Transfer Students
F&M welcomes students like you and the experiences you bring to our community.
As a transfer student, it takes courage and conviction to demand a college experience that goes beyond baseline expectations. You shouldn’t have to settle when it comes to your undergraduate years.
You deserve a transformative education that will challenge you, reward you, and unite you with a community of like-minded changemakers committed to helping each other succeed.
We’ll provide you with that experience at F&M, a top-30 liberal arts college renowned for developing leaders who make a positive impact everywhere they go.
Welcome to the first step on the journey to becoming an F&M Diplomat. Let’s create a new path—together.
What's Next?
Learn More
We're always available to chat or answer questions.
Visit
Get a feel for life on campus. We offer tours and info sessions throughout the week.
Apply
Is F&M a fit for you? Review our handy checklist of what to do and when.
Financial Aid
We pledge to meet 100% of your institutionally determined aid.
65%
of F&M students receive some sort of need-based aid
“I can firmly say, without a doubt in my mind, that transferring to F&M was one of the best decisions I've ever made.”
—Jake Lamb, Class of 2025Read More »
“I decided to transfer to F&M because I felt that I could discover a community for all students.”
—Teagan Durkin, Class of 2026Read More »
Curricular Overview
Our students spend the majority of their first two years immersed in the general education program. There are two components to this program: Connections (a seminar style course devoted to developing key liberal arts skills) and Exploration (a set of requirements distributed across the curriculum to promote breadth of study).
As part of your general education requirements, you will need to fulfill the following:
-
- Connections: One Course
- Arts: One Course
- Humanities: One Course
- Social Sciences: One Course
- Natural Sciences: Two Courses
- Language Study: Up to Three Courses
- World Perpectives: One Course
The Connections Seminar is a small class limited to 16 students focused on building skills in critical thinking, close reading, writing, and oral presentation. The seminar is designed to spark your curiosity and teach you to value and practice F&M's shared commitments to reasoned and respectful discourse. You will develop comfort with debate and ambiguity and become an active participant in a culture of evidence.
Connections is distinctive, so only certain types of courses may transfer as Connections credit. If you’ve taken a first-year seminar course that engages with texts and involves close readings and analyses and writing critical essays, then you may receive transfer credit for Connections.
The Exploration portion of general education consists of 9 courses in all areas of the curriculum.
Exploration Course Requirements: An Overview
The Arts
Required: One Course
Blending creativity, discipline, and academic study, the arts give you insight into
the myriad forms of artistic expression.
If you have taken a course in theater; dance; music; studio art; film and media;
history, analysis, and criticism of the arts; or creative writing, you may be able
to receive transfer credit for an Art course.
Humanities
The humanities explore the ways people, across different times and places, make sense of their lives in diverse forms of artistic, cultural and intellectual expression.
If you have taken a course in literature, philosophy, or religious studies, you may be able to receive transfer credit for a Humanities course.
Social Sciences
Courses at F&M in the social sciences study one or more societies or cultures in terms of their social, political, or economic organization and/or their history. These courses help you navigate a complex and diverse world and foster a more just society.
If you have taken a course in economics; history; government; business; anthropology; American Studies; or sociology, you may be able to receive transfer credit for a Social Sciences course.
Natural Sciences
F&M’s courses in the physical, natural, and life sciences explore the world and its inhabitants. From the ground beneath your feet to distant galaxies, from microorganisms to entire ecosystems, you will come to understand yourself and the world around you.
If you have taken a lab course in biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, psychology, and earth and environment, you may be able to receive transfer credit for a Natural Sciences course.
Language Study
F&M’s wide range of language study options foster linguistic and cross-cultural competency. The eight languages currently being taught foster communication between billions of people and millennia of history and culture. These courses are gateways to a fuller understanding of the world and will give you a more nuanced appreciation of any other field of study.
If you have taken college-level courses in a modern or classical language, you may be able to receive transfer credit for a Language course. Other possible ways to meet the Language Studies requirement are: scoring 4 or 5 in the Advanced Placement Exam; scoring 5 or higher in a Foreign Language Course via the International Baccalaureate; taking a placement exam.
World Perspectives
World Perspectives courses engage with and analyze the diversity of cultures and interrelated historical processes that have shaped the contemporary world; develop the skills to reach beyond and question the historically dominant perspective of European and European-settler societies; and grapple with perspectives originating from outside these dominant traditions, including the perspectives of indigenous, colonized, diasporic, and/or exilic groups.
If you have taken a course that focuses on non-western perspectives, you may be able to receive transfer credit for a World Perspectives course.
The Latest from F&M
April 29, 2025
Academics, Athletics & Adventure: Koa Kaliebe’s F&M Trifecta
At F&M, Koa Kaliebe '25 wasn't just a student-athlete; he was an explorer. While he competed on the Men's Varsity Soccer team, Kaliebe also dove into intramural volleyball and basketball, a custom major in business and environmental studies, and the culinary scene of Lancaster.
April 28, 2025
Kramer Returns to F&M as Provost
Sunita Gupta Kramer, dean of the School of Science at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), has been named provost and dean of the faculty at Franklin & Marshall College. Kramer, who earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from F&M in 1992, begins her F&M responsibilities July 1.
April 24, 2025
Michael Vasquez ’25 Found a Campus that Felt Like Home
Michael Vasquez ’25 was drawn to F&M’s liberal arts approach to academics, but it was the sense of community—on and off campus—that sealed the deal when he was deciding where to attend college. "As a first-generation, queer student of color, I was happy to know F&M was committed to ensuring everyone knows they belong," he said.