Undergraduate Prior Learning Credits

Admitted undergraduate students, in many programs, regardless of location, are eligible to apply for prior learning credit.* Your advisor may be able to help you identify the experiences that would be most applicable to your degree program if prior learning credit is awarded. Your advisor can advise you on the number of prior learning credits you can use in your degree plan.

You can include experiences from the completion date on your high school diploma. However, prior learning does not work for everyone. Individuals have had different experiences, for differing lengths of time, all of which can affect the amount of credit received. 

*Any UG degree program on campus or online can use prior learning credits in elective areas of the degree.  It’s up to the faculty advisor by program and department to approve the use of UNV credit for major or minor requirements. Students should coordinate with their advisors prior to starting a portfolio to make sure prior learning credits will work in the degree plan.

Determining factors for number of credits:

  • the length and duration of the experiences submitted for consideration
  • the quality of the student’s self-assessment of learning
  • whether the learning is college-level (undergraduate)
  • whether sufficient and appropriate documentation has been provided
  • whether the portfolio is in the correct order and meets all requirements

The cost to submit a portfolio for review and determination of award is $125.  The cost per credit hour for the credits you will use in your degree plan is $100 (you only pay for the credits you need). The timeline for review and awarding of credits is approximately 6 – 8 weeks. The maximum number of credits: 60

Determine Number of Potential Credits

Undergraduate prior learning credit portfolio

These are documents that make up an undergraduate portfolio. Some documents are fillable forms.  The order of the documents listed here is the order of items that need to be in a submitted portfolio.  The documents listed that are not fillable forms are documents that you will also need to include in your portfolio.

This is an optional section that can be used for specific information regarding your portfolio that you wish to point out.

In this section, you will outline your personal and education information.

Tabs I and II Personal and Education Information

There are separate forms for Work, Training, and Life Experiences which all make up the Table of Contents.

 

Tab III Table of Contents

This section consists of four parts and you will complete all four parts for each job or position.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Documentation

 

This section consists of four parts and you will complete all four parts for each course or training experience.

Tab V Training Experience

This is an opportunity to highlight your volunteer experiences.

Tab VI Life Experiences

Signature

This section will help you organize and ensure that you have completed each section before you submit your Prior Learning Credit Portfolio to PriorLearning@cmich.edu.

Portfolio Checklist

Writing resources

Below are documents to assist you in writing competencies.  You also have the resource of the CMU Writing Center. Writers now get online feedback from the Writing Center by reserving an appointment. Consultants will read your writing during the appointment and discuss your draft. Papers will be returned by the end of the day of the appointment. The available appointments will be visible to writers for the current week and the next week.