Prospective Transfer Student FAQ

Students are able to select any major when they apply for admission at UMBC. However, only students who have passed the Gateway and adhered to the repeat policy will be eligible to progress in the major and move on to upper-level major coursework in the Computer Science and Engineering programs. All Computer Science and Engineering students are admitted as Pre-Major- Pre-Chemical Engineering, Pre-Mechanical Engineering, Pre-Computer Engineering, or Pre-Computer Science. Transfer students will be evaluated for eligibility by the College of Engineering and Information Technology, and will receive a notice in their University admissions letter and a follow-up email to their UMBC Gmail account if they are not eligible for their intended program. Please select the major below to see the Gateway and course repeat requirements.

Chemical Engineering
Computer Engineering
Computer Science
Mechanical Engineering

Information Systems and Business Technology Administration majors are admitted directly into the major. Information Systems has a gateway and course repeat policies that must be adhered to in order to remain eligible for the major. Business Technology Administration does not have a gateway. Please see the information below for the Information Systems Gateway requirements.

Information Systems

Students are allowed one repeat of any class (for a total of two attempts).  Withdrawals and equivalent courses taken at other institutions count as attempts. Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Chemical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering do not allow third attempts.  Students with multiple attempts in a course will not meet the eligibility requirements for the Engineering and Computer Science degree programs and will need to choose another major.

Transfer students who list a COEIT major on their transfer application are reviewed for major eligibility as part of their application review. If you are not eligible for your intended major when you applied to UMBC, you will be informed of your ineligibility as part of your Admissions Letter, and you will recieve further communication about this prior to your Orientation Registration Appointment.

If you do not meet the gateway requirements or adhere to the course repeat policy of your specific major you will not be able to pursue that major. The College of Engineering and Information Technology does not have conditional acceptance or probation in any of its majors. Alternaitve degree plans cab be discussed with a COEIT Transfer Advisor

As long as you have met the grade requirements in the courses you have completed and adhered to the course repeat policy of your specific major you will be able to take the rest of your gateway courses at UMBC. You will be designated as a Pre-Major until you have completed a semester at UMBC, passed all of your Gateway courses, and your entire transfer record has been evaluated and processed by the College of Engineering and Information Technology.

All transfer students will be admitted as a Pre-Major and will remain a Pre-Major until all final transcripts have been received, evaluated, and posted by the Registrar’s Office and then processed by the College of Engineering and Information Technology. Typically, this will occur after the first semester of enrollment at UMBC. Being listed as Pre-Major will not stop you from enrolling in your next major coursework as long as all of the necessary prerequistes have been met for the course in question.

Each course a student takes at another institution is evaluated and courses may come in as either elective credit (which can be used towards the 120 credits required for graduation) or a direct equivalent (meaning the class counts as a specific class at UMBC).

When planning to transfer, we generally recommend taking courses required for the first two years of the program you are interested in. The more classes that are a direct equivalent to major requirements the farther along in the program you will be when you transfer. You can refer to our four-year guides to get a sense of what courses you may want to pursue at another institution.

Business Technology Administration
Chemical Engineering
Computer Engineering
Computer Science
Information Systems
Mechanical Engineering

To get specific course reccomendations for your current standing in your intended major, please fill out our Pre-Transfer Advising form.

Any student attending a Maryland Community College can refer to ARTSYS to determine the course equivalencies. By looking up the classes you are currently taking or plan to take you can determine exactly how that class will transfer into the program. The more classes you take that meet major requirements the farther along in the program you will be when you begin.

If you have attended a higher education institution other than a Maryland Community College you should consult UMBC’s Course Articulation Database to see if the specific course you have taken has already been evaluated for UMBC credit. If the courses you have taken are not listed in our database you may need to turn in copies of syllabi to have courses evaluated. You will be able to do this once you have been accepted and your courses have been reviewed by a transfer evaluator. If they need more information, or if your courses transfer as electives instead of direct equivalents, you can go through our Course Review process to have courses evaluated.

At this time most of our programs are evaluated on a course-by-course basis. This means that regardless of your major we will evaluate each class individually to determine if we can transfer it in, and if so, if it will count as elective credit or a direct course equivalent. No matter what your current major or program is, we recommend that students work towards becoming Calculus-Ready (taking any necessary math prereqs to prepare for calculus), as our Computing and Engineering programs all require calculus-based math and science sequences. Students will not be able to take major-related classes until they are able to enroll in a Calculus I or higher math class.

Prospective students should also be aware that many classes required for AAS* programs do not transfer to UMBC as direct course equivalences and may count only as electives. When choosing your program at your current institution, take some time to learn how the classes required for your program will transfer to UMBC by referring to ARTSYS or UMBC’s Course Articulation Database.

*An Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree is a two-year, career education degree designed to prepare students for entry into the workforce. However, these programs do not preclude a student from transferring to a technical baccalaureate degree program such as a bachelor’s degree in technology or a bachelor’s degree in technical or professional studies, or from transferring non-technical courses to a four-year institution.

Possibly. Each course is individually evaluated to determine course equivalencies. You will have to meet all course requirements for any major you pursue at UMBC. The amount of time it will take you to finish a Bachelor’s Degree is determined by many things including the courses you are transferring, the number of remaining courses, course availability, and course sequencing. For a clearer picture of what your time at UMBC might look like, please fill out a request for Pre-Transfer Advising.

Please refer to UMBC’s Policy on the Awarding of Transfer Credit for the most up-to-date information on transfer credit policy from the Registrar’s Office.

Students are encouraged to finish any courses in sequence (such as Chemistry I and Chemistry II or Computer Science I and Computer Science II) at the same institution. This is also recommended for language courses.

The language requirement consists of completion of a foreign language through the 201 level or demonstrated proficiency at that level. Proficiency, the number of courses needed to complete the requirement, and course placement, are determined by previous experience as follows:

• completion of level 4 or higher of a language in high school

• corresponding AP, IB or CLEP credit (see Appendix II, Undergraduate Catalog), OR

• completion of a language through the 201 level at a regionally accredited college/university.

International students proficient in a language other than English may receive equivalency for the 201-level proficiency requirement, provided that they present documentation showing that they have studied at the secondary school level (i.e., sixth grade or above) for at least one year in a country other than the continental United States.

More information about how to fulfill your Language Requirement can be found here.

Unless you have transferable credit for Precalculus or a higher level math class we encourage students to take the math placement test. If you need to take the math placement test, please do so prior to your orientation date so that you can enroll in the appropriate classes based on your math placement. More information on the Math Placement test can be found here.

You will register for classes at orientation. We recommend that incoming transfer students register for the earliest orientation date that they are offered so that they can register for classes earlier in the period.

The College of Engineering Information Technology does not regularly offer online or evening classes for many of the classes required to complete Computing and Engineering degrees.

We recognize that many of our transfer students work or take care of family responsibilities alongside their course load. Below is a chart of recommendations for balancing credit hours and other responsibilities.

While it is ultimately the student’s responsibility to find a balance that works for them, the COEIT Academic Advisors are one of the many resources offered to students to help navigate the rigor of our academic programs successfully.

COEIT offers Pre-Transfer Advising to prospective students interested in any of the COEIT majors.

We also reccomend connecting with your Undergraduate Admissions Counselor to discuss the application and any Transfer-Programs that may be applicable to you.

The Office of Financial Aid puts out a yearly Cost Calculator as a resource for students and families. For best consideration for Financial Aid assistance, students should complete their FASFA and their UMBC Transfer application by the priority deadlines. Incoming transfer students are also eligible for Merit Scholarships, and various scholars programs which may aid in funding. Specific questions regarding financial aid and scholarships should be directed to the Office of Financial Aid.