Transient Status for Mercer Undergraduate Students

Effective Date: July 31, 2023
Issuing Authority: Provost
Policy Contact: Vice Provost, provost@mercer.edu, 478-301-2110

Purpose

Undergraduate students may be permitted to enroll temporarily as a transient student at a different institution in order to complete a course(s) to be transferred to Mercer University.

Scope

This policy applies to all undergraduate students at Mercer University.

Exclusions

None

Policy Statement

An undergraduate student who wishes to take academic courses elsewhere as a transient student and apply those credits toward a Mercer degree must obtain written approval in advance from an assistant dean and the Registrar’s Office and must have been enrolled at Mercer and attended classes for at least one semester prior to this request. All transient requests must be submitted electronically via the MyMercer student portal. Failure to obtain written approval in advance may preclude acceptance of the transfer credit. A student normally will not be permitted to attend another institution as a transient student for more than two consecutive academic terms. No correspondence work will be accepted for credit toward a degree. Mercer University does accept courses from the Independent Study Programs of the University of Georgia for transfer credit; the maximum credit accepted from this program is 9 semester hours.

A student must be in good academic standing to be approved to take courses as a transient student. Ordinarily, the last 32 semester hours of degree work must be earned in residence at Mercer University. At least 12 semester hours of upper division work in a major, concentration, or specialization and 6 semester hours of upper division work in a minor, if elected, must be done in residence.

Courses that are equivalent to courses offered at Mercer will transfer as long as the institution is accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the student earns a grade of C or better in each course. Course outlines (syllabi) and catalog information may be required before approval for transient status is granted.

Courses taken at another institution will in no way affect a student’s Mercer cumulative grade point average; however, all transfer credit attempted will be considered when determining University honors at graduation.

A student may only transfer a total of 64 semester hours from two-year colleges to Mercer (see the section on transfer credit in catalog). If 64 hours have previously been transferred from two-year colleges, transient credits will displace course hours that are not needed for a student’s program completion.

It is the student’s responsibility to request that a transcript be sent to the Registrar’s Office. No credit will be awarded until an official transcript is received from the institution attended.

Additional Resources

Catalogs:
http://documents.mercer.edu/catalogs/MaconCatalog/
http://documents.mercer.edu/catalogs/AtlantaCatalog/
http://documents.mercer.edu/catalogs/RACCatalog/

Office of the Registrar: https://registrar.mercer.edu/