Other Admission Categories

Admission as a Special Student

The University accepts a limited number of special students who fall into one of the following categories:

  1. Students who have completed a bachelor's degree and who wish to take additional work in some area without working for a degree.
  2. Mature students, past normal college age, who qualify for regular admission and who wish to take only a few courses on a part-time basis, but are not interested in a degree.

Special students are not required to remove entrance deficiencies and may take any course for which they have met the prerequisites. It should be borne in mind, however, that the University does not permit any student to take all his courses in one or two fields but recommends even for special students a program of general education. No student has the academic classification of "Special" unless he has applied and been admitted as a special student or unless, after he has been admitted as a regular student, he has been given permission by the Registrar to become a special student. The fact that a residence hall student may be classified "Special" academically does not mean that he will be granted special privileges by the Dean of Men or Dean of Women.

A special student seeks admission in the same manner as a regular student. Work taken as a special student may be applied toward a degree program later if the student qualified for admission to a degree program at the time the work was taken.

Admission as a Part-Time Student

Since 10 semester hours constitute the minimum full-time load in the University and since all residence hall students are full-time students, a part-time student by definition is any student carrying less than 10 semester hours. All residence hall students are required to carry a minimum of 12 hours. Many part-time students are wives of full-time University students who wish to take certain special courses; others are residents of the local community who wish to enroll for a partial load of work only. Many part-time students by nature of their program of study are special students, although some part-time students follow a regular program of study.

To secure a permit to register, a part-time student must follow the regular procedure in filing application for admission.

Admission of Service Personnel

A limited amount of credit may be allowed for training programs followed in military service, provided this work is in line with baccalaureate requirements. Any veteran desiring an evaluation of such work must have his official transcript forwarded directly from the proper authorities to the Registrar of Bob Jones University. Credit is allowed on the basis of the recommendation in the manual, A Guide to the Evaluation of Educational Experiences in the Armed Services.

Admission to Advanced Standing

Transfer students seek admission to the University in the same manner as entering freshmen. It will be helpful, therefore, for every prospective transfer student to read the general requirements for admission and the requirements for freshman admission. The transfer student himself is responsible to see that transcripts of all previous high school and college-level work are sent directly from each institution attended to Bob Jones University. All such transcripts should be requested at the time the application is mailed to the University since the application cannot be processed until all records are in order. Transcripts are not accepted from students.

All transfer credits are accepted on a provisional basis, which means that they do not become a part of the student's permanent record until he has successfully completed one semester of resident study leading toward a degree from the University. To validate the credit on any transcript, a student is expected to earn the same grades or better in residence at Bob Jones University.

The transfer student should bear in mind that the academic year in Bob Jones University is divided into two semesters of 16 weeks each and that the unit of credit is the semester hour. Quarter hours are converted into semester hours at the ratio of 3:2--that is, three quarter hours equal two semester hours. While every effort is made within the regulations to give the transfer student full value of his previous work, no fractional credits are recorded and course credits of a fragmentary nature are disallowed.

Admission as a Postgraduate Special Student

A student holding a bachelor's degree who wishes to secure additional training but who does not wish to follow a program of study leading to an advanced degree may enroll as a postgraduate special student. Such a student may take courses only on the undergraduate level, choosing those courses based upon his objective for taking such special work.

To register for a graduate course, however, the student must meet all prerequisites in the same manner as a student who takes the course to apply toward a graduate degree program.