Transfer Admissions Criteria

Successful transfer applicants have both of the following:

  • Cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher
  • Minimum of 24 college credits earned after you graduated high school

If you don’t meet transfer admission criteria, you may still be accepted conditionally upon recommendation of the Admissions Review Committee. You will be given two weeks to respond to additional questions before we send your application to the Committee. The quality of your responses can improve your chances of being admitted.

We review every BSU applicant on an individual basis. Admission is granted to applicants who the Admissions Review Committee considers will make positive contributions to the university community and be able to progress satisfactorily toward the completion of all degree requirements. In evaluating applications and appeals, the Committee also considers any special circumstances which may have affected the applicant’s prior academic achievement.

No applicant is refused admission to the university on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, disability, gender identity or gender expression.

Application Requirements

  • Bemidji State Undergraduate Application
  • *Official transcript(s) from all previously-attended colleges
  • If you haven’t earned 24 college credits after high school graduation, an *official high school transcript or copy of a GED certificate is also required

You will receive a letter and/or email from BSU Admissions regarding the status of your online application. You may check the status of your application in eServices at any time.

*In order to be considered official, a transcript MUST come to Bemidji State University Admissions directly from the issuing institution.

How to Submit Your Transcripts

Bemidji State must receive official transcripts from all post-secondary schools you’ve attended, even if you withdrew from courses or you believe that your credits will not transfer. When you request official transcripts from your previous schools, you can have them sent by email to admissions@bemidjistate.edu as electronic official transcripts or by U.S. mail to:

Bemidji State Admissions
1500 Birchmont Dr NE #13
Bemidji, MN 56601

Minnesota State Transcripts

If you attended a Minnesota State College or University since the early 1990s, chances are good that we can retrieve your electronic official transcripts from that institution. By applying to BSU, you are giving us permission to check and retrieve your official records from these other schools. In some cases, a transcript is not released due to financial obligations you may have to the school, in which case you must settle that obligation prior to being admitted to BSU.

Sometimes Minnesota State transcripts were created before electronic records. In those cases, we ask that you contact the school you attended and request a paper copy be produced and mailed to BSU Admissions.

Note that University of Minnesota schools are not in the Minnesota State system of schools, and we cannot retrieve those transcripts – they must be ordered directly by the student.

Military Transcripts

For most active-duty or veteran service-members with creditable military experience or coursework, a Joint Services Transcript (JST) will be available for you to request. Use this American Council on Education resource to get started. Once you have requested the JST to be released to Bemidji State, we can download it electronically.

Non-U.S. Transcripts

For admission, an official transcript from your non-U.S. college/university must be submitted. For the transfer of credits from your non-U.S. school(s), a third-party transcript evaluation is required. Read on for more about that.

To determine whether coursework from non-U.S. colleges/universities can be transferred and applied to your BSU degree program, you are required to have this coursework evaluated by a professional credit evaluation agency. BSU will accept course-by-course evaluations prepared by any agency approved by the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES). Here is a list of all NACES-approved agencies. The evaluation agency TEC (The Evaluation Company, formerly SpanTran) offers a discount to BSU students who use their service (If you use TEC, be sure to request the Divisional Course Analysis option).

Please note that the evaluation must be sent directly to BSU Admissions by the credential evaluation agency. Electronic transcripts should be emailed to admissions@bemidjistate.edu.

What to Do If You Can’t Get Your Transcripts

It’s possible that the college/university you’ve attended previously has since closed. Check this Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE) resource to see who might have access to the records of the closed school.

If an official transcript is not available, have a representative from OHE send BSU Admissions a letter/email stating that no record can be retrieved. If your previous school is from outside of Minnesota, find the higher education authority in the state where your school was located, and ask for assistance in recovering your record.

It is very rare that a record cannot be recovered, or that a letter cannot be written verifying that a record no longer exists. Please do as much as you can to investigate before applying to BSU.

How to Update Your Transcripts

If you completed college coursework elsewhere during your time at BSU, or if you had in-progress grades from another school (marked as “TZ” on your BSU degree audit report) when you were first admitted, please request an update to your transfer evaluation.

  • Wait to request an evaluation until you know your non-BSU grades have been posted to your transcript.
  • Transfer GPA is not calculated in your BSU GPA, and transfer grade updates will also not impact your BSU GPA.
  • Poor academic performance at another school may impact your satisfactory academic progress (SAP – or course completion rate) or ability to receive financial aid at BSU. Similarly, unpaid balances and other financial obligations at other schools will impact your enrollment eligibility at BSU.
  • Updated records from other schools may not be withheld from BSU for non-passing work, and final transcripts from all schools must be received at BSU before your program can be completed and you may graduate.

Where to Send Updated Transcripts

If you attended a Minnesota State college or university, please email Angie Coan at angela.coan@bemidjistate.edu and request a new transcript be downloaded for evaluation.

For updates from all other schools, contact those schools and request that they send an official transcript directly to Bemidji State Admissions, 1500 Birchmont Dr NE #13, Bemidji, MN 56601. Or by email to admissions@bemidjistate.edu.

Requesting non-MinnState transcripts is the responsibility of the student, although as a courtesy we do try to notify students when we are aware of TZ grades on BSU degree audit reports.

How to Re-Apply to Bemidji State

In cases where students were admitted but did not attend BSU, or had a previously incomplete or cancelled application, you will be required to re-apply.

Login to the undergraduate application using your StarID and password. You can find your StarID or reset your password.

When you log in with your existing Star ID and Password, it may tell you that you’ve already been admitted. Scroll to the bottom of the web page and click “Apply to Another Institution.”

The application will start at the beginning, and should have saved much of the info you entered previously (even from many years ago). Be sure to go through each screen of the app to ensure all information is up-to-date.

When you reach Section 6, you will see a map of Minnesota. Simply click the “Complete” button, and you will have selected BSU as the school to which you are applying.

Complete the application from there by selecting your new starting term, degree type, major, and so on. Once you’ve completed all steps, you should receive an automated email message from the application system confirming your application was submitted.

Returning to Bemidji State

If you previously were admitted to, or completed courses with BSU and then took some time away, you may need some guidance on where to start.