Bemidji State must receive official transcripts from all post-secondary schools you’ve attended, even if you withdrew from courses or you believe that your credits will not transfer. When you request official transcripts from your previous schools, have them sent:
| by U.S. Mail (paper official transcript) | OR by e-mail (electronic official transcript) |
| Bemidji State Admissions 1500 Birchmont Dr NE #13 Bemidji, MN 56601 |
Minnesota State Transcripts
If you attended a Minnesota State College or University since the early 1990s, chances are good that we can retrieve your electronic official transcripts from that institution. By applying to BSU, you are giving us permission to check and retrieve your official records from these other schools. In some cases, a transcript is not released due to financial obligations you may have to the school, in which case you must settle that obligation prior to being admitted to BSU.
Sometimes Minnesota State transcripts are too old to be available electronically. In those cases, we ask that you contact the school you attended and request a paper copy be produced and mailed to BSU Admissions.
Note that University of Minnesota schools are not in the Minnesota State system of schools, and we cannot retrieve those transcripts – they must be ordered directly by the student.
Military Transcripts
For most active-duty or veteran service-members with creditable military experience or coursework, a Joint Services Transcript (JST) will be available for you to request. Use this American Council on Education resource to get started. Once you have requested the JST to be released to Bemidji State, we can download it electronically.
Non-U.S. Transcripts
For admission, an official transcript from your non-U.S. college/university must be submitted. For the transfer of credits from your non-U.S. school(s), a third-party transcript evaluation is required. Read on for more about that.
To determine whether coursework from non-U.S. colleges/universities can be transferred and applied to your BSU degree program, you are required to have this coursework evaluated by a professional credit evaluation agency. BSU will accept course-by-course evaluations prepared by any agency approved by the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES). Here is a list of all NACES-approved agencies. The evaluation agency SpanTran offers a discount to BSU students who use their service (If you use SpanTran, be sure to request the Divisional Course Analysis option).
Please note that the evaluation must be sent directly to BSU Admissions by the credential evaluation agency. Electronic transcripts should be emailed to admissions@bemidjistate.edu.
What if I Can’t Get My Transcript?
It’s possible that the college/university you’ve attended previously has since closed. Check this Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE) resource to see who might have access to the records of the closed school: http://www.ohe.state.mn.us/sPages/closedSchoolContact.cfm.
If an official transcript is not available, have a representative from OHE send BSU Admissions a letter/email stating that no record can be retrieved. If your previous school is from outside of Minnesota, find the higher education authority in the state where your school was located, and ask for assistance in recovering your record.
It is very rare that a record cannot be recovered, or that a letter cannot be written verifying that a record no longer exists. Please do as much as you can to investigate before applying to BSU.