Transfer Students

Don’t Miss Your Chance at an SMU Education

Prepare for an evolving world by graduating with multiple competencies and activating new skills at a nationally-acclaimed, private university located in the heart of Dallas, Texas.

• Completion of a full semester after high school graduation
• Completion of 24 transferable credit hours* (2.7 minimum GPA)
• Completion of college-level math course or high school math sequence such as algebra I and II and geometry within the past 3 years
• Additional requirements for transfer students interested in:
• Performing and visual arts
• Business
• Economics
• Academic forgiveness
• *For students with fewer than 24 hours, the admission committee will consider the academic rigor of both the student's high school and college courses.

November 1 Spring entry

April 1 Scholarship deadline** for fall entry

August 1 Fall entry

June 1 Summer entry

**You must have a GPA in the range of 3.5 or above to be considered for scholarships. Apply by April1 for consideration for the North Texas Community College and the Phi Theta Kappa scholarships. For all other scholarships, applicants are considered on a rolling basis.

Transfer Application Checklist

• Apply for admission via SMU’s Online Application, the Common Application, ApplyTexas or MyCoalition.
• Submit the $60 nonrefundable application fee.
• Submit official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended (include dual/concurrent coursework completed in high school). All international transcripts will require a professional evaluation.
• Submit final high school transcripts.
• Submit official SAT or ACT scores (if you have fewer than 24 transferable hours to SMU). SMU won’t require standardized test scores for 2021 undergraduate applicants. We want to ease your mind about applying to SMU.
• Submit extracurricular resume and personal essay (optional, but encouraged for scholarship consideration).
• Submit letters of recommendation (optional).

Transfer Scholarships: We Invest in The Best and The Brightest smu.edu/transferscholarships

If you’re seeking your first undergraduate degree and have at least 50 transferable credit hours, you are automatically considered for most of SMU’s generous transfer scholarships when you apply to SMU. These scholarships are renewable for up to five terms as a full-time student with a 3.0 SMU cumulative GPA. Many of our scholarships can be combined.

With a 3.7 minimum transferable GPA and 50 transferable credit hours, you are eligible for:

• Highly competitive scholarship
• Full-tuition scholarship for fall entry
• Essay and two to three letters of recommendation required
• Open to transfer students from community colleges in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Trinity Valley and Navarro counties

• Automatic consideration with application for half-tuition scholarship for fall, spring or summer entry
  
  

With a 3.5 minimum transferable GPA and 50 transferable credit hours, you are eligible for:

Transfer Merit Scholarship

• $3,000 scholarship per academic year for fall, spring or summer entry

Phi Theta Kappa (PTK)

• Supplemental scholarship for fall or spring entry for active PTK members
• PTK Honor Scholarship application and two letters of recommendation are required

Erin Tierney Kramp (ETK)

• Annually two recipients of the Dallas College Erin Tierney Kramp Encouragement Endowed Scholarship are chosen to continue their college education at SMU. This scholarship will cover the cost of tuition and fees for five semesters. Students must indicate that they are ETK recipients within their application. If more than two recipients apply, a faculty panel will interview the candidates. 

We work hard to attract the best students, regardless of their financial backgrounds.

• 65% of our transfer students are awarded financial aid*
• $151 million+ in scholarships awarded last year
• 72% of undergraduates graduate without debt
• 1 of only 300 schools that are worth the investment, according to Forbes’ Best Value Colleges 2019
• 70% of new transfer students receive an average package of $36,634 in scholarships & grants
• *scholarships, grants, loans, work-study

Transfer Your Coursework smu.edu/transfer

Undergraduate majors smu.edu/majors

Hundreds of SMU undergraduates pursue two or more majors. We have you covered with more than 100 undergraduate majors and 85 minors across five nationally recognized undergraduate schools.

Meet Your Admission Counselor smu.edu/counselor

All prospective and admitted SMU students are matched with an assigned admission counselor.

Visit SMU! smu.edu/visit

• Experience the Hilltop either virtually or in person. The SMU Office of Undergraduate Admission provides visit experiences specifically for transfer students every Friday.
• Learn about transferring to SMU by attending one of our prospective transfer student events, Transfer Stampede.

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  Ask How We Can Help You Finish Strong

  SMU Office of Undergraduate Admission

  ugadmission@smu.edu
  1-800-323-0672 or 214-768-2058

  Performing and visual arts

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  All transfer students who intend to major in dance, music, theatre, studio art or film (B.F.A.) must complete an audition or portfolio. Applicants will be considered on both academic standards and on the results of their audition or portfolio. Dance and theatre majors are admitted only for the fall term.

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  Business

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  If you graduated from high school in spring 2020 or later

  If you are a transfer student who is planning to major in business and has graduated from high school in the Class of 2020 or later, you must indicate business as your primary academic interest when you apply to SMU. You must also submit an additional application in the spring for consideration of admission to the Cox School of Business. Transfer admission to the Cox School is assessed once per year. Priority will be given to students who have completed microeconomics and macroeconomics as well as business calculus.

  Applications will open in early February with an application deadline of April 1. You must submit updated transcripts at the conclusion of the semester to be considered for admission. You will be notified of your Cox admission status in early June.

  Requirements

  1. Cox transfer application
  2. Updated official transcript that reflects spring grades
  3. Resume

  You must have a 3.5 or above all-college GPA to be eligible to transfer to Cox. Interviews and recommendation letters are not part of the review process.  

  If you graduated from high school prior to spring 2020

  If you plan to major in business, you can be admitted to SMU as a pre-business major or admitted directly to the Cox School of Business. To be admitted as a business major, you must be admissible to SMU and also meet the specific admission requirements for the Cox School of Business. Cox admission requires:

  1. A minimum of 39 transferable credit hours, and
  2. A minimum 3.5 all-college cumulative GPA, and
  3. Successful completion of the required subset of courses*:

  • Writing and Reasoning 1311 Foundations of Writing
  • Writing and Reasoning 1312 Introduction to Academic Writing
  • Economics 1311
  • Economics 1312
  • Math 1309/1337
  • Statistics 2301/2331 (or approved alternative course)
  • Accounting 2301

  *Transfer students with 24 or more transferable hours who complete course equivalents for WRTR 10XX and 10YY post-high-school graduation (typically ENGL 1301 and 1302) are not required to complete the WRTR courses.

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  Economics

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  To enter SMU as an economics major, transfer students must have 30 or more hours of transfer credit and a minimum all-college cumulative GPA of 2.7. In addition, students must have a 2.7 GPA on a subset of courses equivalent to SMU’s DISC 1312 (Introduction to Academic Discourse); ECO 1311 (Principles of Microeconomics); ECO 1312 (Principles of Macroeconomics); MATH 1309 (Introduction to Calculus for Business and Social Sciences) or MATH 1337 (Calculus I); and STAT 2301 (Statistics for Modern Business Decisions) or STAT 2331 (Introduction to Statistical Methods).

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  Math readiness

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  Applicants must have completed a college-level math course or a high school sequence of Algebra I, Algebra II and Plane Geometry within the last three years to be considered “math ready” for transfer admission. We recommend that all transfer students complete an English composition course, a lab science course, a math course beyond college algebra and at least one course in your intended major before transferring.

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  Academic forgiveness

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  SMU allows you to dismiss coursework taken 10 or more years prior to the term of admission from consideration in your application process as well as from inclusion in your transferable GPA and hours earned for transfer to SMU. Applicants must submit official transcripts and SMU’s Academic Forgiveness Form along with all other required application materials.

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