Nontraditional College Credit

Credit for Life Experience

Students have the opportunity to earn college credit through prior learning or life experience assessment. 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.

Students who wish to obtain Credit for Life Experience (CLE) must first speak with their academic advisor or counselor to determine what CLE opportunities exist in their program. The student will then work with sponsoring faculty member to complete the Application for Credit for Life Experience before submitting a portfolio of their work that speaks to the outcomes of the course or experience in which they wish to obtain credit. Students may not apply to earn CLE for any course that has already been attempted. The maximum allowable CLE credits for any student is 12 credits toward an Associate’s degree, 24 credits toward a Bachelor’s degree, and 6 credits toward a graduate degree. Students who earn CLE are responsible for the associated transcription fees.

Any student who is interested in pursuing CLE should speak to their faculty advisor or department chair regarding the portfolio requirements and associated scoring rubrics. Students should be aware of all requirements and expectations for the portfolio before they decide whether to prepare a CLE application and associated portfolio. When the student submits their portfolio, the sponsoring faculty member must complete the rest of the form regardless of the outcome.

This form should be submitted to the OAA within 10 days of the student’s portfolio submission, independent of whether they successfully earn the CLE. The student should receive a duplicate copy, signed by the sponsoring faculty member. Upon successful completion of this process, the courses will be added to the transcript and students will be expected to pay all associated fees (see fee schedule).

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.
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.
CLEP tests cannot be used to remediate a course that a student is required to repeat.
CLEP credits cannot be awarded until the student has paid the associated CLEP fee (see fee schedule)

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