The University awards credit for successful completion of the College Board Advanced Placement (AP) and the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examinations (IB). Students must have official test score reports sent directly from the testing service to UC Merced to receive credit. Students will meet with advising staff during New Student Orientation to discuss which courses or requirements they may have satisfied based on transfer credit for scores in these examinations.
Potential Duplication of Credit for AP and IB Exams
Credit will be granted for either the AP or IB examinations in any one subject area. College courses taken prior to or after enrolling at the university may duplicate the content of AP or IB examinations. The following chart provides guidelines used for awarding units (elective credit) and exemptions for degree requirements. Students who choose to take a course at UC Merced from which they are otherwise exempt will receive credit for the UCM course but not the units for the exam.
Credit for AP Exams
UC Merced grants elective credit for all College Board AP examinations on which a student scores 3 or higher, unless otherwise noted. Some examinations passed with scores of 3 or higher may award exemptions for degree requirements. The number of elective units awarded for each examination can be viewed on the chart in this section.
Placement into level 2 language courses at UC Merced will be granted for Advanced Placement (AP) exams with score 2: Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish Language. Unit credit will not be awarded.
AP SUBJECT CREDIT
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UNITS
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COURSE EXEMPTIONS
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AP Studio Art: Drawing*
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5.3
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Score 4 or 5 on Drawing exempts one (1) course in GASP to count towards one Visual Arts Course for the GASP Major or one lower division GASP course for the GASP Minor.
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AP Studio Art: 2-D Design*
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5.3
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Score 4 or 5 on 2-D Design exempts one (1) course in GASP to count towards one Visual Arts Course for the GASP Major or one lower division GASP course for the GASP Minor.
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AP Studio Art: 3-D Design*
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5.3
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Score 4 or 5 on 3-D Design exempts one (1) course in GASP to count towards one Visual Arts Course for the GASP Major or one lower division GASP course for the GASP Minor.
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*Unit credit limit for all AP Studio Art exams: 5.3.
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AP Art History
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5.3
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Score 4 or 5 exempts one (1) course in GASP to count toward one lower division course within the GASP Major or GASP Minor.
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AP Biology
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5.3
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Score 4 or 5 exempts BIO 001 and BIO 001L .
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AP Chemistry
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5.3
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Score 3 or 4 exempts CHEM 001 .
Score 5 exempts CHEM 002 and CHEM 010 .
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AP Computer Science: Comp Science A
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5.3
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Score 4 exempts CSE 020 .
Score of 5 exempts CSE 020 and CSE 021 .
Score of 3 or higher on Comp Science A fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
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AP Computer Science: Comp Science Principles
|
5.3 |
No course exemption. |
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AP Economics: Macroeconomics
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2.7
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Score 4 or 5 on both Macroeconomics and Microeconomics exempts ECON 001 .
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AP Economics: Microeconomics
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2.7
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Score 4 or 5 on both Macroeconomics and Microeconomics exempts ECON 001 .
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AP English: Language/Composition€
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5.3
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Score 4 or 5 Lang/Comp exempts WRI 010 .
Score 3 or above exempts WRI 001 and Entry Level Writing Requirement.
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AP English: Literature/Composition€
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5.3
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Score 4 or 5 Lit/Comp exempts one ENG course (10-49) for the ENG major or ENG minor.
Score 3 or above exempts WRI 001 and Entry Level Writing Requirement.
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€Unit credit limit for both AP English exams: 5.3.
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AP Environmental Sciences
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2.7
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Score of 4 or 5 exempts ESS 001 .
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AP Government and Politics: United States
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2.7
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Score 4 or 5 exempts POLI 001 .
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AP Government and Politics: Comparative
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2.7
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Score 4 or 5 exempts POLI 003 .
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AP History: European History
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5.3
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Score 4 or 5 exempts two of the following courses: HIST 030A [Inactive], HIST 030B , or HIST 031 [Inactive].
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AP History: US History
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5.3
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Score 4 or 5 exempts HIST 016 and HIST 017 .
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AP History: World History
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5.3
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Score 4 or 5 exempts HIST 010 and HIST 011 .
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AP Human Geography
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2.7
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No course exemption.
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AP Language Other Than English: Chinese Language and Culture
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5.3
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Score 5 on AP Chinese Language and Culture exempts CHN 004 .
Score of 3 or higher on Chinese Language and Culture fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
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AP Language Other Than English: French Language and Culture
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5.3
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Score 5 on AP French Language and Culture exempts FRE 004 .
Score of 3 or higher on AP French Language and Culture fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
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AP Language Other Than English: German Language and Culture
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5.3
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Score of 3 or higher on AP German Language and Culture fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
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AP Language Other Than English: Italian Language and Culture
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5.3
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Score 3 or higher on AP Italian Language and Culture fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
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AP Language Other Than English: Japanese Language and Culture
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5.3
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Score 5 on AP Japanese Language and Culture exempts JPN 004 .
Score 3 or higher on Japanese Language and Culture fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
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AP Language Other Than English: Spanish Language and Culture
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5.3
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Score 5 on AP Spanish Language and Culture exempts SPAN 004 or SPAN 011 .
Score 3 or higher on AP Spanish Language and Culture fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
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AP Language Other Than English: Spanish Literature and Culture
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5.3
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Score 4 or 5 on AP Spanish Literature and Culture exempts SPAN 004 or SPAN 011 . Also exempts SPAN 050 and SPAN 051 .
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AP Latin
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5.3
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No course exemption.
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AP Mathematics: Calculus AB#
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2.7
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Score 3 or higher on Calculus AB exempts MATH 005 .
Score 4 or 5 exempts MATH 011 or MATH 021 .
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AP Mathematics: Calculus BC#
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5.3
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Score 3 or higher on Calculus BC exempts Math Placement Exam and MATH 011 or MATH 021 .
Score 4 or 5 on Calculus BC exempts MATH 011 and MATH 012 OR MATH 021 and MATH 022 .
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AP Mathematics: Calculus BC Subscore AB#
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2.7
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Score 3 or higher on Calculus BC Subscore AB exempts Math Placement Exam and MATH 011 or MATH 021 .
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#Unit credit limit for all AP Mathematics exams: 5.3.
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AP Music Theory
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5.3
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No course exemption. (Students who earn only a subscore will not receive exam credit.)
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AP Physics: Physics 1+
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5.3
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No course exemption.
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| AP Physics: Physics 2+ |
5.3 |
No course exemption.
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AP Physics: Physics C: Mechanics+
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2.7
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Score 5 exempts PHYS 008 or PHYS 018 .
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AP Physics: Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism+
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2.7
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No course exemption.
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+Unit credit limit for all three AP Physics exams: 5.3
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AP Psychology
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2.7
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Score 4 or 5 exempts PSY 001 .
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| AP Seminar |
0.0 |
No exam credit awarded.
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AP Statistics
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2.7
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Score 4 exempts MATH 018 or PSY 010 .
Score 5 exempts ECON 010 or POLI 010 or SOC 010 .
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Credit for IB Exams
UC Merced grants 5.3 semester units of elective credit for International Baccalaureate Individual Certificate subject Higher-Level exams with grades of 5, 6, or 7. All exams must be at the Higher Level (HL) for unit credit. Unit credit is also granted for Higher Level category B exams in languages other than English. The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) awards either a diploma or a certificate for individual IB exams. Students completing the IB diploma with a score of 30 or above will receive a total of 20 semester units of credit toward their UC Merced undergraduate degree.
Course exemptions already designated for UC Merced can be viewed on the chart in this section. Additional exams for which UC Merced will award elective units include: Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Biology, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Business and Management, Catalan, Chemistry, Computer Science, Croatian, Czech, Dance, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Filipino, Film, Finnish, Further Mathematics, Geography, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, History of Africa, History of the Americas, History of Southeast Asia & Oceania, History of Europe & The Islamic World, History of Europe & The Middle East, World History, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Language B: Language and Literature, Language B: Literature, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Persian, Philosophy, Physics, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sesotho, Sinhalese, Siswati, Slovak, Slovene, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh.
IBH SUBJECT CREDIT
|
UNITS
|
COURSE EXEMPTIONS
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| IBH Anthropology |
5.3 |
Score 6 or 7 exempts ANTH 001 .
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IBH Computer Science
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5.3
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Score 5 exempts CSE 020 .
Score 6 or 7 exempts CSE 020 and CSE 021 .
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IBH Economics
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5.3
|
Score 6 or 7 exempts ECON 001 .
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| IBH History |
5.3 |
Score 6 or 7 exempts one (1) lower division history sequence.
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IBH Language A: Literature (English)
or
IBH Language A: Language and Literature (English)
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5.3
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Score 5 or above satisfies WRI 001 and Entry Level Writing Requirement.
Score 6 or 7 exempts WRI 010 .
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IBH Language: Chinese
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5.3
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Score 6 or 7 on IBH Chinese exempts CHN 004 .
Score 5 or higher fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
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IBH Language: French
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5.3
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Score 6 or 7 on IBH French exempts FRE 004 .
Score 5 or higher fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
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IBH Language: German
|
5.3
|
Score 5 or higher on IBH German fulfills the General Education Language requirement.
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| IBH Global Politics |
5.3 |
No course exemption.
|
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IBH Language: Japanese
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5.3
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Score 6 or 7 on IBH Japanese exempts JPN 004 .
Score 5 or higher fulfills the General Education Language requirement
|
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IBH Language: Spanish
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5.3
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Score 6 or 7 on IBH Spanish exempts SPAN 004 .
Score 5 or higher on IBH Spanish fulfills the General Education Language requirement
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IBH Mathematics
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5.3
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Score 5 exempts MATH 011 .
Score 6 or higher exempts MATH 021 .
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IBH Music
|
5.3
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Score 6 or 7 exempts one lower division course within the GASP Major or GASP Minor.
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IBH Psychology
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5.3
|
Score 6 or 7 exempts PSY 001 .
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IBH Theater Arts
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5.3
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Score 5 or above exempts one lower division course within the GASP Major or GASP Minor.
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IBH Visual Arts
|
5.3
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Score 5 or above exempts one lower division course within the GASP Major or GASP Minor.
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