In order to obtain Wellesley credit for any economics course taken at another institution during the summer or academic year, approval must be obtained in advance from the department's Transfer Credit Advisor and the College Registrar. In general, courses from two year or community colleges will not be accepted at any level. Courses taken elsewhere will not normally be transferred at the Grade III level – students must take their two 300-level courses at Wellesley or at MIT.

Further, Economics 201, 202, and 203 should ordinarily be taken at Wellesley. Transfer credit may be awarded for 201 or 202 taken elsewhere, but only if the course is taught with a calculus prerequisite. Courses thought to be equivalent to 203 must require the completion of a multiple regression project to receive transfer credit. These restrictions normally apply only to courses taken after enrollment at Wellesley. Transfer students wishing to obtain transfer credit for economics courses taken prior to enrollment at Wellesley should contact the department's Transfer Credit Advisor.

No college or economics credit will be given for any "field work," "internship," "summer work experience," or any other non-academic accomplishment. Occasionally a student may use such an activity to gather data or other material for use in an independent study (250 or 350) project but, in such a case, credit will be given only after successful completion of a 250 or 350 study.

A course does not automatically fulfill a requirement for the major after being approved for college credit by the registrar. A form indicating that a student intends to use a course toward her major must be signed by the Transfer Credit Advisor for any course taken outside of Wellesley. These forms take two types. For Twelve College Exchange, Foreign Study, and MIT courses, there is a separate Approval Form for Credit Toward the Major available from the Transfer Credit Advisor. For courses taken at other institutions, in which the student is submitting an Application for Transfer Credit from the Registrar's Office, that form fulfills the requirement.

No credit toward the major in economics will be given for undergraduate or graduate business courses: retailing, accounting, personnel management, etc. College credit, but not credit toward the economics major, is given for financial accounting at MIT and Babson. (Some MIT finance courses can be applied to an economics major; course listings are posted on the Economics Department’s First Class conference each semester.

The department's Transfer Credit Advisor should be consulted on all transfer credit requests. The Transfer Credit Advisor changes from year to year – consult the department administrative staff to find the name of the current Transfer Credit Advisor.