A Guide to Alternative Admission Pathways to Clemson
This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Amanda Poore, an Admissions Counselor at Clemson University, in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.
What’s Covered:
Clemson University offers various pathways for alternative admission. This ensures that no matter a student’s start, the result can always lead to a Clemson degree. Check out our other posts for more information about this university, including a quick guide, frequently asked questions, and admission tips.
Summer Start
Summer Start is a pathway to Clemson that’s open to freshman admits. This program is considered a full admission to Clemson and enables you to take two courses, or six credit hours, toward your degree during the summer before your freshman year.
Typically, Summer Start runs from the end of June to the beginning of August. Admitted students live on campus with the other 450 students selected to be a part of the program, so it’s quite a large group.
Sometimes, remedial summer programs are required to gain full admission to a university. That’s not the case with the Summer Start program. Summer Start students have been admitted to Clemson, but to keep its required introductory class sizes small, Clemson doesn’t have space for its entire freshman class to have a fall start.
Bridge to Clemson
Bridge to Clemson is another alternative pathway for freshman students. This program is different from the Summer Start program because it does have requirements and conditions.
Bridge to Clemson has been in place for more than 15 years. Typically, it is reserved for students with legacy status. These are the students who have familial relations with Clemson, whether past or present, including parents, grandparents, and siblings. However, due to the growth of the program, more students who are of nonlegacy status have been admitted.
Bridge to Clemson students are admitted to and take their first-year courses at Tri-County Technical College, which is a technical school about 10 minutes down the road from Clemson. However, like all other Clemson students, Bridge participants live on the campus, go to athletic events, and can utilize other Clemson resources to get acclimated to the university environment.
After completion of their first-year courses at Tri-County Tech, students should have a minimum of 30 transferable credit hours and a 2.5 GPA. This guarantees a smooth transfer to Clemson to start the sophomore year as a full-time Clemson student.
Traditional Transfer
The final alternative admissions option to Clemson is well-known in the admissions process: the traditional transfer route. Current students at community colleges and universities are eligible to transfer.
You can apply as a transfer student as long as you have 30 transferable credit hours and a minimum 2.5 GPA from an institution post-high school. Dual-enrollment Advanced Placement (AP) courses do not count toward this minimum GPA requirement.
