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Credit Transfer
Transferring Between U.S. Institutions
| Transferring From Outside the U.S. Education
System
When choosing colleges to which you wish to transfer, consider
how many of the courses you have taken will transfer from
your current to your new institution. The system of recognition
for work completed at the original institution is called credit
transfer, and the policy and procedures for credit transfer
vary considerably from institution to institution.
Colleges determine which courses they will recognize on the
basis of your transcripts and other information you may be
asked to provide about your original institution, course syllabuses,
and so on. While schools can usually give you an unofficial
estimate at the time they issue your letter of acceptance,
often you must wait until you arrive at the college and meet
the head of the department to get an official final evaluation
of your transfer status.
Students may find that some of the courses taken at their
original institutions are "lost" in the transfer
process. They often need extra time to graduate or need to
take summer school combined with a heavier workload if they
wish to graduate on time. In addition, most colleges have
a maximum number of credits that can be transferred in from
a previous institution. Contact schools directly or use reference
material available at your U.S. educational information or
advising center for further information on specific transfer
policies.
Students are required to take three main types of courses
in order to earn a U.S. degree: general education requirements,
requirements for the major field of study, and electives (see
About Undergraduate Study
for further information on these different types of courses).
Courses that are transferred from the original institution
to the transfer institution must fit into one of these three
categories if they are to count toward the requirements for
the degree. The following sections explain how this process
works in practice.
Transferring Between
U.S. Institutions
Because general education requirements are similar at many
U.S. colleges, students who transfer from one U.S. institution
to another are the most likely to find that their courses
are recognized and transfer easily.
Transferring courses you have taken as requirements for a
particular major may be more complicated, especially if you
are trying to transfer courses for a major that the new college
does not offer (for example, trying to transfer business courses
into a school that does not offer business courses). Sometimes
the courses taken for a certain major may not meet the requirements
for the same major at the transfer institution. The transfer
institution may even insist that you take all the course requirements
for a major at that college. Courses not accepted either as
credit toward the major or as general education requirements
may be accepted as credit for elective courses. However, if
even this is not possible, either no transfer credit will
be granted, or the new college may tell you that it will grant
transfer credit for these courses, but the credit cannot be
applied toward your requirements for graduation. When you
are discussing with a college how many transfer credits you
will receive, it is important to check and understand the
distinction between a general acceptance of credit for transfer
purposes, and acceptance of credits to meet the requirements
for graduation with a degree in a certain discipline. In the
former situation, further clarification is needed, and some
credits may be lost between the current and transfer institutions.
In the latter situation, you can be sure exactly which courses
and credits you can apply from your current institution to
meet the course requirements for a certain major (for example,
mathematics or history) at the transfer institution.
The College Handbook for Transfer Students offers suggestions
for ways that students can maximize their transfer credits.
Advice includes:
- Take any required general education courses during your
first two years of study.
- Take any prerequisites for your major at your original
institution, as these will help you get accepted into another
college, particularly if your major is highly competitive.
Prerequisites are preparatory courses that are required
before you can start studying for the major itself.
- Plan to take the majority of the courses required for
your major after you arrive at the transfer institution
as these are more difficult to transfer.
- If you are studying at a community college, work closely
with your academic adviser in planning your course schedule
and take courses designated as "transfer courses"
(see community colleges for
further information).
- You can ask a college to reconsider its decision about
transfer credit. Sometimes a transcript or course description
provides insufficient information to enable a college to
grant credit; further information may allow them to make
a decision in your favor.
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Transferring From
Outside the U.S. Education System
Students transfer every year from other countries into U.S.
degree programs and successfully go on to complete their degrees.
However, the structure of degrees in other countries rarely
matches the structure of U.S. degrees, making the transfer
process more complicated. For example, if in your country
you study only one subject for your degree, the courses you
have taken will not match up with the varied subjects a U.S.
undergraduate student takes to meet his or her general education
requirements. The types of institutions in other countries
also vary from those in the United States, as do other details.
The transfer institution needs to consider a number of factors
when granting credit for the courses you have taken at a non-U.S.
institution Pat Parker, assistant director of admissions for
international students at Iowa State University,3 identifies
three factors that U.S. universities usually consider:
- Is your university or college recognized by the ministry
of education in your country? U.S. colleges are looking
for institutions that are recognized by a ministry of education;
however, if some other authority approves your college,
it may still be acceptable. Decisions vary from college
to college and often depend on what the situation would
be for a similar college in the United States.
- How similar is the nature or character of the courses
you have taken to those offered at the transfer institution?
U.S. schools usually assess similarity by looking at information
from course prospectuses, syllabuses, or catalogs. If your
institution is not well known in the United States, the
college may have to do a more detailed evaluation with you
when you arrive, and only then decide whether and how to
grant transfer credit.
- How applicable are your courses toward the degree, and
in particular the major, that you wish to pursue? This will
often involve evaluation of the courses by both the admissions
office and the academic department to which you wish to
be admitted. They will look at whether courses can be accepted
for transfer credit first, and then at whether they can
count toward the requirements for a specific major. Again
this decision may not take place until after you have arrived,
and the decision may vary from college to college. Applying
courses toward a particular major is most difficult for
professional programs such as engineering, architecture,
or journalism, where course requirements are carefully structured
and often dictated by accrediting bodies for the profession.
In addition, to make the transfer process run as smoothly
as possible, you are advised to:
- Make sure all academic records provided are official and
bear the original stamp or seal of the issuing institution.
- Submit course descriptions in English for all post-secondary
courses taken. They should also include:
· summaries or outlines of the major topics covered
in each course (If an outline is not available, write a
summary yourself and have it certified by the school as
accurate.);
· the number of units or hours required in lecture
and laboratory for each course on a weekly basis;
· the length of the term or academic year, and, if
it is not given elsewhere, the year in which you took the
course.
- Prepare a list of textbooks used in each course as this
will help in any decisions that are made after you arrive
at the campus about whether to grant credit for particular
courses.
- Provide information on the total number of courses, credits,
or units required for the diploma or degree program from
which you are transferring.
Students who transfer into a U.S. institution may also be
able to receive credit for their secondary school work if
it is considered to be comparable to introductory college-level
work in the United States. Ask each college about this.
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