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
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.
Cover Letter
This is an optional section that can be used for specific information regarding your portfolio that you wish to point out.
Tabs I and II Personal and Education Information
In this section, you will outline your personal and education information.
Tab III Table of Contents
There are separate forms for Work, Training, and Life Experiences which all make up the Table of Contents.
Tab IV Work Experiences
Tab V Training Experience
This section consists of four parts and you will complete all four parts for each course or training experience.
Tab VI Life Experiences
This is an opportunity to highlight your volunteer experiences.
Signature
Portfolio Checklist
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.
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.