Nontraditional College Credit

Credit for Life Experience

Students have the opportunity to earn college credit through prior learning or life experience assemssment. Students earn credits through this means by completing an in-depth portfolio of their prior learning or life experiences (both professional and personal), which is evaluated by a Mercyhurst professor to determine whether those experiences are relevant enough to merit college credit.

Any student who is interested in pursuing Credit for Life Experience (CLE) must complete the first part of the Credit for Life Experience Application and obtain the appropriate signatures. When the student submits their portfolio, the sponsoring faculty member must complete the rest of the form regardless of the outcome.

Examination Credit

Advanced Placement (AP) Credit: Earned from high school prior to entering Mercyhurst University: for course equivalency and credit to be awarded, students must earn a score of 4 or above on the AP Exam.
International Baccalaureate (IB) Examinations: For course equivalency and credit to be awarded students must earn a score of 5 or above on the standard exam and a score of 4 or above on the higher-level exam.
Challenge Exams: (ordinarily provided by the Academic Department)
College Level Examination Program (CLEP): For course equivalency and credit to be awarded, a minimum score equivalent to a “C” as determined by the Academic Department is required to award credit for a CLEP exam.

CLEP Notes:

AP, CLEP or a comprehensive course examination may not be used by a student to challenge a grade in a course taken at Mercyhurst University.
Only by repeating the course may a student remediate a grade.
Ordinarily, credit received through CLEP or AP is applied to satisfy REACH or elective requirements.
All credit received through proficiency exams appear on the student transcript as PASS. Failure will not be recorded on the transcript.
Credits will be awarded based on the American Council on Education’s Semester Hour recommendations for each individual CLEP test, to a maximum of 6 credits per test.

Current CLEP exams accepted by the University are:

CLEP Exam	Course		Course Title	Cred	Min Score
Introductory Business Law	BADM	310	Business Law I	3.00	50
Macroeconomics	ECON	105	Macroeconomics	3.00	56
Intro Educational Psychology	EDEC	302	Educational Psychology	3.00	50
College Composition	ENG	110	Composition	3.00	50
College Comp Modular	ENG	120	Research and Writing	3.00	50
French Language I	FREN	102	Intro. to French II	3.00	50
French Language II	FREN	204	Intermediate French II	6.00	62
History of the U.S. I	HIS	101	U.S. History to 1865	3.00	60
History of the U.S. II	HIS	102	U.S. History Since 1865	3.00	50
Western Civilization II 1648 to Present	HIS	146	6 European History Since Renaissance	3.00	50
West Civilization I	HIS	170	World History I: Agriculture to Zheng He	3.00	50
College Algebra	MATH	108	Mathematical Problem Solving	3.00	50
College Math	MATH	108	Mathematical Problem Solving	3.00	50
Calculus Exam	MATH	170	Calculus I	4.00	55
Principles of Management	MGMT	120	Principles of Management	3.00	50
Information Systems and Computer Applications	MIS	110	Advanced Computer Applications	3.00	50
Principles of Marketing	MKTG	162	Principles of Integrated Marketing	3.00	56
American Government	POLI	100	American Government	3.00	63
Introductory Sociology	SOC	100	Introduction to Sociology	3.00	50
Human Growth and Development	SOC	108	Human Growth and Development	3.00	50
Spanish Language, Level I	SPAN	102	Introduction to Spanish II	3.00	50
Spanish Language	SPAN	204	Intermediate Spanish II	6.00	66
Analyzing and Interpreting Literature	THUM	999	Humanities / Literature	3.00	50
Biology Exam	TSCI	998	Natural Science and Lab	4.00	50