mathematics, laboratory science, or foreign language. Students interested in engineering are strongly encouraged to take a fourth year of mathematics. This course should be selected from precalculus, calculus, statistics, or discrete mathematics. The second credit must be in advanced mathematics, computer science, or a combination of these; or one unit of world history, world geography, or western civilization.

The SAT I or ACT examination scores, rank in class, academic preparation, and recommendation of the high school counselor will be weighed carefully in the decision-making process. The applicant's acceptance will be confirmed upon presentation of a final high school transcript indicating continued academic progress and graduation.

Entrance Examinations

For August enrollment, it is recommended that students complete the SAT I or ACT no later than the preceding December. Registration materials for these tests are readily available at high schools or can be obtained by contacting the College Board at (609) 771-7600 or (800) SAT-SCOR, or the American College Testing Service at (319) 337-1313. All candidates must have their scores reported to Clemson by contacting the appropriate testing agency. The College Board's institutional code for Clemson is 5111. The ACT code for Clemson is 3842. Photocopies of student test reports or those submitted by third parties, such as high schools and colleges, are not accepted.

International Baccalaureate (IB) Credit Policy

College Board Advanced Placement Program

¹Students who earn a score of 3 or 4 should register for ENGL 103.
²Students who earn a score of 2 on the Calculus BC examination, but have earned a score of 3 (or better) on the AB subscore of the BC examination, may receive credit for MTHSC 106.
³Students who earn a score of 4 on Computer Science may request a personal interview with a departmental representative to determine whether credit will be given for CP SC 102.
⁴Students enrolling in curricula requiring calculus-based physics (PHYS 122, 221, 222, 223, 224), but who earn a grade of 5 on Physics B, will be asked to meet with a departmental representative for further evaluation and placement counseling. 

Placement Tests

Foreign Language Placement--Applicants desiring advanced placement in a foreign language may take the College Board's SAT II Subject Tests, Advanced Placement (AP) Examinations, or the International Baccalaureate (IB) Higher Level Examination. The Department of Languages also offers placement exams which students may take during summer orientation. SAT II scores of 450 or higher enable students to exempt one or more language courses. These students will receive credit following the successful completion (grade of C or better) of a qualifying course at Clemson.

GED

Appeals

Admissions Exceptions

Conditional Admission

TRANSFER STUDENTS

· completion of a year of college study with 30 semester hours (or 45 quarter hours) of transferable credit,

· a minimum 2.5 grade-point ratio (3.0 preferred),

· freshman level math, science, and English requirements for the intended major at Clemson.

Application deadlines are December 1 for consideration for the spring semester and July 1 for consideration for the fall semester. In most cases, admission decisions will be made once the year of college study is completed. Summer school applicants should have all credentials sent at least two weeks prior to the beginning of the term. Admission is closed when all classroom space has been committed.

Transfer Credit

Learning experiences including, but not limited to, military service schools, non-collegiate sponsored instruction, work related experiences, etc. will not be evaluated for transfer; however, enrolled students may request credit by examination from the appropriate department for any non-transferable learning experience. For additional information, see Advanced Placement and Credit by Examination under Academi c Regulations.

Students transferring may select the curriculum that was outlined in the Clemson University Undergraduate Announcements at the time they entered the sending institution, provided they have been in continuous enrollment. Further, transfer students may select any curriculum adopted subsequent to that initial curriculum. After enrolling at Clemson, if transfer students change from one major to another, they will complete all of the requirements included in the new curriculum that are in effect at the time of the change. If all work toward a degree is not completed within six years after the initial enrollment at the sending institution, the student may be required to take additional courses.

Transfer: State Policies and Procedures

· an expanded list of 72 courses which will transfer to four-year public institutions of South Carolina from the two-year public institutions,

· a statewide policy document on good practices in transfer to be followed by all public institutions of higher education in the State of South Carolina, which was accepted in principle by the Advisory Committee on Academic Programs and the Commission,

· six task forces on statewide transfer agreements, each based in a discipline or broad area of the baccalaureate curriculum.

In 1995 the General Assembly passed Act 137 which stipulated further that the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education "notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, shall have the following additional duties and functions with regard to the various public institutions of higher education." These duties and responsibilities include the Commission's responsibility to "establish procedures for the transferability of courses at the undergraduate level between two-year and four-year institutions or schools."

Act 137 directs the Commission to adopt procedures for the transfer of courses from all two-year public to all four-year public institutions of higher education in South Carolina. Proposed procedures are listed below. Unless otherwise stated, these procedures shall become effective immediately upon approval by the Commission and shall be fully implemented, unless otherwise stated, by September 1, 1997.

Statewide Articulation of 72 Courses

1. The Statewide Articulation Agreement of 72 courses already approved by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education for transfer from two- to four-year public institutions (See Appendix A) shall be applicable to all public institutions, including two-year institutions and institutions within the same system. In instances where an institution does not have synonymous courses to ones on this list, it shall identify comparable courses or course categories for acceptance of general education courses on the statewide list.

Admissions Criteria, Course Grades, GPAs, Validations

2. All four-year public institutions shall issue annually in August a transfer guide covering at least the following items:

A. The definition of a transfer student and requirements for admission both to the institution and, if more selective, requirements for admission to particular programs.
B. Limitations placed by the institution or its programs for acceptance of standardized examinations (e.g., SAT, ACT) taken more than a given time ago, for academic coursework taken elsewhere,
for coursework repeated due to failure, for course-work taken at another institution while the student is academically suspended at his/her home institution, and so forth.
C. Institutional and, if more selective, programmatic maximums of course credits allowable in transfer.
D. Institutional procedures used to calculate student applicants' GPAs for transfer admission. Such procedures shall describe how nonstandard grades (withdrawal, withdrawal failing, repeated course, etc.) are evaluated; and they shall also describe whether all coursework taken prior to transfer or just coursework deemed appropriate to the student's intended four-year program of study is calculated for purposes of admission to the institution and/or programmatic major.
E. Lists of all courses accepted from each technical college (including the 72 courses in the Statewide Articulation Agreement) and the course equi-valencies (including "free elective" category) found on the home institution for the courses accepted.
F. Lists of all articulation agreements with any public South Carolina two-year or other institution of higher education together with information about how interested parties can access these agreements.
G. Lists of the institution's Transfer Officer(s) personnel together with telephone and FAX numbers and office address.
H. Institutional policies related to "academic bankruptcy" (i.e. removing an entire transcript or parts thereof from a failed or underachieving record after a period of years has passed) so the re-entry into the four-year institution with course credit earned in the interim elsewhere is done without regard to the student's earlier record.
I. "Residency requirements" for the minimum number of hours required to be earned at the institution for the degree.

3. Coursework (individual courses, transfer blocks, statewide agreements) covered within these procedures shall be transferable if the student has completed the coursework with a "C" grade (2.0 on a 4.0 scale) or above, but transfer of grades does not relieve the student of the obligation to meet any GPA requirements or other admissions requirements of the institution or program to which application has been made.

A. Any four-year institution which has institutional or programmatic admissions requirements for transfer students with cumulative grade point averages (GPAs) higher than 2.0 on a 4.0 scale shall apply such entrance requirements equally to transfer students from regionally accredited South Carolina pubic institutions regardless of whether students are transferring from a four-year or two-year institution.
B. Any multi-campus institution or system shall certify by letter to the Commission that all course-work at all of its campuses applicable to a particular degree program of study is fully acceptable in transfer to meet degree requirements in the same degree program at any other of its campuses.

4. Any coursework (individual courses, transfer blocks, statewide agreements) covered within these procedures shall be transferable to any public institution without any additional fee and without any further encumbrance such as a "validation examination," "placement examination/instrument," "verification instrument," or any other stricture, notwithstanding any institutional or system policy, procedure, or regulation to the contrary.

Transfer Blocks, Statewide Agreements, Completion of the AA/AS Degree

5. The following Transfer Blocks/Statewide Agreements taken at any two-year public institution in South Carolina shall be accepted in their totality toward meeting baccalaureate degree requirements at all four-year public institutions in relevant four-year degree programs, as follows:

· Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciencesestablished curriculum block of 46?48 semester hours,

· Business Administrationestablished curriculum block of 46?51 semester hours,

· Engineeringestablished curriculum block of 33 semester hours,

· Science and Mathematicsestablished curriculum block of 48?51 semester hours,

· Teacher Educationestablished curriculum block of 38?39 semester hours for Early Childhood, Elementary, and Special Education students only. Secondary education majors and students seeking certification who are not majoring in teacher education should consult the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences or the Math and Science transfer blocks, as relevant, to assure transferability of coursework.

· Nursingby statewide agreement, at least 60 semester hours shall be accepted by any public four-year institution toward the baccalaureate com-pletion program (BSN) from graduates of any South Carolina public associate degree program in nursing (ADN), provided that the program is accredited by the National League of Nursing and that the graduate has successfully passed the National Licensure Examination (NCLEX) and is a currently licensed Registered Nurse.

(For complete texts and information about these statewide transfer blocks/agreements, see Appendix B.)

6. Any "unique" academic program not specifically or by extension covered by one of the statewide transfer blocks/agreements listed in #4 above shall either create its own transfer block of 35 or more credit hours with the approval of CHE staff or shall adopt either the Arts/Social Science/Humanities or the Science/Mathematics block by September 1996. The institution at which such program is located shall inform the staff of the CHE and every institutional president and vice president for academic affairs about this decision.

7. Any student who has completed either an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree program at any public two-year South Carolina institution which contains within it the total coursework found in either the Arts/Social Sciences/Humanities Transfer Block or the Math/Science Transfer Block shall automatically be entitled to junior-level status or its equivalent at whatever public senior institution to which the student might have been admitted. (Note: As agreed by the Committee on Academic Affairs, junior status applies only to campus activities such as priority order for registration for courses, residence hall assignments, parking, athletic event tickets, etc. and not in calculating academic degree credits.)

Related Reports and Statewide Documents

8. All applicable recommendations found in the Commission's report to the General Assembly on the School-to-work Act (approved by the Commission and transmitted to the General Assembly on July 6, 1995) are hereby incorporated into the procedures for transfer of coursework among two- and four-year institutions. (See Appendix C.)

9. The policy paper entitled State Policy on Transfer and Articulation, as amended to reflect changes in the numbers of transfer blocks and other Commission action since July 5, 1995, is hereby adopted as the statewide policy for institutional good practice in the sending and receiving of all course credits to be transferred. (See Appendix D.)

Assurance of Quality

10. All claims from any public two- or four-year institutions challenging the effective preparation of any other public institution's coursework for transfer purposes shall be evaluated and appropriate measures shall be taken to reassure that the quality of the coursework has been reviewed and approved on a timely basis by sending and receiving institutions alike. This process of formal review shall occur every four years through the staff of the Commission on Higher Education, beginning with the approval of these procedures.

Statewide Publication and Distribution of Information on Transfer

11. The staff of the Commission on Higher Education shall print and distribute copies of these Procedures upon their acceptance by the Commission. The staff shall also place this document and the Appendices on the Commission's home page on the Internet under the title "Transfer Policies."

12. By September 1 of each year, all public four-year institutions shall on their own home page on the Internet under the title "Transfer Policies"

A. Print a copy of this entire document (without appendices).

B. Print a copy of their entire transfer guide.

C. Provide to the staff of the Commission in satisfactory format a copy of their entire transfer guide for placing on the Commission's home page on the Internet.

13. By September 1 of each year, the staff of the State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education shall on its home page on the Internet under the title "Transfer Policies"

A. Print a copy of this document (without appendices).

B. Provide to the Commission staff in format suitable for placing on the Commission's home page on the Internet a list of all articulation agreements that each of the sixteen technical colleges has with public and other four-year institutions of higher education, together with information about how interested parties can access those agreements.

14. Each two-year and four-year public institutional catalog shall contain a section entitled "Transfer: State Policies and Procedures." Such section at a minimum shall

A. Publish these procedures in their entirety (except appendices).
B. Designate a chief Transfer Officer at the institution who shall
--provide information and other appropriate support for students considering transfer and recent transfers.
--serve as a clearinghouse for information on issues of transfer in the State of South Carolina.
--provide definitive institutional rulings on transfer questions for the institution's students under these procedures.
--work closely with feeder institutions to assure ease in transfer for their students.

C. Designate other programmatic Transfer Officer(s) as the size of the institution and the variety of its programs might warrant.

D. Refer interested parties to the institutional Transfer Guide.

E. Refer interested parties to the institution's and the Commission on Higher Education's home pages on the Internet for further information regarding transfer.

In order to comply with these state guidelines, the following information is noted relative to Clemson University:

Transfer Admissions Officers

Becky D. Pearson, Assistant Director of Admissions

Kathryn Rice, Transfer Credit Coordinator
105 Sikes Hall
Clemson University
Box 345124
Clemson, SC 29634-5124
Phone: (864) 656-2287
FAX: (864) 656-2464

Additional information regarding transfer is contained in the brochure S. C. Technical College Transfer Guide, available through the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at the address above. Prospective transfer students are also encouraged to refer to the University's Web site at www.clemson.edu or the South Carolina Commission on Higher Edu-cation's Web site at www.che400.state.sc.us.

College Board College-Level Examination Program (CLEP)

ADMISSIONS DEPOSIT

HOUSING

ORIENTATION PROGRAMS

The 2003 summer orientation dates for freshmen are June 19-20, 23-24, 26-27, June 30-July 1, 7-8, and 10-11. New transfer students may attend either the June 25 or July 9 program. Although students are strongly encouraged to attend summer orientation, abbreviated make-up sessions are held on August 17 for freshmen and their parents and on August 18 for transfer students and their parents. International students are expected to attend the session held on August 18 after attending the mandatory orientation for all international students which is conducted by International Services and Diversity Programs.

INTERNATIONAL UNDERGRADUATES

SPECIAL STUDENT STATUS

None of the usual credentials supporting an application are required of special student applicants. A cumulative maximum of 18 undergraduate credit hours may be taken. Contact the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, 105 Sikes Hall, Clemson, SC 29634.

READMISSION OF FORMER UNDERGRADUATES

POSTBACCALAUREATE

Applicants will be classified as postbaccalaureate if they are not qualified to take at least one graduate course per semester which can be included in the minimum hours required for the graduate degree. Additionally, students required to complete eighteen or more semester hours of undergraduate credits prior to enrolling in graduate credits will be classified as postbaccalaureate. The postbaccalaureate status will remain in effect until the number of required undergraduate credit hours is less than or equal to eighteen and the student is qualified to take, each semester, a graduate course which can be included in the minimum hours required for the graduate degree. Departments or students may request postbaccalaureate status even though the above criteria are satisfied.

Once postbaccalaureate students become eligible for classification as graduate students, the decision as to eventual admission status (full or provisional) will be made based on criteria utilized by the department and Graduate School for all other applicants to the degree program. Postbaccalaureate students are expected to maintain a B average and receive no grade lower than C to qualify for admission to a graduate program.

Postbaccalaureate students can enroll in the same number of credits per semester as undergraduate students but cannot enroll in graduate courses or receive graduate assistantships. No degree or certificate shall be awarded to students in a postbac-calaureate status, and such students who subsequently wish to obtain an additional baccalaureate degree must apply through the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. The applicability of credits earned toward the undergraduate degree will be determined by the policy pertaining to transfer students. Tuition and fees for postbaccalaureate students shall be those applicable to undergraduate students and are subject to out-of-state fees, if applicable.

Students possessing undergraduate degrees or graduate degrees who wish to enroll in undergraduate courses for reasons other than future admission to the Graduate School shall not be classified as postbaccalaureate and shall be governed by policies established by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.