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
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Is F&M a fit for you? Review our handy checklist of what to do and when.
“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:
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- 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
March 20, 2025
Students Help Plan Emerging Writers Festival
Meet the students behind the Emerging Writers Festival, slated April 2 to 4. The collaborative effort between students and faculty champions the work of rising writers early in their careers.
March 17, 2025
A Love for Liberal Arts: Mark Lewis ’77
A voracious appetite for reading began at an early age for Mark Lewis ’77. That love for learning guided Lewis to F&M and continues to inspire him to give back to the College. A donor since 1987, Lewis is a recent inductee into the John Marshall Society, a growing group of alumni and friends who have made lifetime gifts totaling $100,000 or more.
March 13, 2025
Turning College Dreams Into Global Goals
With a passion for psychology and natural gift for helping others, April Rump ’25 set her sights on F&M, a college she said “just felt right.” Financial aid played a crucial role in her journey, empowering her to not only attend F&M, but study abroad as well. “F&M provided the space for me to grow and explore, making a difference in my life in ways I never imagined,” she said.