Transfer Students

Applicants must have a minimum of 60 transferrable credits to be eligible to transfer to UF. The Office of Admissions determines the general transferability of credit earned at other institutions. Our Admissions and Advising staff determine how transfer credit satisfies the specific degree’s course requirements. Students who have only taken credits at a state college in Florida may transfer a maximum of 60 credits to UF, regardless of how many credits the student has actually taken; i.e., if a student completes more than 90 credits at a state college in Florida, no more than 60 hours will transfer from that state college as part of the hours required for a UF degree.

Students who have achieved advanced upper division status, 90 credits or more, at a four-year institution may not be admitted, and in turn, are encouraged to complete their degree at their current institution and consider the University of Florida for graduate degree programs.

A minimum 3.0 GPA is required for the following courses:

• Art History 1 (Survey of Western art from ancient to renaissance)
• Art History 2 (Survey of Western art from renaissance through modern)
• One ART studio course (e.g. drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, photography, etc.)
• Two consecutive semesters of introductory college-level foreign language (e.g., French 1 and French 2; or German 1 and German 2; or Spanish 1 and Spanish 2, etc.)

NOTE: The art history foreign language prerequisites are separate from UF’s basic transfer eligibility “foreign language competency” requirement.

NOTE: While the prerequisite courses do not have to be completed prior to application submission, all prerequisite courses MUST be completed prior to attending UF. If you are not able to finish prerequisites at your current institution, please talk with Dana Myers, the undergraduate advisor, for recommendations.

Applicants must have a minimum of 60 transferrable credits to be eligible to transfer to UF. The Office of Admissions determines the general transferability of credit earned at other institutions. Our Admissions and Advising staff determine how transfer credit satisfies the specific degree’s course requirements. Students who have only taken credits at a state college in Florida may transfer a maximum of 60 credits to UF, regardless of how many credits the student has actually taken; i.e., if a student completes more than 90 credits at a state college in Florida, no more than 60 hours will transfer from that state college as part of the hours required for a UF degree.

Students who have achieved advanced upper division status, 90 credits or more, at a four-year institution may not be admitted, and in turn, are encouraged to complete their degree at their current institution and consider the University of Florida for graduate degree programs.

A 3.0 minimum GPA is required in the following courses:

• 2-Dimensional Design
• 3-Dimensional Design
• Drawing 1
• Drawing 2
• Art History 1 (Survey of western art from ancient to Renaissance)
• Art History 2 (Survey of western art from Renaissance through modern)
• Two Additional Studio Courses

NOTE: ART1001 Art Fundamentals is not accepted as a perquisite.  Additionally, while the prerequisite courses do not have to be completed prior to application submission, all prerequisite courses MUST be completed prior to attending UF; prerequisites may NOT be taken at UF. Applicants are strongly encouraged to complete as many studio prerequisites as possible, prior to submitting application as the work created in these courses usually contributes to a stronger portfolio. The studio prerequisites listed above are the minimum requirements. The SA+AH highly recommends that all students interested in transferring into any of our majors take more than the minimum required studio courses. Please consult with the Undergraduate Advisor for recommendations on which additional studios would be best to take.

All Art Education transfer students must submit passing test scores on the General Knowledge (GK) portion of the Florida Teacher Certification Exam (FTCE) as a prerequisite for admission.

You are also required to have completed the following prerequisite courses with at least a 3.0 GPA: 

• 2-Dimensional Design
• 3-Dimensional Design
• Drawing 1
• Drawing 2
• Art History 1 (Survey of western art from ancient to Renaissance)
• Art History 2 (Survey of western art from Renaissance through modern)
• Two Additional Studio Courses
• Intro to Art Education or Intro to Education

NOTE: While the prerequisite courses do not have to be completed prior to application submission, all prerequisite courses MUST be completed prior to attending UF; prerequisites may NOT be taken at UF. Applicants are strongly encouraged to complete as many studio prerequisites as possible, prior to submitting application as the work created in these courses usually contributes to a stronger portfolio. The studio prerequisites listed above are the minimum requirements. The SA+AH highly recommends that all students interested in transferring into any of our majors take more than the minimum required studio courses. Please consult with the Undergraduate Advisor for recommendations on which additional studios would be best to take.

A 3.0 minimum GPA is required in the following courses:

• 2-Dimensional Design
• 3-Dimensional Design
• Drawing 1
• Drawing 2
• Art History 1 (Survey of western art from ancient to Renaissance)
• Art History 2 (Survey of western art from Renaissance through modern)
• Two Additional Studio Courses

It is strongly recommended that students who wish to take Art + Technology courses have calculus or pre-calculus experience/coursework.

NOTE: While the prerequisite courses do not have to be completed prior to application submission, all prerequisite courses MUST be completed prior to attending UF; prerequisites may NOT be taken at UF. Applicants are strongly encouraged to complete as many studio prerequisites as possible, prior to submitting application as the work created in these courses usually contributes to a stronger portfolio. The studio prerequisites listed above are the minimum requirements. The SA+AH highly recommends that all students interested in transferring into any of our majors take more than the minimum required studio courses. Please consult with the Undergraduate Advisor for recommendations on which additional studios would be best to take.

Applicants must have a minimum of 60 transferrable credits to be eligible to transfer to UF. The Office of Admissions determines the general transferability of credit earned at other institutions. Our Admissions and Advising staff determine how transfer credit satisfies the specific degree’s course requirements. Students who have only taken credits at a state college in Florida may transfer a maximum of 60 credits to UF, regardless of how many credits the student has actually taken; i.e., if a student completes more than 90 credits at a state college in Florida, no more than 60 hours will transfer from that state college as part of the hours required for a UF degree.

Students who have achieved advanced upper division status, 90 credits or more, at a four-year institution may not be admitted, and in turn, are encouraged to complete their degree at their current institution and consider the University of Florida for graduate degree programs.

A 3.0 minimum GPA is required in the following courses:

• 2-Dimensional Design
• 3-Dimensional Design
• Drawing 1
• Drawing 2
• Art History 1 (Survey of western art from ancient to renaissance)
• Art History 2 (Survey of western art from renaissance through modern)
• An additional studio course in graphic design, preferably focusing on design theories, methods, and processes
• An additional studio course in graphic design, preferably focusing on typography

NOTE: While the prerequisite courses do not have to be completed prior to application submission, all prerequisite courses MUST be completed prior to attending UF; prerequisites may NOT be taken at UF. Applicants are strongly encouraged to complete as many studio prerequisites as possible, prior to submitting application as the work created in these courses usually contributes to a stronger portfolio. The studio prerequisites listed above are the minimum requirements. The SA+AH highly recommends that all students interested in transferring into any one of our majors take more than the minimum required studio courses. Please consult with the Undergraduate Advisor for recommendations on which additional studios would be best to take.

Portfolio Application
The application includes the following parts: 1) response to questions in SlideRoom, 2) response to prompts, 3) transcripts, 4) résumé, and 5) portfolio. Use this application to demonstrate your design abilities (including typography — at UF, we expect to see projects from Typography 1 and Visual Methods and Processes courses), demonstrate your understanding of the iterative design process (see prompt 3), and communicate your understanding and motivations to study graphic design.

Statement of Intent/Response to Prompts
The statement/response to prompts for the graphic design major must include responses to the following three prompts, submitted in one PDF. It should be designed/typeset and (i.e., consider the type settings, point size, and margins). The faculty review committee is interested in the substance of your responses to these three prompts, your communication abilities, and how you follow instructions.

Statement Instructions
Respond to each prompt below (up to 350 words each).

1. Tell us in detail about the thinking, research, and creative process behind one of your best design works, including challenges experienced and how you responded to them (this may be designed and include images if needed or refer to a project title).
2. Tell us what past experiences have motivated your interest in graphic design as a major.
3. Share your goals for studying graphic design, including your long-term goals as a designer.

Why do I need a portfolio?
In order to be admitted, you are required to assemble a collection of work that demonstrates your design and creative potential for advanced study in graphic design. Although it is important that you include enough design work to demonstrate your abilities, the entire application helps the Graphic Design faculty review committee evaluate your achievements as well as potential for success as a designer.

Consider the following recommendations when compiling your portfolio:

• Select creative works that best represent you and your design, creative, artistic, conceptual, and critical thinking abilities. There is no formula for crafting the right portfolio—the final decision of what you put in your portfolio is up to you.
• Show previous work from graphic design courses. Include any exercises, studies, sketches, or projects that demonstrate your prior design experience. Ways of representing design abilities include typography, identity, package, icon, app design, web design, and illustration outcomes as well as design process. You must include examples that demonstrate your proficiency with typography. Expect that half of your portfolio will be graphic design or design-related.
• DO NOT include client work in your portfolio. While there are rare exceptions, this work generally does not show the depth or breadth of your potential.
• Include at least one work you can use to share your thinking, research, and creative process. For this work, make sure you include some examples of your design process, including sketches/drawings.
• Demonstrate your capabilities through various media. You might include some examples of good work from other courses like drawing, photography, computer graphics/video, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and so on. However, don’t overload the portfolio with an eclectic diversity—choose one or two alternative areas to strongly emphasize. These might be works from your second and third choice areas or simply outstanding work you really want to share.

Image Instructions
The SlideRoom application allows you to upload your work as a single PDF file, and we ask for it to contain no more than 20 pages/slides. We understand that some works benefit from showing multiple images or details. The image file examples on this page (below) are some examples of how you might show a series of work, multiple pages of a book, or details on one slide.

NOTE: All students accepted into the Graphic Design program must lease, purchase, or otherwise obtain the use of an appropriate computer system at the outset of the two-year Upper Division program.